AppraisalScoop.com offers advise for the new year--broaden your appraisal business to survive and thrive. Besides working with lenders, other possible clients include divorcing couples, probate and estate business, senior citizens and much more.

Did Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play a role in inflating appraisals? New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has supoenaed record from the two agencies to find out. Cuomo's office is looking at flawed appraisals and securitization of mortgage loans.

The AppraisalScoop.com provides a video tutorial on regression analysis for appraisers. Introduction to Regression Analysis, Introduction to Regression Analysis Add-On Module Part 2 and Introduction to Regression Analysis, Introduction to Regression Analysis Add-On Module Part 3 make up the tutorial.

New technologies, shifting economy, increased customer expectations. It could be time for you to re-think your business plan. NAR's Virtual Library eBooks Collection has the tools to help you think like an entrepreneur and plan for the immediate, near, and long-term future. Visit eBooks.realtor.org to borrow Anatomy of a Business Plan (Adobe), Business Planning: 25 Keys to a Sound Business Plan (audio), Business Plans Kit for Dummies (Adobe), Business Plans that Work (Adobe), How to Write a Business Plan (Adobe), The Easy Step by Step Guide to Writing a Business Plan and Making it Work (Adobe), and others. NAR members and staff can borrow up to three digital books, audiobooks, and/or videos at a time -- for FREE! (Have your NRDS number ready.)

A bill exempting online home value websites from state licensing law has passed both state houses in Arizona. After initially falling short of the two-thirds majority, the bill passed the House of Representatives last week and will now move on to a conference committee before going to the governor to sign. As reported earlier, The Arizona Board of Appraisal has issued two cease-and-desist letters to Zillow in the past year asking the firm to cease its automated valuations, called ?Zestimates,? for properties in Arizona. The board has charged that Zillow is violating state licensing laws by offering the zestimates without an appraiser's license.

We've mentioned before the pressure appraisers can come under to sign off on mortgage applications. The Washington Post brings us another story from sub-prime lender New Century Financial. Former employees characterized the atmosphere as unrelenting, with daily "unofficial quotas" on the number of loans to approve and bat-wielding loan agents banging desks when their deals were rejected by staff appraisers. An unnamed New Century executive granted that he believed the allegations were possible, but stated they were not "not representative of our offices."

The Arizona Republic newspaper reported on Sunday that Zillow.com, under attack from the Arizona Board of Appraisers for its "zestimates" has found allies among some local realtors who question why the Board is wasting time trying to prevent a new technology instead of investigating appraisal fraud in the recent real estate boom. Agents also fear that a bill wending its way through the state senate aimed at shutting down Zillow in Arizona would in fact go too far, outlawing anyone other than a licensed appraiser from giving an opinion of value. Meanwhile other online appraisal tools, such as realestateabc.com, have not been threatened by the state.

The Arizona Board of Appraisers has issued two cease and desist letters to Zillow.com. The Board contends that Zillow's online property valuation tool, zestimates, qualifies as an appraisal, a task that requires a license in Arizona. How this plays out should be interesting.

Realty Times has an article on Eppraisal.com, a new online residential appraisal service. While somewhat competing with Zillow by offering the "give us your address for a free appraisal estimate", Eppraisal differs in that it will go a step further for an actual drive by appraisal by a professional. Usually used for refinancing or to remove PMI, Eppraisal will sent an appraiser to drive by your home, pull neighborhood comps, and create an electronic appraisal viewable online or delivered in hard copy. For more serious appraisal work, the site soon will start offering the ability for consumers to get a full appraisal with all the bells and whistles through its network of professionals.

As the housing market slows in various parts of the country, appraisers are noticing a slowing in their business too. Communicator Magazine gives several suggestions on how appraisers in slow markets can keep their business growing. One suggestion is to market pre-sale inspections to sellers. These can be used not only to see what needs to be fixed in order to sell a home, but also highlight the property's strengths that might have gone unnoticed. Other suggestions include marketing maintenance inspections or relocation inspections to boost business.

According to Appraisal News Online, appraisal regulatory reform is on the docket for the 110th Congress. The House Financial Services Committee will take up discussions this year as a result of growing reports of appraisal fraud and a perceived lack of oversight by state agencies, which lack funding and staff.

A recent article in the New York Sun newspaper asked the question after video footage of a rodent-infested KFC in Greenwich Village got wide play. The developer of a nearby condo project thinks the news will fade from memory and not impact sales. Unlike the smell of drycleaning chemicals exhaust from a smelly restaurant that are lingering, rats fall under the "out of sight, out of mind" category of nuisance.

More and more frequently we hear tales of identity theft on the news and the tragic costs and difficult road to recovery for victims. But when identity theft touches appraisers it can lead to mortgage fraud and blacklisting. The Winter 2007 issue of Communicator relates several recent cases of identity theft involving established appraisers by upstarts, former associates, or even people without appraisal licenses. For these victims, their troubles didn?t end at the court. They all have spent considerable time rebuilding their careers and good names with lenders.

According to a recent survey reported in Realty Times nine out of ten appraisers have been pressured to raise property valuations. This is up dramatically from a 2003 survey where 45 percent of appraisers say they had ?never? been asked to fudge their numbers. According to the survey, some pressure comes from real estate agents, but more often from mortgage brokers.

NAR's Virtual Library eBooks Collection now carries How to Get Started in the Real Estate Appraisal Business (Adobe eBook). You'll learn how to prepare for licensing, how to find a mentor, how to decide between residential and commercial appraising, how to network and market yourself to increase your business, and more. For this and other top real estate titles, visit eBooks.realtor.org. NAR members and staff can borrow up to three digital books, audio books, and/or videos at a time, for FREE!