The family returns

Dear Family and Friends,
This evening the house is once again full of noise and laughter. The family made its way home safely from Lake Tahoe with happy memories, stories and recovering muscles. Everyone is getting used to having more air to breath again after spending days at 7,700 feet.
I spent the day working and trying to refocus my life. I started the day off with a huge glass of lemon water and it felt good, my body said what is going on.
I took care of issues, finished an appraisal and then drove to WC to see a very cute condo in a beautiful complex. Then I found diesel for a low price and even at that a tank now costs over $30.
Then I headed to Livermore to shoot some comps.
I had started the day off by calling a person named Jason who had done a review of an appraisal I had written for a manufactured home in San Lorenzo. The review had rejected my appraisal and cut the value from $350 to $115,000. As I began to read the review I began to see the lack of awareness of appraising manufactured homes. So I picked up the phone and called him, I've never done that before in 22 years. An old man with very broken English answered and said I could not talk to Jason, he was not there. This afternoon as I was in Livermore working the phone rang and I knew by the heavy accent it was Jason. I asked him how many appraisals of manufactured homes he had reviewed before mine. He sheepishly answered that he had done one before. I told him I was considering sending the review to OREA, the state agency that issues our licenses and investigates appraiser mistakes and that seemed to get his attention. The more he talked the more I just felt sorry for him. When he got the assignment and realized that he did not know how to do the review the law says he should have declined the work and turned it back to the one who ordered it but no one wants to turn away work these days.

In the morning I'll write my rebuttal to the lender who I had prepared the appraisal for in the first place and I'll lay out what I know and what happened. Then we will see what takes place.

A few minutes from this call another person called who is a rep for a major lender. I had called to ask her opinion on how to reply to reviews on two reports from her company. She basically said that the underwriters in her company were starting to realize that the reviews they had been getting had problems and she said I had a fighting chance at refuting their meat cleaver approach to values. It was good to talk to her, she has been a friend in the industry for about 15 years, gave money when Nan walked for GIST so long ago in New York and has been a great help over the years. I have done appraisals on her own properties many times. In spite of what one would think, that there are thousands of lenders and underwriters it is actually a very small world. I learned early on that there is never a time when being rude or brash is a good idea. You never know when you will meet that person again in the business world. Christian courtesy is always a good idea no matter what the issue.

So life goes on. This evening I got to see and hold Kallie as she charged around her home playing and helping her mom unpack and there is Keanna out riding her bike and attempting to jump the curb. Steve was watering his landscaping which is in full bloom everywhere.

Tonight Jason and Jo are tucked away at a cabin in the mountains above Denver with Jo's family, sounds like fun.

Well the quiet is gone for now, replaced with noise and human interaction. Its very nice!

love to all

Tim