“What you can do with these photos” is provocative. I wrote it to get your attention. Appraisal reports contain photos. This is not a USPAP requirement. Nor is it a Fannie Mae requirement. Really, it is the lender’s requirement. They familiarize the lender with the subject. So, what is so controversial about photos in an appraisal report?

Know for certain that USPAP has no inspection requirement or standard. Without this, it has no standards for photos, either. What photos does Fannie Mae want? She wants photos of the front, back, and street. Maybe even one or two photos of the neighborhood. But why, then, do we provide the other photos? All of those other photos are the requirements of individual lenders. OK. That’s a major pain-in-the-butt. But we’re at the property, so we take the pictures. No big deal. And, generally, we like to get paid.

But “what you can do with these photos” keeps popping up. OK, what can you do with them? Recently an appraiser asked me a great question. In this time of Covid-19, could he inspect the subject merely by looking at photos of the interior? It was his conclusion that such an inspection, properly disclosed, was as acceptable as a personal inspection. Nevertheless, this is not “what you can do with these photos”. USPAP assumes that if you have certified to a personal inspection, you have inspected it personally. Under USPAP you do not have to inspect the subject. But then you have to disclose you did not inspect it. And, if you do not put boots-in-the-living room, don’t certify that you did.

So, yes there is a lot of “what you can do with these photos”. Just don’t misrepresent what you did or did not do with them.