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.

Sunday, April 6, 2025

Is my Condo Blacklisted by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Lenders? List of Requirements by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

Ever since the 2021 Surfside condo collapse in Miami, Florida lenders are worried about the condition of older condominium projects. Lenders do not want to loan on a project where their equity is not secured by a livable building in good safe condition. For this reason many older condos are denied funding backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Mae and Mac maintain a "mortgage blacklist" of condo complexes deemed ineligible for their mortgage programs. I've emailed them asking for it but they refuse to share it publicly. The condo projects are denied due to concerns about inadequate insurance, structural issues or insufficient reserves. This makes it difficult for owners to sell or refinance using these loan programs. This "blacklist" is basically a list of condo complexes which have been denied funding based on these requirements. This does not affect non Mae and Mac mortgages but if the project doesn't meet these requirements, they may still be denied by other lenders.

The most important thing a condo owner can do to prevent their condo from being blacklisted is fully research the project before you buy, sell and as you own it. Be sure to get a copy of all documents especially the budget, inspection report and the condo reserve report. A good condo project will have all future repairs noted with 70% of the future repair costs already paid in a reserve fund. The funds come from the HOA dues.

The problems arise with older buildings which need more and more repairs as they age. HOA dues don't always cover the increasing expenses so dues must be raised from time to time. Special assessments are needed for the larger unplanned repairs. Some condo owners don't want to pay increased HOA dues or assessments because they are on fixed incomes. Condo owners must vote for special assessments. This is what happened with Surfside condos. They knew they needed major repairs but the collective owners refused to vote for the larger HOA dues and special assessments to get the needed work done. The building also had structural issues when it was first built which needed to be repaired.

Here's a more detailed breakdown of what Mae and Mac need to see before they will fund a condo. I got this information from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac websites.

Reserve Fund Requirements:

Minimum Reserve:

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac require that a condo project have a reserve fund that is at least 10% of the annual operating budget.

Reserve Study:

A current reserve study, conducted by a qualified professional, is essential to determine the adequacy of the reserve funding plan.

Funding Plan:

The reserve study should include a funding plan that outlines how the association will reach and maintain the minimum reserve level.

Reserve Study Content:

The reserve study should include an inventory of major components, a financial analysis, and an evaluation of the current reserve fund adequacy.

Reserve Study Frequency:

It's recommended to have a reserve study performed and updated every three years by a qualified professional.

Reserve Study Compliance:

The reserve study must meet or exceed requirements set forth in any applicable state statutes.

Delinquency Requirements:

Delinquency Limit: No more than 15% of the total number of units in a project can be 60 or more days delinquent in the payment of their HOA assessments.

Other Important Considerations:

Critical Repairs:

Mortgages secured by units in condominium or cooperative projects in need of critical repairs are not eligible for sale to Freddie Mac.

Lender Review:

Lenders are now required to review all structural and mechanical inspection reports, including reserve studies, completed in the prior three years from the loan project review.

Unfunded Repairs:

Lenders are prohibited from issuing loans for complexes with unfunded repairs totaling $10,000 or more per unit.

Special Assessments:

Lenders must obtain and review information for any special assessments imposed by condominium associations to determine if they address a critical repair.

Insurance:

The project must have insurance that complies with the applicable requirements.

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

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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

Saturday, April 5, 2025

AEI Finds Waiver Bias in GSE Appraisals by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

Interesting new study out by American Enterprise Institute (AEI) shows appraisal waivers have more bias than human appraisers. They are more likely to hit the needed loan to value (LTV) target to qualify for lower refinance rates and approvals.

"Evidence of Potential Gaming of Appraisal Waivers: Waivers Demonstrate More Anchoring than Human Appraisals. It is well known that LTVs are heavily anchored to certain percentages. Anchoring is the use of a value that ones knows in order to make a decision or value estimate. In the case of refis, these anchor points interact with the applicant’s perception of home value and the refinance amount and any cash proposed to be extracted from the home."

Appraisers don't know the LTV target or needed refinance value. The borrower who estimates the value of their own home obviously does. The borrower with help from the lender submits an estimate of value when using appraisal waivers. Looks like confirmation bias to me. I think these waiver robots need to take a mandatory CE class on bias just like appraisers. That will surely fix the problem ;-)

Read the full study here. Lots of great stats and charts like the one above.

https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/prevalence-of-gse-appraisal-waivers/

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Mary Cummins

Friday, April 4, 2025

Court Dismisses Discrimination Claims Against Appraiser by Mary Cummins, Real Estate Appraiser

Henley's Motion to Dismiss, Doc. #28, is SUSTAINED.

Link to case below

"A federal judge has dismissed all claims against an appraiser and their firm in a lawsuit alleging discrimination in a home valuation. The court found that the plaintiffs failed to establish a viable legal claim against the appraiser, ruling that their allegations did not sufficiently demonstrate wrongdoing under applicable laws.

The case centered on a disputed appraisal that plaintiffs claimed was racially biased. However, the judge determined that the appraiser’s valuation process did not support a claim of discrimination. With this ruling, the appraiser and their firm are no longer part of the lawsuit.

While claims against the appraiser were dismissed, the court allowed certain claims against a bank to proceed, focusing on the bank’s lending policies and loan approval decisions. These claims will be evaluated further as the case moves forward. Specifically, the plaintiffs claim the bank applied different loan-to-value (LTV) ratios based on race and national origin, offering more favorable terms to white borrowers. They also allege the bank refused to finalize a loan application with better terms due to discriminatory policies. Additionally, the plaintiffs argue the bank maintained a policy preventing borrowers from appealing appraisals they believed to be discriminatory. The bank contends that loan denials were based on credit history rather than discrimination, the court determined that the plaintiffs presented enough evidence for these claims to proceed.

Negligent Hiring, Training, and Supervision

The court also allowed claims against the bank regarding negligent hiring, training, and supervision of employees. Plaintiffs argue that bank employees failed to properly evaluate loan applications, process appraisal appeals and oversee contracted appraisers. The court found that these allegations were specific enough to warrant further examination.

Implications for Appraisers

This case—Carlos Turner, et al. v. Henley Appraisals, LLC, et al. (Case No. 3:23-cv-371) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio Western Division—highlights the importance of clear appeal mechanisms for borrowers who suspect discrimination and raises questions about lender oversight of the appraisal process. Appraisers should stay informed on evolving legal standards and lender policies to ensure compliance and fairness in their work."

Link to case ruling. Large file but only 28 pages.

https://cases.justia.com/federal/district-courts/ohio/ohsdce/3:2023cv00371/286793/33/0.pdf

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Mary Cummins

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Caruso Palisades Village Will Reopen Beginning of 2026 by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

Rick Caruso stated today that the Palisades Village will reopen in the beginning of 2026. Caruso said they are waiting for the properties around them to be cleared of the toxic remains of the fire. They don't believe it will be safe until the cleanup is complete. They will also be refurbishing the mall.

Caruso stated that the 130,000 sf Palisades Village located at 15225 Palisades Village Lane in Pacific Palisades, California survived for a number of reasons. The Village which has 40 boutiques, restaurants and shops was built in 2018. It was built to survive wildfires. Caruso also hired his own private fire fighters and water teams to fight the fire.

www.palisadesvillageca.com

https://caruso.com/our-portfolio/palisades-village/

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Mary Cummins

Sunday, March 30, 2025

Fire Victims May Incur Casualty Tax Gains by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

If your post fire insurance settlement is over your initial home cost basis, i.e. original purchase price, you could owe a casualty gain to the IRS. You can defer the gain if you use the insurance settlement to rebuild or buy a replacement property within two to four years. Any gains from the sale of the lot will also have to be reinvested in a new home to defer gains. You could use the home sales tax exclusion to shelter $250-$500K of the gains. See below for more specifics. This is complicated and you should consult a tax professional.

"Dear Liz: My house was burned down in the Palisades fire. I lived in the house for 25 years and lost everything. I thought there may be a silver lining with tax deductions. Much to my surprise, I am supposed to use the purchase price from 25 years ago as my adjusted cost basis. The insurance settlement is not going to be enough to rebuild but is more than my cost basis. I will end up with “casualty gain” instead. Is this possible?

Answer: After losing your home and finding out you were underinsured, the news that you might have a taxable gain must have been a gut punch.

The IRS calls it an “involuntary conversion” when your property is destroyed and you receive insurance proceeds. If the insurance payment exceeds your tax basis in the property, that’s known as a casualty gain.

You can defer tax on this gain if you use the insurance payout to rebuild or buy a replacement property, says Mark Luscombe, a principal analyst with Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting. Normally you’d have two years to use the insurance proceeds, but in a federally declared disaster such as the Los Angeles fires, the deadline is extended to four years.

The IRS may be willing to further extend the deadline under some circumstances, such as contractor delays, Luscombe says. But don’t count on an extension if you’re simply unable to find a replacement property.

If you do purchase a new home elsewhere, any gain from the sale of the lot where your previous home stood also would have to be reinvested in the new home to avoid a current tax on the gain, Luscombe says.

However, the home sale tax exclusion also applies to involuntary conversions. The exclusion allows you to shelter up to $250,000 of gains ($500,000 if married filing jointly) on a sale or involuntary conversion, as long as you’ve owned and lived in the property as your primary residence for two of the last five years. So you could exclude that amount of gain and defer the rest if you rebuild or find a replacement property, Luscombe says.

This is complicated territory, so please make sure you hire a tax pro to guide you."

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-03-30/losing-a-home-in-a-fire-then-being-hit-with-a-casualty-gain

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Mary Cummins

Friday, March 28, 2025

HUD Scrubs Divisive Content from HUD Website by Jeremy Bagott, Comments by Mary Cummins

dei, racism, mary cummins, donald trump, andre perry, hud, jeremy bagott, appraisal bias, scott turner, real estate appraiser, real estate appraisal, appraiser, appraisal, los angeles, california

Jeremy Bagott @jbagott posted a new press release titled "HUD Scrubs Toxic Content from Hijacked Portal." ( https://mailchi.mp/40d0c98d36d9/hud-scrubs-toxic-content-from-hijacked-portal-10898622 "HUD SCRUBS TOXIC CONTENT FROM HIJACKED PORTAL:VENTURA, Calif. (March 28, 2025) – A web portal run by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as a clearinghouse for misinformation and to promote crony business relationships has now been purged of much of its most toxic content. More needs to be done.

The portal, known as the “HUD Exchange,” connected lawyers and crony nonprofits with potential plaintiffs for shakedown lawsuits and to spread divisive conspiracy theories. The portal, which appeared to have been taken over by HUD around the start of the pandemic, was originally operated by a tiny federal agency whose stated mission was to provide resources for wounded, ill and injured service members and their families. HUD somehow wrested control of it. Under Housing Secretary Scott Turner, many malicious web pages have been removed."

HUD has also removed many pages from the HUD.gov website. Most of them were against Donald Trump's new anti DEI policies. The other data and pages removed had to do with anything, everything Joe Biden. I agree that some of the content was not only divisive but false. The worst items had to do with HUD's false narrative of the allegedly old white male racist real estate appraiser. This false narrative was promoted by Biden and the Dems in the hopes of securing votes from blacks, Latinos. Biden stated if elected he would fix the wealth gap by going after allegedly racist appraisers.

The wealth gap is caused by the income gap. The income gap is not caused by race but socioeconomic factors. There are also lower income white people. People of all color, race who make less money have less money and buy less expensive homes in less expensive areas. It's not caused by real estate appraisers appraising their homes for less than what they're worth. A home in Watts is worth less than a home in Beverly Hills. We're just the messengers. We just report value. We don't set it.

One thing that I'm glad was removed, archived was almost every mention of Andre Perry and his fake paper and book "Know your price." AEI and others have debunked Perry's false claim of racial bias in appraisal values many times. AEI spoke at government meetings and sent in independent research. The government would not listen because it didn't fit their agenda to garner black, Latino votes. In the end Biden never fixed the wealth gap. He also didn't get the black, Latino vote and lost the election.

I'm also glad NFHA's false and defamatory articles, lawsuits, PSA's against real estate appraisers were removed. Private nonprofit NFHA took advantage of the false narrative of the alleged white racist appraiser to file frivolous lawsuits. Their purpose was media attention and grants for their board members and CEO. Many people used the false narrative to make money at the expense of real estate appraisers.

Immediately after George Floyd's murder the pendulum swung to the far left in terms of race. People were demanding reparations and forcing companies to hire some harmful DEI "consultants." DEI can be a good thing but some new self proclaimed "consultants" took it was too far and it became anti white, anti male, anti business. There's no more talk of reparations and almost all DEI is in the trash. Now we've swung to the far right with the end of affirmative action and mandatory removal of all DEI. Sadly our country still has issues with racism, misogyny, gender issues... I hope eventually we can end up in the sane middle on these important issues.

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Mary Cummins

Thursday, March 20, 2025

The History of Women in Real Estate by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

It's Women's History Month. Back in the day women weren't allowed to own real estate, get a home loan or even work in real estate. Today most residential real estate agents are women but men still dominate commercial real estate, construction and architecture. Men are also more likely to be single home owners. "You've come a long way, baby," but more progress will continue to be made.

I previously wrote about the history of Real Estate Boards and the first Multiple Listing Services. Women were excluded along with blacks, Latinos, Asians... Over time the Boards broadened their ranks after the US Civil Rights Acts and Fair Housing Act to include everyone including women. https://mary--cummins.blogspot.com/2024/01/history-of-us-boards-of-realtors-and.html

A quick overview

Women in the U.S. were not allowed to finance real estate purchases without a husband or male co-signer until the 1970s.

While women dominate the ranks of Realtors, property managers and interior designers, they comprise less than 15% of the construction industry, and one-third of the mortgage brokerage industry.

Three secretaries of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have been women.

Some statistics from today

65% of all Realtors are female

61.9% of property managers are female

14% of construction industry professionals are female

27% of architects are female

83% of interior designers are female

20% of homebuyers are single females

#womeninrealestate #marycummins #realestateappraiser #realestateappraisal #losangeles #california @marycumminsrealestateappraiser @mary_cummins #womenshistorymonth

https://www.bankrate.com/real-estate/history-of-women-in-real-estate/

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Mary Cummins

Mary Cummins, Real Estate Appraiser, Animal Advocates, Los Angeles, California

Sunday, April 6, 2025

Is my Condo Blacklisted by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Lenders? List of Requirements by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

Saturday, April 5, 2025

AEI Finds Waiver Bias in GSE Appraisals by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

Friday, April 4, 2025

Court Dismisses Discrimination Claims Against Appraiser by Mary Cummins, Real Estate Appraiser

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Caruso Palisades Village Will Reopen Beginning of 2026 by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

Sunday, March 30, 2025

Fire Victims May Incur Casualty Tax Gains by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

Friday, March 28, 2025

HUD Scrubs Divisive Content from HUD Website by Jeremy Bagott, Comments by Mary Cummins

Thursday, March 20, 2025

The History of Women in Real Estate by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser