The first time Richard Hagar, SRA, ran the numbers, he couldn’t believe it. So he ran the numbers again. Then he passed them to a colleague, who got the same answer: 12,346 appraisals fail every week.

Home AppraisalHagar, an appraiser and fraud profiler with American Home Appraisals, was so blown away by the numbers he wrote a lengthy blog post on the subject. In researching the post, Hagar said several numbers stood out to him, and one goal of his post was to inform and educate other appraisers.

“The number one stat was that so many of the failed appraisals didn’t have a value listed,” Hagar said.

In the 6-month period he researched, 321,000 appraisals failed. Of those, 58,000 failed because no value was listed or the value submitted was in question. How is that possible?

“Part of that is the technology,” said Hagar. “When appraisers input their numbers via several web portals, it doesn’t always get transferred to the end user (or Fannie Mae). This is why I always tell appraisers to keep a copy of your completed appraisal for your records.”

However, many of those failures came from appraisers not entering the value in the first place. It’s that type of carelessness that Hagar says appraisers need to be cognizant of as they work.

Speaking of appraisers, 207,000 appraisals in that 6-month period failed because records couldn’t verify an appraiser’s license. This can happen for a number of reasons. Hagar knew a colleague whose expiration date on his license didn’t match the date on computer records. However, many of the appraisers had an expired or revoked licenses and were still appraising.

“There is a lot of bad appraising going on out there,” Hagar said.

With so much bad news, it’s easy to think that the industry faces insurmountable issues. But Hagar said the future is bright for appraisers.

“Education is key,” Hagar said. “We’re getting a higher quality appraiser now. Just remember to not be complacent. Continue to learn and pay attention to your work.”