“USPAP and That Does Not Solve the Problem” is a strange title for a podcast right?  But it has a purpose.  In a past podcast, I showed a list of what you were not supposed to say to your state appraisal board.  Clearly, not a lot of appraisers paid attention to this.  How do I know?  Because the dumb stuff real estate appraisers still say to their state boards keeps coming into me.  You ask for an example?  Unfortunately, there are too many of them.  And, once you hear some of these responses, you’ll agree with me that they are dumb.

So, this title, “USPAP and That Does Not Solve the Problem”, applies to appraisers’ responses to state boards.  Now, at this point, let me make clear how incredibly stupid a typical response is.  Typically, the state sends you a letter (or an email) letting you know a complaint has come in.  In that communication the state asks for your cooperation, a copy of the appraisal, a copy of the workfile, and whatever else it wants to ask for.  It is a stupid response, and one that is altogether too typical, to ignore the letter.  Upon reading the letter, the appraiser’s response is something verbal such as, “This is bullshit!”, then something physical such as running the letter through the shredder, or simply deleting the email.  These actions indeed solve the problem.  But only temporarily.  And the problem that replaces this so-called solution is exponentially worse than the original problem.

Worse?  Yes, state appraisal boards tend to revoke the credentials of those appraisers who deign to defy them.  So, the title, “USPAP and That Does Not Solve the Problem” is an open invitation to comply with your state board’s request to solve the problem.  What’s so hard about that?