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 24, 2025

End of PAVE, DEI at HUD and How it Will Affect Appraisal Industry by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

Donald Trump is now the President. Now we find out what will really happen to appraisers, the appraisal industry and the real estate market. In the first week the PAVE Task Force website went down https://pave.hud.gov . Trump also declared that DEI in the federal government is gone. How will this affect us?

The PAVE Task Force released their report March 2022 and nothing really changed. It didn't add any new laws or regulations that we didn't already have. Big deal the website is now down. All PAVE really did was promote the false narrative that all appraisers are allegedly racist, biased old white men that lowball blacks and Latinos. The PAVE Task Force was based on Andre Perry's totally debunked paper "The Devaluation of Assets in Black Neighborhoods" and book "Know Your Price." AEI clearly showed that appraisers don't lowball anyone. People who make less money have less money and buy/own less expensive homes in less expensive areas. Whites make more money than blacks, Latinos for a myriad of socioeconomic reasons. It's not based on race.

Getting rid of DEI at HUD and other Federal Departments will have a greater impact. I hope that HUD doesn't stop the current programs to try to recruit more POC and women to become appraisers. I personally feel we could use more POC and women. It won't change appraisal values or prevent anyone from being lowballed but it's a good thing nonetheless. If DEI ends those programs, I hope private organizations are able to take up the slack. Again, now is not the best time to be entering the appraisal field for any new appraiser. There's barely enough work for existing experienced appraisers. You need a minimum of three years of experience to do appraisals for loans.

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

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Animal Advocates, Mary Cummins Helping Los Angeles Fire Victims

Animal Advocates and its founder Mary Cummins have been helping victims of the January 2025 Los Angeles fires. We were in the Palisades fire evacuation area relocating owned pets that had to evacuate. Some of these people had to evacuate twice because the fire moved. The below pics are from one trip January 14, 2025.

Sunset west was closed at Kenter two blocks from Vice President Kamala Harris' home. 10 fwy west was closed at Lincoln Blvd. National guard, police, fire department, Dept of Transportation, Red Cross and many more people were helping to secure the area and offer aid.

Animal rescue groups are not yet allowed into the areas that have been damaged by the fire. The fire department has to inspect each home first to assess damage, check for bodies, turn off gas, turn off electric, turn off water and assess the safety of the structure. Animal groups are also not allowed in the evacuation zones without full property and animal owner permission and police escort. The purpose is to prevent looters and arsonists. It's also not safe in case the wind picks up and the fire moves quickly. The original fire had winds at 100 mph blowing burning embers over a mile.

Mary Cummins has lived in Los Angeles her entire life. Animal Advocates has experienced many wildfires during that time. Cummins has gone through the FEMA disaster animal response training. Cummins has also worked for HSUS NDART National Disaster Animal Rescue Team. Cummins, Animal Advocates aided EARS in past fires setting up pet evacuation areas and received a Certificate of Appreciation in 2003. Cummins also cared for wildlife and domestic pets injured by many past fires from smoke inhalation, burns, loss of habitat, loss of food and water sources. Huge fires spread by Santa Ana winds happen in Los Angeles, California.

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Mary Cummins

Sunday, January 12, 2025

Rental Price Gouging During Los Angeles Fires by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

People were talking about landlords price gouging after the Los Angeles fires. I searched MLS sold rentals for Los Angeles City five days before and after the fires. Median rents went from $3,800 to $4,800. I looked at some individual listings and saw them relisted higher after the disaster. Other agents saw the same. It's illegal to charge more than 10% higher price during a disaster. This is 20%. #pricegouging #losangeles #losangelesfires #fires #marycummins hashtag#realestateappraiser

The MLS just posted this to all agents logging into the system. What is "fair market value" for rental housing per HUD for luxury mansions? These mansions rent for $25,000-$200,000 per month furnished or unfurnished.

They've since added a link to that message below.

https://info.vestaplus.net/cawildfires

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Mary Cummins

Friday, January 10, 2025

Houses at 750 Iliff, 18860 PCH Survived Fires Because they were Passive Construction by Mary Cummins Real Estate appraiser

A passive home built in 2024 located at 750 Iliff, Pacific Palisades, California survived the fires which destroyed the surrounding homes. It is mandatory green design because it's newer. It's a passive house with super insulated envelope, air tight construction, high performance glazing, thermal bridge free detailing and more. All these elements which save energy by keeping heat, cool air in also keep embers, fire, smoke out. There is minimal landscaping, block walls and a metal roof. We can build to prevent houses from burning down in fires. Before and after. It's time to make all homes more fire proof in wildfire areas. The owner Chris Ottinger remodeled/rebuilt at the perfect time. Green construction is mandatory for new construction. The architect was Greg Chasen. It's near intersection of Sunset Blvd and Chautauqua. As I look at it the roof is angle perfectly for Santa Ana winds to blow over it which blow to the sea. There are also no exposed eaves.

The home at 18860 Pacific Coast Highway PCH, Malibu also survived the fire. It was listed for almost $10M in 2023. It was listed for lease in 2024 for $50,000/mo 4 bed, 4 bath 3,896 sf. It was built in 2000 which means mandatory green construction. Green construction also helps prevent the home from burning down. Owner David Steiner.

#PassiveHouse #marycummins #realestateappraiser #realestateappraisal #fires #fireproofhome #fireproofconstruction #PalisadesFire

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Mary Cummins

Friday, December 13, 2024

Appraisal Institute States FHFA Study is Deeply Flawed, Comments by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

Appraisal Institute states FHFA "study" is flawed. The "study" also used the Zillow Home Value Index aka Zestimate which includes tax assessor data, MLS listings, public data, info provided by alleged property owners... The data, analysis and conclusions are all flawed. GIGO, Garbage In Garbage Out. No one would ever publish their paper in a peer reviewed journal for those reasons yet the government sends it out as "factual research." Biased. #appraisalinstitute #FHFA #zillow #zestimatefails #Zestimate #marycummins #realestateappraiser #realestateappraisal

From the article.

"A study on the use of time adjustments by appraisers conducted by two researchers at the Federal Housing Finance Agency in November contains serious flaws that misrepresent the appraisal process and further demonize the appraisal profession regarding racial bias. The study, Underappraisal Disparities and Time Adjustments to Comparable Sales Prices in Mortgage Appraisals, contends appraised values often fail to reflect rapidly increasing home prices in competitive markets. It further casts housing equity concerns, claiming that time adjustments are used less in curing “underappraisal” in majority Black and Hispanic neighborhoods than in major White neighborhoods. The study suggests appraisers should use automated valuation models and lenders should randomly assign appraisal orders to mitigate bias.

For one, the assumption that appraisals should perfectly mirror the pace of rising market prices oversimplifies the role of appraisers and the appraisal process. The study does not sufficiently account for the complexity of making time adjustments in markets with uneven price growth or where transaction volumes are low, limiting the availability of comparable sales.

The study also interprets caution by appraisers as “underappraisal,” when this may represent a prudent check against market volatility. In rapidly appreciating markets, appraisals may appear low compared to contract prices, but this could serve as a risk-mitigation tool, in protecting buyers from overpaying during speculative bubbles.

Further, the research ignores critical dynamics of the appraisal process in how comparable sales may be accounted for by appraisers in the narrative section of appraisals. For example, in some markets, a market change might occur with an increase of as much as 1% per month. Therefore, a comparable sale that is as recent as 2 or 3 months ago, could require a 2% or 3% positive adjustment to the sale price. On the other hand, with a market that is moving at a mere 3% a year, then a three-month old sale would correspond to only a .75% adjustment. An appraiser might well not apply such adjustment, as it could be argued as being of virtual rounding error. An appraiser might well handle the issue in the reconciliation of the three to four or more comparable sales presented in the sales comparison approach, which is completely overlooked by the study.

There may be a myriad of other factors at play. For instance, and for whatever reason, an appraiser’s analysis could indicate that one of the comparable sales sold on the “high” side. Applying a time adjustment for an above-the-market sale, while requiring explanation, might not be appropriate at all.

The study also leans heavily on the use of automated valuation model information from Zillow, which has its own credibility and accuracy problems."

Read the rest at the link.

Link to article

https://www.appraisalinstitute.org/cmspages/newsletters/getemailbrowsercontent.ashx?issueGuid=a47d3875-adac-4c06-976f-a74cf075c4f3&recipientEmail=adomatis%40hotmail.com&hash=dee4bfd3032a0548215443494269a5ad0ce160df6bf2e9f5eb5bd5cbc41fc36a&utm_source=ainewsletter_appraisal_now_20241213_a_b&utm_campaign=ainewsletter&utm_medium=email&fbclid=IwY2xjawHJbQtleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHRhQEY41enGI_9PE2g1aIpBP89mxTLlgApt8kVLq_Amh_Gru75czg-oGFw_aem_RMT7BVcsvwnhpT-8Tkl0FA

Link to the flawed FHFA "study" "Underappraisal Disparities and Time Adjustments to Comparable Sales Prices in Mortgage Appraisals" by William M. Doerner, Scott Susin, November 2024. Working Paper 24-07

https://www.fhfa.gov/sites/default/files/2024-11/wp2407.pdf

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Mary Cummins

Friday, December 6, 2024

Taking a Listing in Probate and Trust webinar by Paul Horn Attorney, notes by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

I attended a webinar given by California probate estate attorney Paul Horn. It was very informative and entertaining. Paul Horn Esq definitely knows wills, trusts, probate and real estate. He gave some great advice which I've actually heard from other estate attorneys.

It's important to order a date of death historical appraisal to determine market value at time of death. Paul Horn stated it's well worth the $500 cost. One person asked if they must sell the property for the appraisal value. He said "of course not." Sell it for what you believe is the highest current market value.

In order to sell a home in probate you will need three main things i.e., Order for Probate, Letters, Notice of Proposed Action. These are all legal forms which can be found at lacourt.org He posted samples but they had names so I won't repost them. A real estate agent would get these items from the attorney handling the probate, estate. The real estate agent does not fill them out. The attorney does.

This is the California Probate Process.

The best thing is to avoid probate altogether. It will save you time, money and headaches. Get a will and a trust. Put the property in the trust. Make sure not to put the name of your heirs on the deed. Put the name of the trust only. This image shows the benefits of a trust versus a will. If you only have a will, you have to go through probate.

These are the essentials of good estate planning.

A married couple should take ownership as community property to avoid extra taxes.

Here is one of Paul Horn's videos on the probate process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZtMW7hlH-c

You should have an attorney handle your will and trust. This is not legal advice. I am not an attorney. I would recommend Paul Horn to handle trusts, wills and probate. He knows what he's talking about. I've been doing historical date of death appraisals for over 40 years. I've had to deal with estates and probates so I've dealt with many estate and planning attorneys.

@paulhornesq https://www.paulhornlawfirm.com/

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Mary Cummins

Sunday, December 1, 2024

CLAW MLS Allows Agents to Remove Photos at Close of Sale by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser Los Angeles

Combined Los Angeles Westside Multiple Listing Services CLAW MLS via Vesta Plus allows all subject photos except main photo to be removed, unpublished from the listing when the property is sold. It's for privacy reasons which I totally understand. Seeing the condition of the listed and sold comparables is such a vital data source for real estate appraisers. I wrote an email to the MLS asking if there is a way real estate appraisers could view the photos .

"I received notice yesterday that all photos except one main photo could be removed from the MLS when the sale closes. As a real estate appraiser this will be a huge loss of data and information. It will affect the appraisals of all homes if we can't see the condition, upgrades or amenities of the comparables.

Is there a way for appraisers to access the hidden photos for appraisals? We can agree never to post the photos publicly."

CLAW MLS response.

"Thank you for your email and we understand your concerns. Please note that as of right now, selling agents do already remove all photos except the main one once a listing is sold. Unfortunately, once the photos are unpublished, there is no way to retrieve them.

Removing all photos is a very common request as selling agents are constantly being asked by the new owners to remove photos due to safety concerns."

Someone commented on LinkedIn that the photos would still be on Zillow. Only if the owner doesn't request their removal. You can remove all photos of a house you claim to own.

It may be a good idea for appraisers to print out the MLS listing of comps used with photos for the work file in case there are questions later. Click print, with photos, save as pdf.

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Mary Cummins

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

Friday, January 24, 2025

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Sunday, January 12, 2025

Friday, January 10, 2025

Friday, December 13, 2024

Friday, December 6, 2024

Sunday, December 1, 2024