Newz: 3 Basic Requirements for UAD 3.6 Appraisal Reports, Good Facebook Page – UAD 3.6 Software
July 31, 2026
What’s in This Newsletter (In Order, Scroll Down)
- LIA AD: Limiting Liability to Third Parties
- The 3 Basic Requirements for Real Property Appraisal Reports (Updated for UAD 3.6) By Kevin Hecht
- Bay Area’s wildest house lists at $899K and just hit the market for the first time
- Am I Being Paranoid, or Is There Another Reason? By Richard Hagar, SRA – GSE data
- MY AD: Residential appraisal forms from the 1960s to today
- The Appraisal Fee Lawsuit AMCs Can’t Outrun
- DATE CORRECTION ON CONFERENCES in last week’s email
- Excellent Facebook Page for UAD 3.6 Software
- MBA STATS: Mortgage applications decreased 6.4 percent from one week earlier
The 3 Basic Requirements for Real Property Appraisal Reports (Updated for UAD 3.6) By Kevin Hecht, SRA
Excerpts: As a real property appraiser, you rely on appraisal reports to communicate your opinion of value. One of the most important principles in USPAP is also one of the most misunderstood: forms are not reports.
Filling out a form properly and completely does not automatically mean your report is USPAP-compliant. The content of the appraisal report, not its form or format, determines compliance.
That distinction has never mattered more than it does right now.
The static forms appraisers have relied on for decades, including the 1004, 1073, 1025, and 2055, are being retired and replaced by a single, dynamic, data-driven reporting structure.
This shift does not change the three foundational requirements of USPAP Standards Rule 2-1. But it does change how you meet them. Understanding that distinction is critical to your compliance and your credibility in the new reporting environment.
TOPICS
What Are the Three Basic Requirements for an Appraisal Report?
Standards Rule 2-1(a): Clearly, Accurately, and Not Misleading
SR 2-1(a) builds on the ETHICS RULE requirement that your appraisal reports must not be misleading. You satisfy this requirement by making sure you “clearly and accurately set forth the appraisal.”
As the saying goes, you must tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Under the legacy form-based system, appraisers added context and explanation through a free-form General Addendum, which provided flexibility when a standard data field did not fully capture the nuances of a particular property or assignment.
Under UAD 3.6, that flexibility is now built directly into the report structure itself through section-specific commentary fields, which keeps all relevant analysis organized and immediately accessible to reviewers.
Standards Rule 2-1(b): Sufficient Information for Intended Users
What changes under UAD 3.6 is where and how you provide that sufficient information
Standards Rule 2-1(c): Disclosing Assumptions, Extraordinary Assumptions, Hypothetical Conditions, and Limiting Conditions
How UAD 3.6 Supports USPAP Compliance
Preparing for UAD 3.6: Practical Steps for Appraisers
To read more, Click Here
My comments: Comprehensive, well written and worth reading.
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Bay Area’s wildest house lists at $899K and just hit the market for the first time
Excerpts: 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, 6,500 sq.ft.lot
Imagine you’re in a boat on San Francisco Bay, floating past the rocky cliffs of Point Richmond. All the homes you see along the ridgeline are enviable — their sunny exposures, their unobstructed water, bridge and mountain views — but your eyes will be drawn to one house in particular: the Lumiere House at 331 Western Drive. Standing apart from its neighbors in every way, this historic conical structure was built by architect Walter Thomas Brooks for himself and his family. Now, it’s for sale, asking $899,000.
About Lumiere House
Lumiere House was built by Walter Thomas Brooks and his family as their private residence. In quirky, quiet Pt Richmond, on an oceanfront lot that is beautifully terraced and landscaped. Surrounded by mature fruit trees, fish ponds, walls of ferns, and reflecting pools.
Brooks synthesized many of his design concepts into his home. Including: crystalline structures that refract light like a prism by making the walls of the home translucent. Earth shelter design focused on a small footprint, passive solar, and sleek lines that are copacetic with nature. Aerodynamic ship building sensibility seen in the built-in furniture, prow shaped front of the home, 2 mezzanines, and crow’s nest at the top.
To read the listing, Click Here
And see all the photos of this very unusual house!
My comments: I have appraised homes in Point Richmond, including homes on the cliff above the Bay, similar in location to the subject. Very unique area. I have also viewed homes when sailing by on my sailboat.
—————————————————————————Am I Being Paranoid, or Is There Another Reason?
By Richard Hagar, SRA
UAD 3.6 information required by GSEs and What it means
By Richard Hagar, SRA
Excerpts: The GSEs need more information than was previously supplied and as a result, on the URAR there are new fields (Samples below):
• Accessibility features (ADA).
• Type and width of the view.
• If a sale: the subject’s list price, original listing date, contract date, days on the market, and the MLS listing number.
• Special area for listing any personal property included in the price.
• Special area to list and describe concessions paid by anyone associated with the sale and its impact on value.
• Market data examples provided by Freddie Mac on the UAD 3.6 include graphs showing sales trends, median days on the market, absorption rates, and a breakdown of the year homes were built in the market area, etc.
• 21 new questions specific to accessory dwelling units including—Is the ADU legally rentable? (That’s a risky legal question.)
By my count there are at least 521 boxes for unique information on the SFR version of the URAR and more if it’s located in a PUD Plat, more if the subject is a manufactured home, and far more if it’s condominium or cooperative. (Does the HOA have any ongoing lawsuits?
Moving forward, there are information grabs that start to trigger paranoia but still must be included as part of the URAR (Samples below):
• What is the height of the front door threshold above the ground?
• Is the primary heating system located below grade?
• Identify the ceiling type in every room. They have nine+ different types listed including flat, vaulted, tray, coffered, barrel, etc.
• Ceiling height and condition.
• When requested by the client, the total square footage of the windows for manufactured homes (Some lenders may also ask for this for site-built homes).
• When specifically requested by a client, the structure’s volume, including finished and unfinished space for outbuildings.
All the 521+ fields of information, plus photographs, will be delivered to the GSEs, you know the ones owned by the Federal Government. I wonder what they could do with that. Could the information be used to estimate your wealth, determine your political stance or tweak your taxes? Boy wouldn’t the local county tax assessor love that interior data?
While I’m trying to keep you safe out there, maybe I’m being paranoid. Or is there just a chill running down my spine?
To read more, Click Here
My comments: Read this article! Richard has been writing, teaching, etc. for a long time and is very savvy.
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Residential appraisal forms from the 1960s to today
In the May 2026 issue of Appraisal Today
Excerpts:
Timeline
1962 – “Green Hornet”, the first lender appraisal form
1984 – First URAR being developed
4-87 – First URAR effective
7-94 – New condo and 2-4 units forms
The first URAR
Source: George Opelka article, written in 2010
1984, twenty-two years after the birth of the Green Hornet, a new initiative
to create a standard appraisal form was spearheaded by the Society of Real
Estate Appraisers. Aside from the SREA, the Institute, Fannie Mae, Freddie
Mac, FHA and the VA, there were a few other government agencies, and all
were actively involved in the development of this new form.
The advent of the personal computer provided better tools to develop the
successor to the Green Hornet – an appraisal form using spreadsheet-like
software. Initially, Opelka designed the new form in Visi-Calc and then
shifted to developing it in Lotus 1-2-3.
The new form committee meetings were all held at the SREA Washington
Headquarters Offices in the Watergate Office Building. The form
development, given changing updates from meeting to meeting, took
approximately two years to perfect a version acceptable to the committee
and all the various agencies represented.
When design was finalized and approved by the appraisal committee and
the various organizations they represented, the form was adopted and
called the Uniform Residential Appraisal Report… the URAR (named by
Fannie Mae).
The URAR, like its forerunner, the Green Hornet, twenty-two years its
senior, featured Market Data Approach to Value sections in the form,
wherein current and local timely comparable sales were included and
processed through to Indicated Opinions of Value.
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The Appraisal Fee Lawsuit AMCs Can’t Outrun
Excerpts: The class action lawsuit filed against CrossCountry Mortgage and Class Valuation arrives at a moment when many in the appraisal profession have grown tired of watching Appraisal Management Companies (AMCs) drain the industry from the inside. Appraisers have described AMCs as unnecessary middlemen who inflate fees, hide their cuts, interfere with the work, and contribute nothing of substance. This case finally puts those practices into the record with a level of clarity that appraisers have been waiting for.
The complaint also highlights the fundamental issue appraisers have raised for years. AMCs do not perform the appraisal. They do not inspect the property, research comparable sales, analyze the market, or write the report. The filing states, “It is the appraisers not AMCs or any of their employees who contact borrowers, schedule appraisals, conduct appraisals, and prepare appraisal reports.” The AMC’s role is limited to forwarding the report to the lender, yet it retains more than sixty percent of the fee in many cases. This aligns with the experiences appraisers have shared about Class Valuation’s fee retention, including situations where the AMC kept hundreds of dollars while the appraiser received a fraction of the borrower’s payment.
If the plaintiffs succeed, the outcome could force lenders to disclose AMC fees separately, reduce fee skimming, and restore transparency to appraisal billing. It may also encourage similar suits in other states and prompt regulators to revisit AMC rules. For appraisers who have watched AMCs erode the profession, this case represents a long overdue challenge to a system that has operated without accountability for far too long.
A copy of the case is included.
To read more, Click Here – Plus 41 appraiser comments
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DATE CORRECTION ON CONFERENCES INFO from last week’s newsletter is incorrect
NOTE: Dates below are from web sites 7/24/26
Valuation Expo
Las Vegas August 16-19
For more info Click Here
Appraisal Summit
Las Vegas October 31 – Nov. 3
For more info Click Here
Note: Software vendors often bring their most recent software updates to these national conferences for appraisers trying to decide which UAD 3.6 software to use. Also
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UAD 3.6 tip – Good Facebook Page for UAD 3.6 Software
Find out what other appraisers are saying about UAD 3.6 software on Facebook page – “Appraisers perspective of UAD 3.6” Andy Arledge of Freedom Appraise is one of the moderators. No negative whining allowed! Special group for appraisers who are doing the UAD 3.6 appraisals. The only appraiser Facebook page I go to regularly.
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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 6.4 percent from one week earlier
WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 29, 2026) — Mortgage applications decreased 6.4 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending July 24, 2026.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 6.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 6 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 10 percent from the previous week and was 2 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 4 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 3 percent compared with the previous week and was 3 percent higher than the same week one year ago.
“Following last week’s spike in oil prices, mortgage rates moved higher, with the 30-year fixed rate increasing to 6.76 percent, the highest rate since August 2025,” said Joel Kan, CMB, MBA’s Vice President and Deputy Chief Economist. “This upward trajectory in rates continues to significantly impact refinance borrowers, with a 10 percent decline in refinance applications, including a steeper drop in government refinances. Despite housing inventory increasing in certain markets, higher rates have added to ongoing affordability challenges for many homebuyers, which drove the decrease in purchase activity over the week.”
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 39.5 percent of total applications from 41.2 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 8.1 percent of total applications.
The FHA share of total applications decreased to 16.9 percent from 17.0 percent the week prior. The VA share of total applications decreased to 12.6 percent from 13.2 percent the week prior. The USDA share of total applications decreased to 0.4 percent from 0.5 percent the week prior.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($832,750 or less) increased to 6.76 percent from 6.69 percent, with points increasing to 0.69 from 0.62 (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 6.70 percent from 6.44 percent, with points increasing to 0.52 from 0.45 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages backed by the FHA increased to 6.41 percent from 6.34 percent, with points increasing to 0.88 from 0.74 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.15 percent from 6.04 percent, with points decreasing to 0.84 from 0.87 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.
The average contract interest rate for 5/1 ARMs increased to 5.98 percent from 5.97 percent, with points increasing to 1.23 from 1.11 (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.Ann O’Rourke, MAI, SRA, MBA
Appraiser and Publisher Appraisal Today
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Posted in:
AMCs,
Appraisal fees,
GSEs,
UAD 3.6 
