Mary Cummins, Real Estate Appraiser, Real Estate Appraisal, Los Angeles, California, Mary Cummins.

Mary Cummins is a real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California with 38+ years of experience. Cummins provides real estate appraisals for banks, lenders, mortgage brokers, Appraisal Management Companies (AMCs), lawyers, Courts, factors and private parties for lending, lawsuits, probate, estate planning, divorce and all types of litigation. Cummins provides 1004, 1073, 1025 and other form reports, narrative reports and historical appraisals besides real estate research and appraisal advice.

Saturday, February 26, 2022

Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser, Resume, Curriculum Vitae, Biography, Los Angeles, California

Mary Cummins, resume, curriculum vitae, job history, real estate appraiser, Los Angeles, California, work history, biography, real estate appraisal, real estate, appraiser, appraisal, marycumminscurriculumvitae

Curriculum Vitae

Abstract

Cummins is a bilingual Latino real estate appraiser born and raised in Los Angeles, California with over 38 years of experience. Cummins has appraised over 20,000 residential, multi-family, income, land, industrial, mixed-use properties and construction projects for lenders, AMCs, lawyers, relocation companies, banks and individuals. Cummins has passed the Department of Justice and SterlingBackcheck background checks multiple times. There has never been any complaint, claim or lawsuit against any license. A la mode Total software. Combined LA/Westside MLS member. E&O insurance $1,000,000 no claims.

Education

• Beverly Hills High School 1982 - Dean's list, Swim Team, Water Polo

• University of Southern California 1984 - Dean's list, Swim Team, Scholarship

Licenses, Certifications

• Real Estate Sales License 1984

• Real Estate Brokers License 1986

• California Notary Public 1989

• Real Estate Appraisal License CertifiedResidential 1993 (First Mandatory 1994)

• HUD/FHA Approved Real Estate Appraiser

Work Experience

• 1984 Merrill Lynch Real Estate - Sales, Comparative Market Analysis

• 1984 to present - Cummins Real Estate Services - Real Estate Appraisal, Sales

• 1985 Apartment Owners Association - Commercial Brokerage Division

• 1986 Forensis Group - Expert Witness

• 1990 Westside Properties - Real Estate Appraisal, Sales. 100% office

Selected Legal Cases

• 1989 Schine vs Schine - Appraisal of Ambassador Hotel as land for development project with Donald Trump. Deposed.

• Various cases for Forensis Group 1986-2006

• 2009 Union Pacific vs Jimmy Nasralla. Criminal. Court appearance.

• 2010 Don Carstens vs JP Morgan. Civil. Deposed. Court appearance.

• 2013 Narrative Appraisal for LA Metro Eminent Domain

Courts

• United States Bankruptcy Court California

• Los Angeles County Superior Court Civil

• Los Angeles County Superior Court Criminal

• Riverside County Superior Court Civil

Selected Clients

• Crestview Financial

• Don Carstens, Attorney at Law

• Home Savings Bank

• Wells Fargo

• Chase Financial, Bank

• Forensis Group, Expert Witness

• Western Relocation Services

Selected Professional Education 1,350+ hours

• 1984 Lumbleau School of Real Estate - Real estate sales

• 1984 to present - Various real estate schools: Expert Witness Testimony, Appraising Apartments, Oddball Appraisals, USPAP, FHA Appraising, Appraising Manufactured Homes, Environmental Issues for Appraisers, Fair Housing, LEED Real Estate, Foundations in Sustainability: Greening the Real Estate and Appraisal Industries, Review Appraisals, REO and Foreclosures, The Cost Approach.

• 1985 Merrill Lynch - Real estate sales, CMA

• 1986 Lumbleau School of Real Estate - Real estate broker – 8 College Courses

• 1986 Apartment Owners Association - Income property evaluation and sales

• 2014 2 - 4 Family Finesse 06167C167

• 2014 The Sales Comparison Approach 14CP167303029

• 2014 Understanding Residential Construction 14CP167303033

• 2014 The Nuts and Bolts of Green Building for Appraisers 10167C114

• 2014 Even Odder: More Oddball Appraisals 08167C181

• 2014 Appraising FHA Today - Virtual classroom 06167C169

• 2014 Laws and Regulations for California Appraisers 12167C163

• 2014 2014-2015 7 hour National USPAP Update Course 13CP167303017

• 2014 Appraising Manufactured Homes 11167C134

• 2014 Land and Site Valuation 08167C187

• 2014 Mortgage Fraud- Protect Yourself 08167C179

• 2016 2016-2017 7 Hour National USPAP Update Course 15CP167303053

• 2018 2018-2019 7- Hour Equivalent USPAP Update Course 1810000011

• 2018 FHA Site Inspection for Appraisers 1610000007

• 2018 California Laws and Regulations for Appraisers 1710000010

• 2018 Mold A Growing Concern 1310000004

• 2018 Appraising Energy Efficient Residential Properties 1710000008

• 2018 Environmental Hazards Impact on Value 1210000001

• 2018 Construction Details From Concept to Completion 1710000009

• 2018 A Brief Historic Stroll Through America's Architectural Styles 1310000003

• 2020 2020-2021 7-Hour Equivalent USPAP Update Course 2010000012

Selected Seminars, Webinars

• 2020 California Preservation Foundation webinar: Learning from Large-Scale Adaptive Reuse Projects

• 2021 HUD: Advancing Equity in the Home Valuation Process

• 2021 Freddie Mac, Appraisal Institute: Property Valuation, Appraisal Bias, & Black Homeownership

• 2021 ClearCapital: Does Your Appraisal Data Include Racial Bias?

• 2021 HUD: National Fair Housing Training Academy, Collateral Damage: The Consequences of Racial Bias in the Residential Appraisal Process

• 2021 Richard Hagar, SRA: Six-Part Appraiser Webinar series

How to Determine Land Values, Even Where There Are No Sales

Comparables: What to Use and What to Do When You Can't Find Any

Why the Cost Approach is Valuable (and Helps You Earn Higher Fees)

Easy Ways to Determine Condition Adjustments

How a Regression Analysis Can Help Determine Adjustments

Fighting Pressure and Intimidation

• 2021 Consumer Finance Protection Bureau: Home Appraisal Bias Event

• 2021 Fannie Mae: Racial Bias in Appraisals

• 2021 Appraisal Subcommittee Roundtable: Building a More Equitable Appraisal System

• 2021 George Dell; Peter Christensen, Attorney: How to Avoid Being Accused of Bias in Real Estate Appraisal

• 2022 Los Angeles Business Journal: Commercial Real Estate Symposium

• Appraisal Institute: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Webinar Series: Revealing Relevance for the Appraiser Profession
• Robert Keller: Bullet Proof Workfile Class

Selected Media

• 1985 LA Times “People in Westside Real Estate” Cummins joins Merrill Lynch

• 1990 LA Times “People in Westside Real Estate” Cummins joins Westside Properties

• 2002 LA Times “Suggestions for the bidder whose offers are rejected”

• 2006 Daily News “County relaxes restrictions on llamas, animal rehab”

• 2007 LA Times “Historical Homes, not for everyone”

• 2009 LA Weekly “Jimmy Nasralla finds a lawyer”

• 2009 LA Weekly “Is LA City Attorney Trutanich screwing over the little guy?”

• 2009 LA Weekly “Jimmy on the edge of town”

Awards

• 2014 Los Angeles Business Journal, Latino Business Award

• 2014 Los Angeles Business Journal, Women Making a Difference Award

• 2020 GlobeSt. Women of Influence Award

Social Media

• 1992 Mary Cummins Real Estate website – Includes Real Estate Dictionary

• 2000 Cummins Real Estate blog – Articles on Real Estate, Appraisal, Affordable Housing, Homeless, Housing Crisis, Celebrity Homes

• 2010 Cummins Real Estate Services Facebook page

Task Forces, Committees

• 2006 Los Angeles City Proposition F Committee – Oversaw construction of new animal shelters and fire stations with $500,000,000+ fund

Publications, Articles

• Main Reasons Home Loans are Denied

• How Condominium Home Owners Associations (HOA) are Organized and Operate

• How Real Estate Appraisers Measure and Calculate Size of a Home

• Race and Racism in Real Estate Appraisal

• Difficulties Finding a Real Estate Appraiser Mentor in California

• The History of Redlining in Home Lending

• How to Submit a Reconsideration of Value, Appeal

• Understanding the 1004P Hybrid Real Estate Appraisal

• One Cause of the Housing Crisis

• Causes of the Increase in Homelessness in Los Angeles

• Ideas to Help Solve the Housing Crisis

• Real Estate Cycles, Revitalization and “Gentrification”

• Notre Dame Cathedral fire shows how building structure affects susceptibility to fires

• Eminent Domain in California and Texas

• Donald Trump and the Ambassador Hotel Development Project

• Using Google Maps to Calculate a Driving Route for Real Estate Appraisers

• Using Google Maps to Get Rough Estimates of Building Size

• EB-5 Visa Renewal Program and Real Estate

• California Bill AB139 - Real Estate Transfers and Trusts

• Office to Housing Conversion is Not That Easy

• Appraisal Gap: What is it? What are the Causes?

• Different Types of Home Valuations

• Measuring, Describing Land Using Metes and Bounds, PLSS, Lot and Block and Parcel Numbers

Past, Present Organizations, Memberships

• USC Alumni Real Estate Network, AREN

• National Association of Real Estate Appraisers, NAREA

• Beverly Hills Board of Realtors, BHBR, now Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors, GLAR

• Los Angeles Board of Realtors, LABR, now Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors, GLAR

• California Association of Realtors, CAR

• Combined L.A./Westside MLS, CLAW

Other Experience

• Bilingual – English, Spanish

• PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone

• UAD, .pdf, .doc, .xml, .env, html, FTP, Power Point, FHA forms

• Approved by numerous Appraisal Management Companies

• MLS, Homeputer, a la mode, Total, AppraisalMAT, LoopNet, Carets

• Real estate photography, panoramas, scans, floor plans

• E&O insurance $1,000,000/$1,000,000

• Never had a real estate complaint, claim or lawsuit

• Perfect appraiser license record

• Passed full SterlingBackcheck background check multiple times

• Passed multiple DOJ background checks for professional licenses, gun permit

• Perfect driving record, type 100+ wpm

Mary Cummins Resume, Curriculum Vitae as pdf

http://www.marycummins.com/marycumminscurriculumvitae.pdf

Mary Cummins of Cummins Real Estate is a certified residential licensed appraiser in Los Angeles, California. Mary Cummins is licensed by the California Bureau of Real Estate appraisers and has over 35 years of experience.

Mary Cummins, Mary K. Cummins, Mary Katherine Cummins, Mary, Cummins, #marycummins #animaladvocates #losangeles #california #wildlife #wildliferehabilitation #wildliferehabilitator #realestate #realestateappraiser #realestateappraisal #lawsuit real estate, appraiser, appraisal, instructor, teacher, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Brentwood, Bel Air, California, licensed, permitted, certified, single family, condo, condominium, pud, hud, fannie mae, freddie mac, fha, uspap, certified, residential, certified resident, apartment building, multi-family, commercial, industrial, expert witness, civil, criminal, orea, dre, brea insurance, bonded, experienced, bilingual, spanish, english, form, 1004, 2055, 1073, land, raw, acreage, vacant, insurance, cost, income approach, market analysis, comparative, theory, appraisal theory, cost approach, sales, matched pairs, plot, plat, map, diagram, photo, photographs, photography, rear, front, street, subject, comparable, sold, listed, active, pending, expired, cancelled, listing, mls, multiple listing service, claw, themls, historical appraisal, facebook, linkedin DISCLAIMER: https://mary--cummins.blogspot.com/p/disclaimer-privacy-policy-for-blogs-by.html

Mary Cummins

Mary Cummins of Cummins Real Estate Services has been in real estate since 1983, over 35 years. She is licensed by the Bureau of Real Estate Appraisers. Mary Cummins was an agent and broker licensed with the California Department of Real Estate selling residential income, commercial buildings, raw land and homes for Merrill Lynch Realty in Beverly Hills and Westside Properties in Los Angeles before concentrating on appraisals. Mary Cummins currently provides real estate appraisals, expert witness testimony, historical research, legal real estate research for mortgage brokers, banks, lawyers, factors, insurance companies, financial consultants and private individuals. Mary Cummins was born and raised in Southern California. Cummins attended Beverly Hills Good Shepherd Catholic School and Beverly Hills High School. Besides being on the Dean's list, Mary Cummins was a top ten national swimmer and competed on the men's water polo team. Mary Cummins began college at the age of 15 attending the University of Southern California on scholarship, majoring in Psychology/Sociology. http://www.animaladvocates.us http://www.facebook.com/AnimalAdvocatesUSA

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Los Angeles Business Journal Commercial Real Estate Symposium February 23, 2022, by Mary Cummins

Los Angeles Business Journal Commercial Real Estate Symposium February 23, 2022 2:00 - 3:30 PST. My notes from the symposium are under the introduction.

https://labusinessjournal.com/cre2022/

This year's 27th annual Commercial Real Estate Symposium & Awards event will be a virtual series of two events presented one week apart.

Part I:

Commercial Real Estate Symposium
February 23rd, 2022
2:00 PM - 3:00PM PST

Part II:

Commercial Real Estate Awards
March 2nd, 2022
2:00 PM - 3:30PM PST

Day One will take place on February 23rd. Our panel of experts will weigh in on 2022's latest developments and how the Los Angeles commercial real estate market will be impacted.

Day Two will take place on March 2nd. Our Awards program will honor the brokers of the most notable transactions in Los Angeles and recognize the most impactful projects completed within the last 12 months. In addition, each award-winning project's developer, architect, and general contractor will be honored.

Nominations closed 1/21/2022. Nomination forms for 2023 will be available in December 2022.

Below are my personal notes. They are not complete. I'm sure the video will be posted publicly when it's available. I will post a link to it here when it is.

Video on YouTube of Webinar.

https://youtu.be/VfbLTQ-h0jQ

Main host moderator was Josh Schimmels

1. The Office Conundrum

Office and commercial space.

Prediction that in four years we'll be back to pre-pandemic levels in commercial real estate.

Many businesses are going hybrid today.

Culver City is a hot market due to the tech and science industry.

Office market has picked up over all within the last month or so.

Law offices. Lawyers want their own private office but will only come in three days a week. Need a place to train new associates.

2. Industrial Trends

Asher Luzzatto was the host moderator.

Asher Luzzatto: Industrial space has been converted to creative commercial space.

Mike Condon: Industrial is doing great. We're leasing triple net no concessions.

Lisa Reddy: Industrial vacancy rates incredibly low.

Phillip Bond: Market is very strong for industrial in the LA region.

Asher Luzzatto: Revitalization from older industrial to creative commercial. Evidence of this in Santa Monica near the airport.

Phillip Bond: Building is very expensive today. Land prices are astronomical. Construction costs are high. Construction labor is high if you can find it.

Everyone is very positive on industrial industry. Out of scale of 1-10, they are 10, 5-6.

Mike Condon: 14 on scale of 1 to 10. Covid accelerated transition to ecommerce. The problem is NIMBYs.

3. Development Trends

Host, Moderator: Kofi N Nartey: What changes have you seen?

Ted Hyman: People want authentic space, creative space, science space.

Lawrence Taylor: I work only Westside. TOC density provisions for transportation has allowed us to see redevelopment. We've always had strong demand. Seismic ordinance shows 80% of apartment bldgs in danger of collapse. Opportunity to replace, repair, rebuild the Westside.

Valente: Wouldn't have expected to see SFRs being built to rent.

Kofi: What response to pandemic downturn are you seeing?

Lawrence Taylor. We recover first and higher than other cities. One of the most high demand locations in the world. LA has resilience.

Valente: People now want work from home, other amenities in their home. Development along the Gold line looks good.

Kofi: Sustainable development?

Hyman: Green building costs the same just about as regular development. It makes sense to build green.

Alex Valente: One building has 20% delinquency, other has zero (because of pandemic eviction moratorium). They are very close to each other in downtown Los Angeles.

Taylor: Three most important factors are location, location, location. LA is the best location. Most buy and hold. They don't sell. We are value bought and not value add. We have a waiting list of investors who want to invest. The deals are out there. People are dying every day (only way someone sells good real estate is when they die).

Kofi: Technology and properties?

Taylor: Air filtration, smart apps controlling systems, electric car charging stations, security gates. Basically security, health and safety.

Kofi: What projects are you working on now? How are they different than five years ago?

Ted Hyman: We're focused on positive impact, sustainability and justice and equity component.

Kofi: What is justice and equity?

Hyman: It starts with ourselves. We're working on that now. We're bringing in programs to buildings getting kids in some areas interested in science, jobs.

Taylor: We're only buying buildings we can replace with seismic safe housing. We don't believe in enclosed shopping malls.

Alex Valente: Required yield for investors was 5.5-6% cap rate yield to make pencil. Under 5 cap rate. It's come down.

END

PANELISTS & TOPICS

THE OFFICE CONUNDRUM

MODERATOR

Jodie Poirier
Executive Managing Director
Colliers

Joseph Faulkner
President Brokerage
NAI Capital Commercial

Laura Stumm
Senior Managing Director
Newmark

Grafton Tanquary
Executive Vice President
CBRE

DEVELOPMENT TRENDS

MODERATOR

Kofi Nartey
Chief Executive Officer
GLOBL RED

Ted Hyman FAIA, LEED AP® BD+C
Managing Partner
ZGF

Lawrence N. Taylor
Founder & CEO
Christina

Alex Valente
Senior Vice President
Trammell Crow Company

INDUSTRIAL TRENDS

MODERATOR

Asher Luzzatto
President
The Luzzatto Company

Phillip J. Bond
Executive Vice President,
Chief Credit Officer
Farmers & Merchants Bank

Mike Condon Jr.
Vice Chairman
Cushman & Wakefield

Lisa Reddy
Vice President, Leasing Officer
Prologis

Event Sponsors

Mary Cummins

Office to Housing Conversion is Not Easy, by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser Los Angeles California

Office to Housing Conversion, Mary Cummins, Real Estate Appraiser, Los Angeles, California, Adaptive Reuse, Housing Crisis, housing

Because of the pandemic many people have been working from home instead of at an office building. For this reason office vacancy rates have increased. Some large companies are allowing their employees to continue to work from home even as pandemic restrictions are lifted and eased. People are using Zoom meetings, Zoom court appearances and other forms of virtual meetings instead of in person meetings. For this reason those same companies aren't renewing leases on large office spaces in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles.

Many people have been saying we should convert that office space to residential use to help solve the housing crisis. People who are not in the real estate industry do not realize how difficult and expensive it would be to convert office to residential. It generally would not make financial sense from the investor, lender point of view. This article discusses the issues involved in adaptive reuse of office buildings for residential units.

1. Office Buildings Were Not Designed or Built to Be Housing

Office buildings are generally built to cover the entire parcel of land to the sidewalk. They are built around a central elevator system. Some offices near the center of the building will not have windows or natural light which is permitted for commercial offices. Residential units must have windows and light. You would only be able to have units around the outer edges of the building for that reason.

"While it may seem like all that empty space would be better used for unhoused people, architects must navigate challenges like finding the right amount of space between a building's elevator bank and its windows.

"There's a Goldilocks factor: The floor plate can't be too small, and it can't be too big," said Kristina Garcia, a researcher with the real estate brokerage Cushman Wakefield, using an industry term for the leasable space on a given floor of a high-rise office tower. "There's limiting factors to why adaptive reuse hasn't happened as much."

Most modern office buildings have floor plates of about 25,000 square feet — about half the size of a football field — a figure that has generally crept up over the decades. More recently built high-rise office buildings are often considerably larger than their decades-old counterparts."

"The donut around the building is the habitable zone. What do you do with the interior space?" Cetra said. (Ref. 1)

Another factor is the addition of many new bathrooms and kitchens to the building. Offices generally have one or two common bathrooms with toilets, sinks only per floor. They have no showers, laundry facilities or kitchens. The plumbing, sewer and electrical would have to be completely redone and upgraded which is very expensive.

1130 Flower in downtown Los Angeles was a US Post Office converted to luxury condos. There were sewer issues after it was converted. Sewage backed up out of the building and down the street because the 100+ year old sewer pipes were not made for that many new bathrooms, showers, sinks and laundry facilities.

The only reason 1130 Flower was attempted was because of the many developer and investor bonuses. The area was pretty run down at the time. There were density bumps for building next to public transportation, converting an old building, building next to the old Staples center and building in an enterprise development zone. They were able to not vent the kitchen stoves and washer/dryers. They were able to offer very few full size parking spaces. The live/work units on the converted bottom floor are deep, dark and have a funky functionally obsolete floor plan. The ones facing west on directly on the Metro train tracks and extremely loud and sooty. They basically had to cut the building in half and add an open hallway down the middle so the units would not be as deep and dark. Thankfully the post office naturally had a lot of windows for natural light on the outside because they sorted mail there. It was still a long, difficult and expensive process and the units have many issues today. Pic of 1130 Flower from top showing the area they had to cut out in order to increase window area. Even with the cut out the lofts on the inside are narrow, deep and dark with no side windows. They are two story open lofts for this reason.

2. Office buildings do not have to abide by the many Building and Safety requirements for residential units.

Residential construction standards are generally much higher than commercial construction standards. Windows must be certain sizes. There must be more fire escapes especially in high rises. There must be fire doors that close automatically. The cost to upgrade a commercial building to residential is exorbitant to the point of being cost prohibitive.

3. It's Cheaper, Easier to Build New on Vacant or Under Utilized Land

The cost to convert an office building to residential is generally more expensive than building residential from the ground up. You can't just add a bed to an office suite and call it an apartment. You're not just adding a bathroom and kitchen. You're adding many bathrooms, kitchens, laundry facilities which need upgraded plumbing, electrical and vents. The building must meet fire requirements for residential instead of just commercial. There needs to be 1.5 parking spots per one bedroom units and 2.5 for two bedroom units. One would have to acquire office buildings at a steep 50%+ discount to today's values in order for it to make sense. With this market we may get there.

4. Office Space is More Valuable than Residential Space

"Often, real estate and architectural experts say, the bureaucratic processes are too difficult and the conversions are too costly, and many developers and property owners would rather wait out the pandemic than begin a yearslong process."

It would probably make more sense for the commercial landlord to wait out a high vacancy period so they can later rent for office rates instead of lower residential rates. They can rent the office space for other uses at a lower rate in the meantime.

No matter the situation the rental rate of office to residential conversion would most likely be in the luxury rental zone due to location and cost of land. Luxury rentals don't really help affordable housing and it definitely doesn't help the homeless. The new luxury units would free up other units for others but generally not enough to make a huge dent in the housing crisis.

5. Easier to Convert Retail, Industrial, Warehouse, Motel/Hotel to Residential or Mixed Use

For all of these reasons it's easier and cheaper to convert retail, industrial, warehouse, motel/hotel to residential or mixed use buildings. They are better designed and laid out than office buildings. Old industrial, warehouse buildings have lots of natural light. There have been many industrial buildings converted to lofts especially in the Arts District near downtown Los Angeles. Motels/hotels are easier to convert to long term residential for obvious reasons. That's generally just a matter of adding a legal kitchen and upgrading the building to current long term residential code.

While the idea of converting empty office space to residential sounds great it doesn't work that easily in the real world for many reasons. We do have a housing crises especially in high density metro areas such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. The answer is not converting office to residential. The answer is making residential construction easier by cutting some red tape and streamlining the process. The recent state bills allowing units to be built on residential land will help a little though it won't solve the housing crisis. Here is a previous article I wrote about solving the housing crisis in 2019 with more solutions. I'm happy to state that many of the ideas have been implemented since I wrote the article.

*All codes, standards cited are Los Angeles, California which has some of the strictest building standards in the nation. California as a whole has higher building standards than the rest of the US.

1. https://www.nbcnews.com/business/real-estate/why-empty-offices-aren-t-being-turned-housing-despite-lengthy-n1274810

Mary Cummins

Friday, February 4, 2022

What is the Appraisal Institute? AI is a private non-profit organization and not part of government by Mary Cummins

Many are under the false impression that the Appraisal Institute (AI) is part of the government that oversees and regulates real estate appraisers. That is absolutely false. They are NOT The Appraisal Foundation (TAF). The Appraisal Foundation is "Authorized by Congress as a source of appraisal standards and qualifications." TAF worked with some private appraiser organizations one of which was AI until 2010. TAF stated AI resigned instead of being suspended for violating the Foundation’s Code of Conduct for Sponsoring Organizations. Here's an article I wrote on who actually regulates appraisers and the appraisal industry.

The Appraisal Institute is instead a private non-profit organization 501 6 c FEIN 36-3739643 formed in 1992 whose mission is to promote real estate appraisers and the business of appraising, IRS code S41 "promotion of business." Their real mission is to sell memberships, classes, publications and their own designations such as MAI... They are primarily focused on commercial appraisers and not really residential. Many feel they are just a private white male commercial appraiser club that promotes itself and not appraisers or the industry as a whole. It costs $15,000 to become an AI MAI appraiser so it's not cheap. Only General Certified Appraisers can become MAI Appraisers.

Below is their most recent tax return which is their 2019 990 tax return from their Guidestar profile https://www.guidestar.org/profile/36-3739643 . All info came from this public document. Their income was $20,589,361. They allegedly had almost 17,000 members which includes retired, candidates, honorary and affiliates in 2019. In 2007 they stated they had 21,000 members so they lost members?

https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2019/363/739/2019-363739643-202013159349304521-9O.pdf

They state their mission is "THE APPRAISAL INSTITUTE'S MISSION IS TO ADVANCE PROFESSIONALISM AND ETHICS, GLOBAL STANDARDS, METHODOLOGIES, AND PRACTICES THROUGH THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF PROPERTY ECONOMICS WORLDWIDE."

They have 98 employees and 198 volunteers. Their main income is selling classes, memberships for $18,000,000. Broken down it's $11,000,000 membership dues, $5,800,000 education, $557,000 publications/books, $507,000 admission, grading, $49,000 periodicals. They spend $10,000,000 on salaries. They have about $23,000,000 in assets. $11,000,000 net assets.

Their main employees and salaries, wages are below. Doesn't include bonuses, retirement, health insurance, other items which may be considerably more. AI sometimes pays for travel expenses of spouses.

Jim Amorin $435,000 50 hrs
Beata Swacha $223,000 50 hrs
Jeffrey Liskar $307,000 50 hrs
William Garber $225,000 45 hrs
Evan Williams $175,000 45 hrs
Stephanie Coleman $179,000 37 hrs
Robert Borst $160,000 37 hrs
Christina Mitakis $151,000 37 hrs

Officers/Directors

Stephen Wagner $164,000 40 hrs/week
Jefferson L Sherman $102,000 20 hrs/week
Rodman Schley $89,000 20 hrs
James Murrett $91,000 20 hrs

Independent Contractors

Heidi Korthase $122,000
Rich Feuer Anderson $120,000
Craig Harrington $100,000

There is an Appraisal Institute PAC Political Action Committee to which AI gives $101,000. They spent $574,000 in lobbying costs.

PAC disclaimer: APPRAISAL INSTITUTE PAC (AI PAC) PROVIDES A MEANS FOR DESIGNATED MEMBERS, CANDIDATES, AND PRACTICING AFFILIATES TO PARTICIPATE IN THE POLITICAL PROCESS ON A NATIONAL LEVEL. CONTRIBUTIONS CAN BE MADE BY INDIVIDUAL DESIGNATED MEMBERS, CANDIDATES, AND PRACTICING AFFILIATES OF THE APPRAISAL INSTITUTE AND THEIR FAMILIES, AS WELL AS BY APPRAISAL INSTITUTE EMPLOYEES. CONTRIBUTIONS FROM AI PAC SUPPORT THE PRIMARY AND GENERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN EFFORTS OF CANDIDATES FOR THE U.S. CONGRESS WHO SUPPORT AND PROMOTE THE PRINCIPLES OF THE APPRAISAL PROFESSION. AI PAC DOES NOT CONTRIBUTE TO POLITICAL PARTIES, TO PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES, OR TO LEADERSHIP POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEES.

They received grants $87,000 and paid about $664 in grants. All this money and almost no grants to women, POC or people with less money. Makes it hard to believe they are behind the new grants program for women, POC or people with less money. They basically waited until they were forced to do it. Not only that but they say you must pay to join their club just to apply for a grant. On the flip side they have no problem receiving grants from others such as a PAREA grant from TAF.

Most in the organization are older white males who are commercial appraisers. There are very few women and fewer POC and residential only appraisers especially on the board or as employees, consultants.

Below is an article by someone with a lot more knowledge about AI than myself. They had over 25,000 members and now they have about 17,000. It also talks about the loss of education revenue due to online and virtual education. In 2016 main AI started taking the Chapter's money. During this decline in members there has been a great increase in salaries, wages and travel expenses.

https://www.millersamuel.com/epic-fail-the-appraisal-institute-irs-990s-show-they-needs-to-do-a-180/

Below is a pic of the 2021 BOD. I see a few female tokens and the rest are older white men.

#appraisalinstitute #AI #TAF #theappraisalfoundation #appraiser #appraisal #appraisalindustry #regulatory #enforcement #appraisalsubcommittee #appraisalinstituteorg

http://www.linkedin.com/company/appraisal-institute

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mGHNrWBOD12iqKCHqxmZw

https://www.facebook.com/AppraisalInstitute

https://twitter.com/AI_National @AI_National

https://www.appraisalinstitute.org/rss/news.aspx?CategoryId=1

http://blog.appraisalinstitute.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appraisal_Institute

Mary Cummins

Thursday, February 3, 2022

Interview President Appraisal Institute Jody Bishop by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaFfhOo1Edk&t=1830s

"Today’s (February 2, 2022) Buzzcast interview is with Jody Bishop, the new President of The Appraisal Institute. We sat down with Jody and Joan Trice, Founder of Allterra Group, LLC to discuss what the outlook for the Appraisal Institute is for 2022 and what appraisers can expect from their initiatives."

You can go to the video, click the three dots bottom right then view the transcript. Joan Trice JT asked the questions and Jody Bishop JB replied. Below are my notes.

JB: The AI Board couldn't get together until May for a few reasons I won't mention. We used a consultant to handle the meeting to be neutral. We have five top priorities: modernizing education and production, new technology and social media, develop plan to recruit and retain professionals, implement PAREA and develop diversity equity and inclusion action plan. It's time to work to meet our goals. We need a cultural shift to refuse other ideas so we can finish the top 2, 3 or 5 goals. Then we'll be successful.

JT: What about the diversity program?

JB: We already have some effort with the appraisal diversity initiative ADI. Someone gave $3M to the program for the next three years. The National Urban League held symposium to recruit women and POC. We gave grants for initial licensed education, textbook. We started a women's initiative committee a while back. Hope to have a plan by Q3.

JT: Will AI be matching candidates with supervisors?

They will take an AI class. We're working on PAREA. AI was given/gave? $500K to write a program on producing PAREA. We will have students do a robust case study. It will take them through an appraisal of a house. We will have mentors going through the program. They should be highly trained after process. (They will do only one home appraisal? Maybe they need to at least do one home, one condo, one 2-4 units?)

Commercial by AI. Become a member today! :-D Their membership has gone from 25,000 to 17,000 today. They've lost almost 30% of their members while their salaries, expenses and travel expenses have increased.

JT: What is your personal agenda, strategic plan?

JB: I have to give board information they need to make decisions. I have to make sure they don't get distracted with other items. We're working through a cultural shift. Other goals are better communication and messaging.

JT: There is the clear report, appraisal subcommittee report, review of USPAP, Fannie Mae just launched their study on racial bias, PAVE report coming any minute. Any thoughts where PAVE will come down?

JB. We met with PAVE folks. We arranged for drive-by appraisal ride-along. They watched appraiser measure property. It was helpful for them. We're trying to educate these folks about what appraisers really do. They're discovering there's more to it than just the appraiser running amok out there. All these reports of appraisals but we don't have enough information to see what is really going on. We have a team that has studied various reports, Andre Perry's, Freddie Mac, AIE report. We're looking at Fannie Mae report. We looked at appraisal gap in Freddie Mac report. (He summarized their report per FM). FM looked at refinances.They compared appraisals to avm values. It really wasn't undervaluation going on. Maybe there was renovation work in white areas? They're going to look more.

We're trying to educate about history of diversity, redlining, restrictive covenants... It's helpful to learn what happened in the past to understand the concerns today.

PAVE will come out in a week or so. Clear study, ASC, looking at Appraisal Foundation as well. The most glaring thing is wanting to allow appraiser to be liable to the borrower. It makes me nervous too.

Commercial. LiDar measurement. Remote evaluations. incenteram.com

JT: Should the borrower be intended user of report?

JB: It's concerning. You can be sued no matter what disclaimer is in the report (who is the intended user). It gives borrower power to go after appraiser. If we start adding onerous new regulations, liability, it could dissuade new appraisers.

JT: You can't serve two masters. We don't give them cover to tell the truth. If the appraiser says property in bad condition, lender would put pressure on appraiser not to be honest. The borrower would be angry if appraiser is honest. If it's a hoarder house and appraiser states that, borrower would be insulted.

JB: We should not have flag words (such as hoarder). That's why codes Q, C are better. C4 is not hoarder. Your camera can take 1000 pics. Photos can save you the heartache.

JT: I'm a fan of transparency but would be better for borrower to get a summary of report but not the report with the UAD codes which they don't understand.

JB: Hybrids. The appraiser would not be influenced by anyone at the house. Appraisers don't see the borrower at purchase appraisal but may at refinance appraisal inspection. With hybrid there is no connection between appraiser and borrower. The gold standard for appraisal is full inspection, drive the neighborhood, see the comps themselves. That is the argument against AVMs. There is a push to AVM but want to enhance it somehow. The best thing to happen to appraisers is the Zillow news that AVMs are not accurate. The Zillow (failure) was great timing for the PAVE report, Joe Biden team weighing in.

Mary Cummins

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Interview President Appraisal Institute Jody Bishop by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser