Early Bird Deadline Approaching for the AI Annual Meeting
If you haven't registered for the Appraisal Institute's Annual Meeting already, take advantage of the early bird registration deadline of May 18. |
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False Appraisals Part of $20 Million Mortgage Scheme
Five people were charged with using allegedly fraudulent documents and appraisals and inflated purchase prices to obtain mortgages for more than 100 Philadelphia properties, a scheme that resulted in $20 million in fraudulent loan proceeds, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Valuation Review reported April 22. |
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FHA Wants to Boot Bad Lenders, Pursue Claims
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development wants the Federal Housing Administration to be able to kick out bad lenders from its single-family program and has been pressuring Congress to allow it to do so, National Mortgage News reported April 22. |
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Banks Now Walking Away From Homes
Banks have begun walking away from thousands of vacant properties after beginning foreclosure and then dropping the cases because they don’t want to be on the hook for maintaining abandoned properties, National Mortgage News reported April 24. |
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At 1,400 Homes, Blackstone Makes its Largest Bulk Purchase
Private-equity firm Blackstone Group bought 1,400 homes in Atlanta — its largest ever bulk purchase of residential properties — that will be added to its portfolio of single-family rental homes, National Mortgage News reported April 25. |
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A Special Welcome To Our Newest Associate
We are pleased to welcome Ryan Milligan to Trainee Associate Membership in the Appraisal Institute!
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IRS Streamlines Process for Claiming Home Office Deductions
The Internal Revenue Service announced Jan. 15 a simplified option that many owners of home-based businesses and certain home-based workers may use to calculate their deductions for the business use of their homes. The new option will be available beginning with the 2013 return that’s filed in early 2014. |
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New Appraisal Standards Approved for Higher-Risk Mortgages
A new rule passed Jan. 15 gives mortgage lenders an additional year to institute appraisal standards for higher-risk loans, Bloomberg reported. The extension is one of the revisions that regulators made to the Dodd-Frank Act to address concerns from financial firms. |
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Appraisal Institute Designates 515 Members in 2012
The Appraisal Institute announced Jan. 15 that it designated 515 Members in 2012, a 73 percent increase over 2011 and the most new designations conferred since 1994. Of those, 427 received the MAI designation and 88 received the SRA designation. |
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A Special Welcome To Our Newest Members
Congratulations to Sean M. McDonald, MAI from Baton Rouge, LA who was awarded his MAI designation. He is employed with Cook, Moore, & Associates. The chapter would also like to congratulate Janis M. Bonura, SRA from Metairie, LA who was awarded her SRA designation. She is employed with Murphy Appraisal Services as a Staff Appraiser. |
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