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.

Friday, January 12, 2024

McKissock Learning Will No Longer Offer PAREA Due to Costs by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

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PAREA is the Practical Applications of Real Estate Appraisal. In order to become a licensed appraiser you currently need about a year or two and 1,000-1,500 hours of training experience as a trainee with another licensed and generally certified appraiser. You also need basic classes and other requirements. Because it was so difficult to find mentors willing to train trainees for free the government allowed the PAREA training alternative to hours with a live mentor. Real Estate Appraiser education provider McKissock Learning was going to be one of the government approved companies, organizations offering PAREA training. The Appraisal Institute is another organization offering the training.

Yesterday January 12, 2024 McKissock emailed people who were interested in the program that they would no longer be offering the PAREA program. See below email.

"Happy New Year to you and yours. We hope this letter finds you well. With a strong commitment to responsibility and transparency, we want to inform you about a significant decision regarding the McKissock PAREA (Practical Applications of Real Estate Appraisal) project.

After careful consideration and thorough evaluation of various factors, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the McKissock PAREA project. We understand that this news may be unexpected, and we want to provide you with a clear understanding of our reasoning and the steps we are taking moving forward.

One of the primary factors contributing to the cancellation is the substantial resource cost required to provide a product of the quality we envisioned. In our pursuit to deliver a premium solution, the associated costs exceeded initial estimates, resulting in a higher-end price to our customers. Regrettably, we recognize that this higher cost would inadvertently create a new barrier to entry into the appraisal profession – specifically, a financial obstacle."

The cost of the program was always a major issue and hurdle to entrance in the field. You couldn't even start the program without first paying for and taking $1,700 worth of McKissock classes. The Appraisal Institute stated the PAREA program would cost about $10,000 per a July 19, 2023 webinar. All of the training would be online. There would be no in person mentorship.

From a monetary point of view the expensive cost of the training might be a total waste without real mentorship. This is not a trial an error occupation. You need someone training you in the beginning. You won't make any money if you don't know what you're doing. The only people who could end up making money from the training were possibly the training organization. They'd make money from government grants, nonprofit grants and class fees from paying students. It'd be like those worthless online degrees.

Another main problem is the real estate appraisal market today is at its absolute lowest point. There's very little lending work. The main cause is our current high interest rates. No one is selling if they have to buy another home. Why lose a 2.5% interest rate and triple your monthly mortgage at 7.5% or so. No one would want to refinance for the same reason. Sales volume is at its lowest in about 20 years per Ryan Lundquist's fantastic statistics. I've seen the same in Los Angeles, California.

Another even bigger issue is the use of live appraisers has been decreasing recently because of appraisal waivers, AVMs (Automated Valuation Methods) and hybrid type appraisals. Even though a live appraiser is used for part of the hybrid appraisal they aren't being paid as much as a full appraisal, i.e. $75-$165 vs $300-$500. The few full inspection appraisals done by live appraisers are very complex appraisals which only appraisers with many years experience are allowed to do. There's just not as much work today for anyone.

Previously the government said there were not enough appraisers and now there are definitely way too many. If you look at Facebook appraiser groups, everyone is hurting. Many have retired or had to get side gigs. If a fully trained and experienced appraiser of 20 years can't get work, a newbie has no chance at making enough money to survive. Even people with 20-40 years of experience are quitting due to lack of work.

You'd have to really be an idiot to shell out $1,700 for basic classes, $10,000 for PAREA, $6,000 appraisal costs first year just to make no money. Few can afford that upfront cost even if they could make the money back in a year or two. Another huge hurdle is lenders only use appraisers with three years minimum experience. No one would hire you fresh out of PAREA.

I believe that McKissock realized there probably won't be enough people willing to pay for the classes at the moment to justify their training costs. They couldn't make enough profit off the program today. Even if the government and nonprofits offered grants to pay for the training the students probably wouldn't get any work from the program. No one would be happy. There would be a lot of online complaints.

I'm actually glad McKissock is not continuing with the program at this time for the sake of the potential new appraisers. Now is not the time to start out as an appraiser because of the market conditions. I would at a minimum wait until things rebound when rates go down. Maybe by then there will be an affordable PAREA program maybe subsidized by the government for people who can't afford it. You'd still need live experience and will have to deal with all the other issues noted above but it'd be better than what we have today.

*FTR I've been taking classes with McKissock since they first started around 1990. Back in the day they only offered in person classes taught by the McKissock's out of a small classroom in Orange County, California. Today I take bundled classes with Calypso because they're cheaper.

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

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

History of Realtor Boards and Multiple Listing Services by Mary Cummins Real Estate Broker, Appraiser

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Real Estate is one of the largest industries in the United States. It began with the first land grants and settlers of the New World starting in the late 1400's. Many countries including Spain, Portugal, Britain, France, Russia, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden laid claim to the New World making and selling land grants. Over time individuals and speculators bought, sold and traded the land grants, plots and deeds.

Originally there were handwritten land grants with vague land surveys using physical landmarks. They were recorded with the cities, counties or states as they formed. These were later also recorded in newspapers. The land grants were later replaced with grant deeds and surveyed numbered land plots with assessor numbers as the nation grew and government and real estate became more formalized and regulated.

Back in the day anyone could become a real estate dealer. This led to some charlatans and con men becoming land swindlers. Everyone knows about people accidentally buying worthless swamp land in Florida or someone selling the same piece of land to multiple people. This gave the real estate industry a very bad image. A few in the industry decided to form Realty Associations in order to control who could deal in real estate and how properties were planned, built and transferred.

The purpose of the first Realty Associations specifically the "Los Angeles Realty Board" was "to bring legitimacy to their profession, encourage cooperation and fellowship among real estate men, and use their collective power to create a more dynamic business environment for their industry." The LA Realty Board was formed in 1903 in California. One of the founding members was William May Garland. By 1906 they had 217 members.

Many of the later Boards were formed based on the same structure and mission as the LA Realty Board. I was a member of the Los Angeles Board of Realtors, Beverly Hills Board of Realtors and National Association of Realtors starting in 1983. The BH Board was incorporated in 1955. They ultimately merged with the LA Board and became the Greater Los Angeles Realtors (GLAR) in 1998. The state California Association of Realtors (CAR) was formed in 1998.

Initially some of the various boards had their own MLS services. Later they joined forces and made larger MLS services such as CRMLS, CLAWMLS, THEMLS... The Combined Los Angeles/Westside (CLAW) MLS is a compilation of the listings of Realtor Board Members formed in 1995. You must be a licensed real estate agent and Realtor to join as an agent or broker to list properties on that MLS. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) was originally formed as the National Association of Real Estate Exchanges in Chicago in 1908.

Back in the day the Realty Board was in charge of who could be a real estate agent. There was no State Departments of Real Estate. Official real estate sales licenses didn't start until 1917 when the California Department of Real Estate (DRE) was first formed by the California legislature. DRE marked the formation of the first-ever Real Estate Law in the country. With this law, licensing practices and licensees were regulated in a manner which was emulated by many other states.

Way back in the day non whites, blacks, women and more were not allowed to own real estate in the US. When they were later allowed to own real estate it was difficult to find people willing to sell them or help them buy real estate because of racism and segregation. Many racist whites did not want to sell their property to blacks, Latinos...because of their false fear that the neighborhood would deteriorate, crime would increase and property values would decline. White fearmongers promoted this false narrative to make money selling real estate.

Back in the day Realtor Boards controlled who could become a Realtor. Blacks, women and others were not allowed. Blacks, Latinos ... were forced to start their own organizations because of segregation and racism. The oldest organizations were started by African Americans. The first groups were the The National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) founded in 1947 and the Dearborn Realtist Board is the oldest African American Real Estate Trade Association founded in 1941 both in Chicago. NAR was opposed to the Fair Housing Act of 1968. NAR did not allow blacks to join until 1961. The fact that these non white organizations still exist show that they are still needed and wanted. While there is still racism in our country and real estate things have improved but there is a long ways to go.

As the business of real estate became more organized a system was needed to facilitate those transactions. Back in the day properties were listed for sale in the local newspapers. The closed sales were also listed in the newspapers. Some newspapers had full real estate sections every day or just on Sundays. Some included black and white and later even color photos. They were essentially the first Multiple Listing Service.

The Los Angeles Times was one of those early newspapers that listed those properties starting in 1881. At that same time real estate dealers, agents and offices would have print outs of all the properties they had offered for sale. They would post them at their offices on their windows besides in newspapers and real estate magazines around the country. They assembled them in three ring binders in their offices to show to prospective buyers and sellers. They would also exchange them with other real estate dealers whom they knew.

Eventually a few large real estate offices got together and decided to print them in one local monthly magazine type book for more wide scale marketing and exposure. These were the first dedicated Multiple Listing Services type books. The NAR started offering this MLS service in the 1960's. These paper books were used up until 1994-2000. Below are a couple of pages from one of those books. When I was an agent then broker they came out every other week I think and were about an inch thick for Los Angeles.

After around 1994 the data went digital with the advent of the common use of the Internet. First it was available via dial-up in real estate offices for text only. I used phone dial-up devices around 1984 to access the private intranet data, search by distinct computer codes then printed the listings out on dot matrix printers using continuous feed paper with the little holes on the side. Everything was later available fully online to Board and MLS members including photos. Later it was partially available to the general public as well. One still had to contact the listing agent to get access to the property and get all of the information to present an offer.

Today we have full home and property listings online which include lots of color photographs, diagrams, staged photos, plot plans, architectural renderings, videos and even 3-D tours. Nowadays you can search properties all over the world in different languages. You can even buy and sell the properties fully online as long as you get signatures notarized with proof of identification. We have definitely come a long way from land grands in old English cursive writing and newspaper ads.

Below is a sample list of active listings from an MLS search. Below that is a short detail listing of one property. None of these were any of my clients' properties.

References:

The Promise and Principles of Real Estate Development in an American Metropolis:

Los Angeles 1903 -1923
https://escholarship.org/content/qt9vx3c796/qt9vx3c796_noSplash_720a4c937cb8e9843f91bf2d4d59a00f.pdf?t=njnl9t

LATimes.com various articles