January 2011

ELLIOTT® PROMOTES HOLT AND WILLIAMS

ELLIOTT® & Company Appraisers has promoted Vice President and Client Services Director Carlyle Holt to the position of Vice President and General Manager and Review Appraiser George Williams to Director of Client Services.

Carlyle, a graduate of North Carolina State University in Economics, has spent most of his life in the home mortgage industry and holds a North Carolina Loan Officer License and a North Carolina Real Estate License. George, a graduate of the University of North Carolina with a B.S. in Industrial Relations, has been a North Carolina real estate appraiser for almost 25 years.

“Since joining our company both Carlyle and George have not only met, but also exceeded our expectations,” said Charlie Elliott, president of ELLIOTT® & Company Appraisers. “Promoting them to their respective new positions will make better use of their abilities and improve the management of our company.”

ELLIOTT® & Company Appraisers is a full service real estate appraisal management company that operates throughout the United States and beyond.


ELLIOTT® REGISTERED IN ALL AMC-REGULATED STATES

For more than 10 years, ELLIOTT® & Company Appraisers has been able to secure appraisals, evaluations, research, consultation and representation for real estate matters anywhere in the United States. We have been able to continue this despite the proliferation of appraisal management company (AMC) regulation that has taken place in many states.

At this writing, 20 states have passed laws that regulate AMCs. Some of these states charge high fees to the companies they are regulating. The cost of regulatory compliance to meet these new laws has discouraged some AMCs from operating in states that charge high fees. ELLIOTT® works diligently with each state in its continuing effort to meet every client’s needs.

“Our company remains committed to serving our clients in all 50 states of the United States,” said Charlie Elliott, MAI, SRA, ASA, and president of ELLIOTT® & Company Appraisers. “It is important for us to be able to serve our clients in all locations throughout the United States, and we are prepared to meet all regulatory requirements, nationwide, in order to make this possible.”


EXPERTS DISAGREE ON HOUSING PRICES IN 2011

Will housing prices increase, decrease or remain flat in 2011? The answer will come in time, of course, but if you want an answer now, it would depend upon which “expert” you ask. All three directions have professional housing analysts pointing their way.

Going up: Warren Buffet, the legendary billionaire investor, has gone on record for predicting the real estate decline will probably end in 2011.

“Prices will remain far below the bubble levels, of course, but for every seller hurt by this there will be a buyer who benefits,” Buffet was quotes as saying in the Wall Street Journal.

Lately, Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, has been strongly encouraging people, with money to do so, to invest in real estate. He points to high affordability, due to low prices and interest rates, and he expects inventory to decline because of lack of recent construction activity. Jim Cramer, a veteran stock market analyst and reporter, looks at the recent stock prices of housing related companies like Whirlpool, Lowe’s, Sherwin Williams and Ethan Allen.

“These stocks are screaming that sales for homes are going higher and that the value of homes is going higher, or people wouldn’t be throwing good money after bad,” Cramer wrote. “It’s not a question of when the housing recovery will occur but of how big it will be.”

Going down: Rick Sharga, a RealtyTrac senior vice president, has forecasted a 5% drop in average home prices during 2011 because of the foreclosure suspension in the wake of “robosigning” late last year. Daryl Jones, an analyst at investment-research company Hedgeye, points to tight credit standards and an 11-month supply of homes on the market (in November) and suspects that home prices will continue to decline, perhaps as much as 30% from their current levels.

Remaining flat: A December 22 report by Chris Isodore for CNNMoney.com stated, “Economists expect home prices to be essentially flat in 2011, with an anticipated rise of just 0.4%, a bit lower than in earlier forecasts. Five of the 21 economists who gave home-price forecasts are projecting prices to fall in 2011.”

The report, which was prepared by consulting 23 economists on different facets of the economy, noted that the 21 economists who offered predictions on housing predicted, on the average, home prices in increase 2.2% in 2012.


FREE LAND STILL OFFERED IN U.S.

The Homestead Act, initiated by the United States in 1862, gave people free land, primarily in the west. Those who met and accepted the conditions wound up settling about 10% of the country. While this country no longer gives land away, such generosity still exists here. Land giveaways now tend to take place in agricultural-based towns, with a population of less than 1,000. Most of the free land is located in the Midwest or the Great Plains states.

One such example is in Ellsworth County, Kansas, where free land is offered in the communities of Atwood, Ellsworth, Holyrood, Kanopolis, Lincoln, Marquette, Osborne, Plainville, Tescott and Wilson. In order to qualify for land in this county, through the Smokey Hill Development Corporation’s “Welcome Home Program,” one must promise to build a home of specified qualifications and follow up on that promise. Obviously, the recipients of the land would then become taxpayers, supporting the local infrastructure.

Other municipalities, willing to give away land to committed residents, are located in Alaska, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin. Muskeegan, Michigan, is willing to give land to companies that can produce industrial jobs, and Camden, Maine, is offering a 3.5 acre lot to a business that can generate tourism.


ASK MARTITIA

QUESTION:  Are appraisers required by USPAP to include their qualifications as part of the appraisal report?

MARTITIA:  No. States normally require information on the appraiser’s license, some professional appraisal organizations ask their members to list them on their reports, and sometimes clients request that this be done. The inclusion of qualifications and professional appraisal designations in the appraisal reports, however, has nothing to do with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice.

Martitia Mortimer, Elliott’s executive vice president, answers appraisal questions on a regular basis in Elliott Evaluation News.


QUOTES  

“It’s easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn’t.” – Martin Van Buren

“A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that’s unlocked and opens inwards, as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein

“Even I don’t wake up looking like Cindy Crawford.” – Cindy Crawford

“There’s one thing about baldness; it’s neat.” – Don Herold

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” – Zig Ziglar



 

 
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