What. A. Show. The moment the doors swung open, there was an undeniable buzz across trade show floor at this year’s Valuation Expo. And for good reason, with the much-anticipated rollout of the new UAD 3.6 finally within reach. With record breaking attendance and standing room only sessions, we were thrilled, and admittedly scrambling, to keep up with the electric energy and overwhelming interest in breakout sessions.
We kicked off a day early with a lender-focused bang: Hitting the High Note, our inaugural session Sunday, August 10th. Hosted by Hal Humphreys from Enterprise Lender Learning, the session gave lenders the inside scoop on launching UAD 3.6 from the lender side. Rachel Robinson of Rocket Mortgage and Mike Scarpa of Freedom Mortgage laid out a roadmap for compliance, while Ronyelle Banks of ICE wowed the crowd with how the Encompass platform makes order management seamless. Then came the power brokers of UAD, Ken DeFeo of Fannie Mae and Sean Murphy of Freddie Mac. They gave us the inside story on why this overhaul matters and what they’re looking for. And what better way to cap it all off than a networking speakeasy soirée Nashville singer songwriters Dave Pahanish and Matt Warren. We’d like to give a huge shout out to the sponsors who made this possible:
Monday morning, we hit the ground running with nearly 200 appraisers set to hear Bryan Reynolds teaching The Appraisers Guide to the New URAR.
Elsewhere, Peter Christensen of BBG, Inc. tackled Valuation Bias and Fair Housing Laws and Regulation. We offered a free pre-conference session titled Lenders and Vendors Live where vendors on the trade show floor got seven minutes to quickly showcase their new products and services. But wait, that’s not all. ACI and ADI partnered up for a special session for new and trainee appraisers on what appraising will look like for appraisers, starting with UAD 3.6 as a baseline. In the afternoon, our high-tech sponsors showed off digital floor plan tools for on-the-go inspections.
Then it was game on in the trade show opening reception with the Restb.ai cornhole tournament, Val Expo Open mini golf tournament, eats, drinks, and an electric vibe. Justin Stevens and Mallory Lamb took home the Custom 3D printed trophies from Restb.ai as the winners of the cornhole tournament.
Tuesday, attendees, fueled by ValueLink’s morning coffee sponsorship, dove into a legal masterclass by Peter Christensen and Craig Capilla detailed “Staying out of Court unless you are being paid” from the Alpha7x stage. Next, we jumped right into the Home Loan cycle end-to-end with the new UAD. Scott Reuter of Freddie Mac and Lyle Radke from Fannie Mae discussed the end-to-end look of the new UAD so appraisers could get a holistic view of what this change would mean. Jessica Jenkins Tomé of Freedom Mortgage and Ronyelle Banks of ICE talked about how this change is affecting lenders.
During lunch (sponsored by ACI) there was a special ADI trainee-supervisor networking meet-and-greet, and we recognized our 2025 buzzy award winners on the Alpha7x stage.
The afternoon had no time for snoozing as Toni Moss from AmeriCatalyst led a session on Disasters, Insurability, and Value with George Gallagher, Shawn Telford of Cotality, and Damien Weldon of ICE as they discussed how to handle real estate valuation in the wake of some of the natural disasters that have hit around the country. Then came a fireside chat with Ken DeFeo of Fannie Mae and Sean Murphy of Freddie Mac, led by Kim Angellone of ACI, about the processes that went into the UAD redesign.
We closed Tuesday with a powerful keynote from Tricia Wang sponsored by Quantarium. Tricia reminded us of the human element of Big Data as she highlighted the importance of using our judgement and understanding of thick data, and of being able to critically evaluate it.
Wednesday was kicked off with morning coffee from Restb.ai. Wednesday’s sessions were nothing short of transformational. Paula Konikoff, the 2025 president of the Appraisal Institute, discussed Rooted in Principles, Ready for Change: Thriving as a residential appraiser in a disrupted world. Then, a powerhouse panel broke down the pros and cons of artificial intelligence with Nathan Brannen of Restb.ai, Jeff Bradford of Bradford Technologies, Andrew Komaromi of Stewart Valuation Intelligence, and Jake Lew of AIVRE. This was followed by Andrew Bough of Class Valuation, Nick Conteduca of Valuation, and Jeff Hogan of Valligent discussing scope of work and how to reduce revision requests.
At lunch, sponsored by Appraiser eLearning, we crowned Ashley Harwood as the winner of the Val Expo Open, and she took home $500 for her incredible score of 11 on a 9-hole course. Appraisal Institute took home the trophy for the best designed golf hole, as our guest voter and Keynote Speaker Tricia Wang thought they hit it out of the park with their Chicago baseball themed course. We then announced the winners of the Appraisal Bee prizes. Attendees took home some fantastic items, including TVs, tablets, and a $1000 prize from ServiceLink. Here’s a list of the winners:
- ACI – Dann Cann
- AIVRE – Chris Kujawa
- Appraisal Buzz – Melody Clark
- Appraiser eLearning – Jim Young
- Appraisal Institute – David Iphie
- ApprAIz – Jack Parr
- Automax.ai – Will Humphry
- Bradford Technologies – Jon Nishikawa
- Champions R.E. Education – Sandra Kaye
- Class Valuation – Ann Marie Jensen
- Cotality – Rose Henigman
- DataMaster – Bob Givan
- EZ Types – Diana Meyer
- Freedom Appraise – Wayne Richards
- Intercorp – Tony Gunderson
- LIA Administrators and Insurance – Maria Athens
- McKissock – Alex Lyons
- NAA – Jon Reese
- OREP – Jayden Kujawa
- PCV Murcor – Julie Borden
- Rocket Mortgage – Julia Fastvedt-Frey
- ServiceLink – David Reid
- SFREP – Julie Young
- The CE Shop – Michelle Ruhl
- True Footage – Stephen Capistrant
- ValueLink – Edgar Mujikian
And it didn’t stop there. We wrapped up the afternoon with Jim Cutillo of Alpha7x, Sundeep Mathur of Tavant Technologies, and Stacy Caprioli of Opteon discussing how AI agents are changing mortgage processes in the industry, moderated by Mark Braden. We had an insightful session on manufactured homes and the intricacies of these types of valuations with Rachel Robinson of Rocket Mortgage and Cathy Putegnat of Homestead Appraisals. Kevin Hecht of McKissock, Jeff Dickstein of Stewart Valuation Intelligence, and Matt Hyatt of True Footage delved into supporting adjustments and what appraisers need to be doing daily on their appraisals. Finally, Bryan Reynolds of Appraiser eLearning and Scot Rose of Quantarium closed out the day with a fireside chat on how appraisers should be critical of the data and responses from Artificial Intelligence, but also embrace the upsides of it. Malinda Griffin finished the day by winning the Velox Valuation Mobile event app gamification (and winning $100)!
Normally our conference ends here, but this year, for the first time ever, we added on special post-conference sessions for appraisers who wanted some more. We had almost 70 appraiser warriors stay on for a 5th day on Thursday to take 7 more hours of CE from the Appraisal Institute, Supporting Adjustments and Reporting the Sales Comparison in the New URAR and it’s companion course Reporting Market Analysis and Better Understanding the New URAR Report, both taught by Jared Preisler.
Thank you so much to all the attendees who came out and embraced learning about the change and joined us for this awesome conference. And, a special standing ovation for our amazing sponsors and incredible partners in this event:
- Appraisal Institute as the Lanyard Sponsor
- Solidifi as the Attendee Bag Sponsor
- ICE as the Keycard Sponsor
- Alpha 7x as the Stage Sponsor
- Quantarium as the Keynote Sponsor
- Instaplan by Makena as the Wi-Fi Sponsor
- ACI as the Lunch Sponsor
- ValueLink as the Coffee Sponsor
- Restb.ai as the Cornhole Tournament Sponsor
- Stewart Valuation Intelligence as the Photography Headshot Sponsor
- Velox Valuation as the Conference App Sponsor
- Wallit Solutions as the Education Notepad Sponsor
- HomeVision as the Water Bottle Sponsor
And last, but certainly not least, we want to thank the attendees. For making Valuation Expo the place where the industry comes together to learn, network and ultimately, prosper.
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