CampusMBA Extends Partnership With Insurance Advisors for Online Education
Clayton Holdings to Offer Special Compliance Servicing Through Its Quantum Division Clayton Holdings LLC, a provider of customized risk analysis, loss mitigation, operational solutions and staffing services to the mortgage and fixedincome industries, has announced that its Quantum Servicing unit is now offering a full-range of loan administration and asset management services to
Is local knowledge required to perform a creditable appraisal? Some say yes, and in principal, I agree. To be more succinct, I would prefer subscribing to the term possessing adequate local market information. Generally, the term “local knowledge” is used because it makes doing an appraisal easy. One does not have a need to do nearly so much market research when local knowledge is available. Said another way, local knowledge is cheaper and quicker than exhaustive research. Finally, once the proper research has been completed, those from outside the market will possess the necessary local knowledge to perform a creditable appraisal. While geographic unfamiliarity offers the traveling appraiser a challenge, perhaps one of the biggest obstacles for the appraiser to overcome in less developed areas, whether one is local or from out of town, is finding a source of reliable market data. In many localities, the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) is foreign to the vocabulary of local real estate practitioners, and having access to an online property tax database is either non-existent or not readily available. In these markets, data is usually horded by a few people who have small snippets of information, which they develop firsthand from transactions they handle. In these cases, they are among the few who know about specific transactions; however, there are tons of transactions that they just do not know about. In these situations, everyone suffers, since no one can know about the entire market. This makes for a less efficient system and produces fewer professional appraisers who have complete knowledge of the local market. This problem seems to be less of an issue for local banks in these areas. Perhaps this is because they do not have the same appraisal requirements as do banks in the United States. Given the above scenario, my challenge in Costa Rica was not just my unfamiliarity with the market, but my need to obtain information in a timely and cost-efficient manner. Fortunately, I was able to befriend three of the most active real estate brokers in the local
market and they helped me get up to speed quickly on what was happening in their market. Another challenge in such markets is the language barrier. U.S. lenders expect their appraisals to be delivered in English, even if the property is located in a land where few, if any, people, who refer to themselves as appraisers, read, write and speak English. Since all public records in Costa Rica are written in Spanish, this necessitates a bit of translating. Along the same line, the local money is not measured in U.S. dollars. There, it is measured in colones, a completely different medium from what we are accustomed to. At the time of my visit, a U.S. dollar was worth 516 colones. This required translation and further calculation. In the end, the boundaries between countries offer challenges to those making mortgage loans, regardless of who does the appraisal. This will almost always equate to a more expensive, timeconsuming and complicated appraisal assignment, no matter who does the work. In foreign countries, there will sometimes be local professionals competent enough to provide professional appraisals which conform to the standards of the lending community in the United States, but usually not. The difficulties in appraising internationally, created by lack of accessible market data, local customs, language, different monetary systems and related issues, make for an interesting stew frequently favoring the travel of United States professionals over hiring local appraisers in parts of the world that do not conform to the requirements of our own system. In closing, I would like for the record to show that the country of Costa Rica is a beautiful place, and that it is understandable why those fortunate enough to have property there do so. Charlie W. Elliott Jr., MAI, SRA, is president of Elliott & Company Appraisers, a national real estate appraisal company. He can be reached at (800) 854-5889, e-mail charlie@elliottco.com or visit his company’s Web site, www.appraisalsanywhere.com.
NATIONWIDE APPRAISAL MANAGEMENT CENTER
866-396-6260 www.hvccappraisalordering.com EMAIL: orders@hvccappraisalordering.com I REAL TIME COMMUNICATION OF APPRAISAL STATUS I NATIONWIDE SERVICE WITH LOCAL APPRAISERS IN ALL COUNTIES I IMMEDIATE SERVICE FROM QUALIFIED STAFF I COMPETITIVE FEES I OFFERING "REALVIEW" THE MOST ADVANCED UNDERWRITING AND GRADING SYSTEM IN THE INDUSTRY I QUALITY APPRAISALS AND REVIEW I STAFFED BY APPRAISERS WITH OVER 150 YEARS COMBINED EXPERIENCE
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JANUARY 2011
Equifax has announced that it is working with BlackBox Logic to give investors greater transparency into borrower credit health. ABS Credit Risk Insight Direct, Equifax’s data solution for the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) market, now leverages BlackBox Logic performance data on more than 21 million loans across nearly 7,600 deals. By linking anonymous borrower credit information to BlackBox Logic’s extensive MBS performance data, ABS Credit Risk provides a more complete picture of the collateral health underlying non-agency MBS.
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NEVADA MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE
Equifax and BlackBox Logic Partner on Borrower Credit Transparency Product
value nation
NationalMortgageProfessional.com
CampusMBA, the award-winning education division of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), has announced that it has extended its partnership with Stamford, Conn.-based Insurance Advisors LLC. Under the agreement, CampusMBA, in conjunction with Insurance Advisors, will offer live online workshops addressing insurance issues for commercial/multifamily real estate loans. “MBA remains committed to offering a wide variety of industry education and this partnership with Insurance Advisors illustrates our continued commitment to these efforts as we offer focused classes on commercial insurance issues that are so vital to our commercial and multifamily members,” said Gail Cardwell, MBA’s senior vice president of commercial/multifamily. Each workshop will cover both broad topics as well a specific issues that industry professionals face on a daily basis. The workshops are designed to provide practical information that is useful to commercial/multifamily loan originators and underwriters, loan closers, drafting attorneys and loan servicers. “The Commercial Insurance LIVE Online Workshops are a great resource for our members to enhance their knowledge base through the expertise provided by CampusMBA and Insurance Advisors,” said Paul Green, MBA’s senior Vice President of corporate relations, education and business development. “We are delighted to renew our joint venture with MBA to put on Live Online Workshops related to commercial real estate insurance. This has been a great partnership and we look forward to our third year together in this endeavor,” said Bernie Brown, president of Insurance Advisors LLC. “We are committed to providing superior educational assistance to MBA members and we are proud the MBA has chosen to continue our partnership with them.” For more information, visit www.mortgagebankers.org or www.ins-adv.com.
This relationship represents the latest step Equifax Capital Markets has taken to equip investors with powerful data solutions. ABS Credit Risk Insight provides leading indicators of loan performance such as updated credit scores and detail on all mortgage and home equity payments, owner-occupancy and performance on past mortgages. Now, Equifax’s solution statistically matches up-to-date borrower credit information to BlackBox Logic’s database of MBS performance data to help investors improve model accuracy, better predict loan default and prepayment and enhance deal surveillance. “More than ever before, investors are focused on addressing industry and policy requirements while looking for ways to increase their confidence in the collateral behind securities. This is where solutions that provide transparency into collateral risk play a critical role,” said Steve Albert, vice president of Equifax Capital Markets. “The combined strength of Equifax’s industry-leading solution and BlackBox Logic’s extensive loan-level MBS data gives investors the insight they need to better predict securitized loan performance and make more confident trading decisions.” In addition to making ABS Credit Risk Insight available to investors using various types of loan-level data, Equifax continues to find new ways to enhance its data solutions for the secondary market. Over the past year, Equifax has added several new and unique data variables to its ABS Credit Risk product line, including owneroccupancy and bankruptcy indicators as well as the FICO credit score and the FICO Mortgage Industry Option known as the BEACON Mortgage Score. VantageScore, a consumer credit scoring model developed by Equifax and the other major credit reporting companies, is also available through ABS Credit Risk Insight Direct. “Equipping investors with tools that allow them to conduct more granular analysis of collateralized mortgage obligations is essential for this industry,” said Wyck Brown, chief marketing officer of BlackBox Logic. “Working together, we are delivering to the secondary market powerful solutions that leverage very unique data attributes and highly accurate risk models.” For more information, visit www.equifax.com or www.bbxlogic.com.