Enjoying the Florida sun relaxing by the pool… nowhere else I rather be after finishing up a busy and event-filled three-day conference. Attendees are boasting that Valuation Expo in Orlando was one of our best events ever! The energy from the speakers combined with the introduction of some new polling technology made the panels interactive and exciting. And, it was a bit nostalgic since Orlando was where Valuation Expo began 15 years ago, at the Caribe Royale. For those unable to attend, here is a glimpse of what happened.
The conference began on Saturday, March 19th with the ACI Skylab. ACI, a platinum sponsor of Valuation Expo, hosted a pop in session workshop for anyone looking to learn more about their new suite of products. These mini training sessions covered their new cloud based appraisal platform ACI Sky and using ACI One Software.
The trade show floor opened with Margaritas and light appetizers providing a festive atmosphere for attendees and exhibitors to mingle before the two days of continuing education.
Sunday brought the first day of continuing education with the “Make Appraising Great Again” panel featuring many great speakers, the first of which was Josh Walitt with Property Interlink. Josh’s focus was on professionalism. Josh encouraged appraiser involvement and personal responsibility for bettering the overall profession. Jeff Bradford, founder of Bradford Technologies spoke on big data and how it’s affecting appraisers. Roy Meyer hit it out of the park with a discussion about diversification, improving processes-systems, automation and how to increase the value of an appraiser’s time. And, then straight from the Lender was Hem Merriman’s talk on what banks look for and what they are expecting and what appraisers need to do.
The Appraisal Quality panel hosted top valuation executives from FHA, VA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as wells as USDA Rural Housing. Cheryl Walker of HUD discussed the process of appraiser selection beginning with competence. She also covered quality from the aspect of common deficiencies. Gerry Kifer from VA got a standing ovation since he is going to retire in September. Gerry has been at 15 Valuation Expo programs starting from the very beginning. He touched on VA’s need for appraisers and the most common quality issues they encounter. Scott Reuter of Freddie Mac touched on appraisal quality from the UCDP Portal as well as the Collateral Advisors. He touched on comp selection and adjustment support, purchase bias and facts about appraisal shortage based on Freddie Mac data. Fannie Mae was represented by Lyle Radke who discussed quality from the CU perspective. Mike Schnetzler from USDA Rural Housing introduced their two single family programs. Identified several areas appraisal quality from the USDA Rural Housings review process.
The 2017 Valuation Visionary award was presented to Alan Hummel of First American Mortgage Solutions by last year’s winner, George Opelka of ACI. Alan gave a moving speech on how appraisers are going to be critical participants in the future of valuation.
The Emerging Issues panel started off with Ed Pinto, a Resident Fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, who gave a historical background on valuation. He presented macro data in terms of house pricing, house prices relative to income and what is going on in the credit market. Ernie Durbin of Clarocity opened the discussion on alternative valuations. He thinks there will be a shift and that the GSE’s are looking for a stratification of product types that’s out there. He touched on best practices, the difference in scope of work and how it varies from the standard appraisal. Alan Hummel of First American Mortgage Solutions covered tools and technologies being used by both the lender and appraiser. He spoke of data sharing and the ways folks are using data to look at reports. The way appraisers can utilize the data and equate to what lenders are expecting. How to answer the questions before they are asked. And then Michael Moran of SunTrust got into what the lending institutions expect. There was a good deal of attendee interaction and open discussion.
David Berenbaum from the Homeownership Preservation Foundation tackled the Role of the Appraiser in the 21st Century from the consumer point of view. He spoke of the National Hope and Home Hotline and how many consumers have received assistance and what the foundation is doing to educate the consumer. Bob Parson of Valuation Management Compliance LLC discussed the structure of the Appraisal Industry from a regulatory point of view. Tony Pistilli from Pacific Union brought in the lender point of view. He encouraged appraisers to be open to change. Then Frank Gregoire of Gregoire and Gregoire touched on appraisers establishing a niche outside of the traditional role of lending appraisals. Developing additional skills outside the realm of the lending community. He encouraged activism in whatever form appraiser can manage.
During the lunch break on Monday, we did take some time to draw the winners for the Appraisal Bee raffle. As always our trade show vendors go above and beyond with some fabulous prizes.
EXHIBITOR: PRIZE – WINNER
ACI: Apple Watch – David Lipsman
Allterra Online: 50-inch smart TV – Jean Bailey
Anow: A Taste of Canada, Celebrating 150 years – Cindy Zazzetti
Appraisal Institute: Books: The Appraisal of Real Estate & The Dictionary of Real Estate Appraisal – Amy Broadbent
AXIS Appraisal Management: $100 cash – Alison Gentry
Bradford Technologies: $50 gas card – Jimmy Morris
Clearbox: Smart TV – Barbara Manganaro
DataMaster: $100 Amazon gift card – Cal Van Noord
Dwellworks: $100 Amazon gift card – Angel Castillo
Genie Cloud: Amazon Kindle – Gade Gentry
InHouseUSA: Leica Disto – Joe Zazzetti
Intercorp, Inc: $100 Amazon gift card – Debbie Headden
LIA: $100 MasterCard gift card – David Lipsman
ServiceLink: $250 Best Buy gift card – Nicholas Whitney
SFREP: Wireless ear buds – Eric Eickhorn
Solidifi: FitBit watch– Tony Pistilli
TSI Appraisal: Lecia Disto D2 – Sarah Richards
Validox: Mini Drone, Amazon fire stick, Logitech ear buds – Brad McNally
ValueLink Software: $200 Amazon gift card – Jim O’Toole
We want to thank all of our sponsors and exhibitors who participated this year for donating such fantastic prizes and congratulate all of our winners again!
We will be offering all new CE, different panel session, great speakers, and a buzzing trade show floor this coming fall. Join us in Las Vegas, NV, October 2-4th, 2017
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