Newz: Cyber Attack Risk for Appraisers,
Avoiding Court: A Common Sentiment Among Appraisers
May 1, 2026
What’s in This Newsletter (In Order, Scroll Down)
- LIA AD: Avoiding Court: A Common Sentiment Among Appraisers
- Cyber Insurance: Why It’s Time for Appraisers to Protect Themselves By Isaac Peck, Senior Broker at OREP.org
- Electrochemist’s Exclusive Private Island Escape With 9-Hole Golf Course and Helipad Hits the Market in Florida for $89 Million
- Hype Heretics – Twisting the narrative to create hype. By JoAnn Apostol
- MY AD: What is a Good Appraiser?
- April 2026 Housing Insights: A Market Searching for Stability, By Kevin Hecht, Appraiser and Economist
- A new Scope of Work, By George Dell, MAI
- MBA: Mortgage applications decreased 1.6 percent from one week earlier
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Cyber Insurance: Why It’s Time for Appraisers to Protect Themselves
By Isaac Peck, Senior Broker at OREP.org
Excerpts: You log in, expecting to send a report or check your schedule for the coming week, only to find your system locked, client files gone, and a message blinking on the screen:
“YOUR FILES ARE ENCRYPTED
To regain access, you must pay a ransom. Do not attempt to decrypt or modify the files yourself.
Any unauthorized action will result in permanent data loss.
Payment instructions are below. You have 72 hours.”
Directly below the words, a clock begins counting down.
You feel panic setting in.
To make matters worse, you had committed to delivering a rush appraisal to the lender/AMC this morning for a time-sensitive closing. You can’t access reports, contact clients, or meet deadlines. You’re losing money, time, and worst of all, your clients’ trust.
Directly below the words, a clock begins counting down.
This type of mentality only compounds the problem. According to recent national data, more than half of U.S. cyberattacks now target small businesses, not large corporations. Firms with fewer than 100 employees are significantly more likely to be targeted than larger companies, largely because they lack dedicated IT staff, formal security protocols, and incident-response plans. In other words, they’re easier targets.
The financial consequences are not theoretical. According to Verizon’s 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report, small business data breaches can cost anywhere from $120,000 to over $1.2 million, depending on severity. Other industry studies released this summer put the average cost of a single cyber incident at roughly $25,000—far more than most appraisal businesses can absorb without serious disruption.
Unique Risks for Appraisers
Home appraisers face unique cyber risks that make them especially vulnerable to digital attacks. Unlike larger firms with dedicated IT teams, most appraisers operate as solo practitioners or small businesses.
Nevertheless, even the smallest appraisal offices handle highly sensitive data every day: property details, borrower information, lender communications, and access credentials all flow through their systems, often via unsecured emails or cloud-based platforms.
The Role of Insurance
When a cyber incident hits, speed matters. For appraisers, the real damage often isn’t just the ransom demand or the technical cleanup—it’s the downtime, the missed deadlines, and the loss of client confidence that follows.
Cyber insurance exists to help businesses recover quickly and responsibly. For appraisers, that means having access to technical experts who can investigate what happened, contain the breach, and restore systems so work can resume. It also means guidance on how to communicate with lenders, clients, and other parties if sensitive information is compromised.
To read more, Click Here
My comments: Read this article. I have received information from several appraiser E and and O companies about cyber insurance. And read about the risks online. This article is definitely the best I have read as it explains the details of what a cyber attack means for appraisers. Since it was from an E and O carrier I did not know how much useful information it had. I’m glad I read it and wrote about it.
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Exclusive Private Island Escape With 9-Hole Golf Course and Helipad Hits the Market in Florida for $89 Million
Excerpts: 6 bedrooms, 10.5+ baths, 11,371 sq.ft., 104 acre lot, built in 1928
104-acre private island retreat in Florida that was once home to revered inventor and electrochemist Charles Frederick Burgess has hit the market for the eye-watering price of $89 million—and in doing so, has pioneered its way to the top of the week’s most expensive homes list.
Burgess, who died in 1945, was an innovator of dry-cell battery technology and is said to have hosted Thomas Edison at the property—where banyan trees planted by the light bulb creator can still be found today.
It has changed hands on only a few occasions since Burgess’ family inherited the estate and was most recently purchased by wellness company founder Mark Pentecost, who paid just $14.5 million for the stunning island retreat in 2015.
Designed as a legacy compound, the exclusive getaway, which is also known as Little Bokeelia Island and Pentecost Island, could also be used as a corporate retreat or investment estate with 29 developable lots.
Over-the-top amenities include a helipad; a private nine-hole golf course; pickleball, tennis, and basketball courts; and four boat docks.
To read the listing with 46 photos and an aerial view, Click Here
My comments: lots of amenities, including pickleball courts!!
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Hype Heretics
Twisting the narrative to create hype.
By JoAnn Apostol
Excerpts: It always amazes me that there are some that will take a very simple, well-intentioned event and use it to rile up the masses. I can’t tell you how many people reached out to me after a certain blog post with a diatribe regarding a simple fundraising event to benefit appraisers. For me, I still wonder why people hang on to these negative posts, comments and blogs!
After that period, I looked outside of what I could find and became active in a national appraisal organization.
This gave me even more perspective on the group I call the “grumpy old appraisers.” I know, that sounds like a horrible group to be in, right? The key word is “grumpy!” I’ve come across both young and old that fall into this category. We can call them the “Negative Nellies,” or any name you prefer. This appraisal business is a tough business, so I understand some of the negativity. We are the great profession to be blamed for some of the biggest economic crises the nation and world has endured. The current changing environment has every one of us worrying about something.
It’s out there – as an appraiser, with the license title published, this author just blasted a well-intentioned fundraising event for appraisers to twist the narrative for personal causes. Advocacy at its finest! Does it necessarily violate any laws? Maybe; maybe not. However, It does much worse, it erodes the profession! Now, under the public eye for all to see, a personal agenda has created a chaotic mess with a new following that believes every last word!
To read more, Click Here
My comments: I started using online web based discussion groups when they were first available. Unfortunately, many groups attracted people who posted very negative comments. I learned to not follow them. I only followed positive oriented groups.
All the appraiser groups I use do not allow negative and political rants and definitely no personal attacks.
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What is a Good Appraiser?
In the October, 2024 issue of Appraisal Today
Everyone has a different opinion of a “good” appraiser – clients, review appraisers, AMCs, other appraisers, regulators, etc.
In this article, I discuss what clients want and what appraisers see as good
appraisers. Sometimes they are very similar and sometimes not.
Appraiser Ethics
There two types of appraisers – honest and ethical or give them what they
want (for both residential and commercial). I was trained at an assessor’s office to be ethical and give my unbiased opinion of value.
Whether you can learn to be ethical or are trained that way when you are
young is a somewhat controversial topic.
GSEs
They want appraisers to comply with their ever changing “guidelines”.
Appraisals with relatively few “revisions” are needed to not slow down the
turnaround.
GSEs have always said they want good appraisals, which are needed for
accurate values to reduce buy backs. However, their computerized “reviews” are not always accurate.
Appraiser Opinions of Who is a Good Appraiser
Who is a good appraiser (honest and competent)?
Who do you call when you have an appraisal question? I bet it’s a name from
a short list. This article focuses on what makes those appraisers the people yo when you have a problem.
To read the full article, plus 3+ years of previous issues, subscribe to the paid Appraisal Today at www.appraisaltoday.com
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April 2026 Housing Insights: A Market Searching for Stability
By Kevin Hecht, Appraiser and EconomistExcerpts: The spring housing market was expected to bring clarity and momentum. Instead, April has delivered a more complicated picture. Inventory is improving in many areas, mortgage rates have shown some modest relief, and pricing pressure is beginning to ease in certain segments.At the same time, buyer confidence remains uneven, builder sentiment has declined, and inflation has reemerged as a meaningful constraint on the market.Topics
- Inflation Is Back in the Conversation
- Mortgage Rates and the Confidence Problem
- Construction Trends Signal Caution Ahead
- Inventory Is Improving, But, the Market Remains Uneven
- The Human Appraiser as a Macroeconomic Stabilizer
This is not a market in decline, but it is one that lacks a clear direction. For appraisers, that distinction matters. Markets that are transitioning rather than collapsing tend to produce mixed signals, and those signals require careful interpretation rather than broad conclusions.
What This Means for Practice
April is not a market that rewards shortcuts or broad assumptions. It is a market that requires careful analysis, particularly when it comes to timing, concessions, and local conditions.Appraisers should pay close attention to the relationship between contract and closing dates, as well as to any incentives or financing adjustments that may influence transaction prices.
Market condition adjustments should be supported with clear, localized data, and narratives should reflect the complexity of current conditions rather than relying on generalized trends.To read more, Click Here
My comments: Which of this applies to your market? This is the only blog post on economic conditions and what they mean for appraisers and the only one I always read. Lots of good advice and analysis
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A new Scope of Work
By George Dell, MAI
Excerpts: A new Scope of Work may require a better, modernized analysis – Intelligence Appraisal. Intelligence Appraisal (IA) combines AI with human intelligence, built on the science of valuation.The new UAD reports enable and even require a new appraisal development competence.Scope of Work, simply put, means the appraiser must: 1) Identify the problem; and 2) Determine the solution. (Non-appraiser valuers of course do not need to do any of this.)Appraisers have been taught there are four “topic areas” of Scope.
Property identification
Property inspection
Type and extent of data researched
Type and extent of analyses applied
Traditional appraisal education does not make clear whether ‘scope’ is a plan or intention to a solution. Or, if ‘scope’ addresses “what was done and what was not done.” [The Appraisal of Real Estate.]
Some of this is because a specific “Scope of Reporting” does not exist in current appraisal theory or standards. Only be credible, sufficient, appropriate, and not misleading. (A topic for a coming blog.)In USPAP, the problem identification part includes: client/users, use, value definition, date, subject and features, and any assignment conditions.
Scope of Work “acceptability” means the appraiser must meet users’ expectations! And to do what other appraisers would do (right or wrong).
The only test of all this is that the work be credible – “worthy of belief” — right or wrong. Oh yeah – and don’t be biased …To read more, Click Here
My comments: This is George Dell’s first blog post on this topic. Go to the link above to read this post and other posts on this topic. This is a part of a series on Appraisal Intelligence.
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HOW TO USE THE NUMBERS BELOW. Appraisals are ordered after the loan application. These numbers tell you the future for the next few weeks. For more information on how they are compiled, Click Here.
Note: I publish a graph of this data every month in my paid monthly newsletter, Appraisal Today. For more information or get a FREE sample go to www.appraisaltoday.com/order Or call 510-865-8041, MTW, 7 AM to noon, Pacific time.
My comments: Rates are going up and down. We are all waiting for rates to drop lower in 2027.
Mortgage applications decreased 1.6 percent from one week earlier,
WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 29, 2026) — Mortgage applications decreased 1.6 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending April 24, 2026.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 1.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 1 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 4 percent from the previous week and was 51 percent higher than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 1 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 2 percent compared with the previous week and was 21 percent higher than the same week one year ago.
“Mortgage rates increased slightly last week, with the 30-year fixed rate rising to 6.37 percent. The increase in rates led to a 4 percent decline in refinance application volume. However, purchase activity for conventional loans picked up almost 2 percent for the week,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s SVP and Chief Economist. “More notably, purchase application activity was more than 20 percent above last year’s pace. After a brief pause, in part because of the elevated geopolitical uncertainties, potential homebuyers certainly appear to be moving forward this spring and taking advantage of the more favorable inventory conditions in most parts of the country.”
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 42.5 percent of total applications from 44.2 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 8.3 percent of total applications.The FHA share of total applications decreased to 17.2 percent from 18.2 percent the week prior. The VA share of total applications remained unchanged at 15.0 percent from the week prior. The USDA share of total applications remained unchanged at 0.5 percent from the week prior.The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($832,750 or less) increased to 6.37 percent from 6.35 percent, with points remaining unchanged at 0.61 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The effective rate increased from last week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with jumbo loan balances (greater than $832,750) increased to 6.45 percent from 6.43 percent, with points decreasing to 0.38 from 0.45 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate remained unchanged from last week.The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages backed by the FHA decreased to 6.09 percent from 6.10 percent, with points remaining unchanged at 0.71 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.77 percent from 5.75 percent, with points decreasing to 0.63 from 0.69 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate remained unchanged from last week.The average contract interest rate for 5/1 ARMs increased to 5.66 percent from 5.48 percent, with points increasing to 0.96 from 0.89 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.The survey covers U.S. closed-end residential mortgage applications originated through retail and consumer direct channels.
The survey has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks, thrifts, and credit unions. Base period and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100.
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Ann O’Rourke, MAI, SRA, MBA
Appraiser and Publisher
Appraisal Today
1826 Clement Ave. Suite 203 Alameda, CA 94501
Phone: 510-865-8041
Email: ann@appraisaltoday.com
Online: www.appraisaltoday.com
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