Florida - Appraisal Legislation Update

About a month ago, Appraiser Active posted about two appraisal related bills filed just prior to the annual legislative session.  One was filed in the House, and one in the Senate. In the House, it's HB 667 - Real Estate Brokers and Appraisers. On the Senate side, it's SB 852 - Real Estate Brokers and Appraisers.  

Both included a section to amend Chapter 120, F.S. to require Summary Hearings by the Division of Administrative Hearings for cases involving real estate appraisers. The more we learned about this section, the worse it looked. The amendment would require any Administrative Complaint against an appraiser referred to the Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH) to be handled under the Summary Hearing Procedure. Additionally, it required Final Orders to be rendered in within 90 days. A little notice provision of the procedure states that the Recommended Order made by the Administrative Law Judge becomes the Final Order without action by the Florida Real Estate Appraisal Board.

No other professional licensing and regulatory board in Florida regularly operates under that procedure. There were plenty of concerns with this section of the bill. With assistance from the Florida REALTORS®, the concerns were communicated to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, the Florida Real Estate Appraisal Board, the bill sponsors, and the relevant House and Senate Committees. 

Yesterday, the Senate Regulated Industries Committee passed an amended version of the bill with the Chapter 120, F.S. language requiring Summary Hearings deleted. Thanks to everyone involved for their assistance!

Florida Appraisal Council and RPR

The Florida REALTORS® 2013 Mid-Winter Meetings are going on in Orlando, Florida from January 23 - 27. Governance meetings for all the Florida REALTORS® committees and councils are part of the meetings at the Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld®. The resort is located at 6677 Sea Harbor Drive, Orlando, FL 32821.

Committee and Council meetings are open to all REALTORS® that register for the conference. There is no charge to register. All registration is handled onsite at the hotel. There is something for everyone during these meetings. Among the most interesting, IMHO, are the Public Policy related meetings one Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Of course, the Florida Appraisal Council meeting on Friday, January 25th is a must. It will be in the Cobia Room from 1:00 until 2:30.

Part of the agenda for the Florida Appraisal Council is an update on the development of the Appraiser Tools for REALTORS Property Resource (RPR). Access to the database of every single parcel of real estate in the United States is already available to every REALTOR member in the country. RPR is working on a set of online tools, tailored to our profession, and focused on automating some of the more tedious form filling functions.

Here is what RPR CEO Dale Ross had to say in his Q4 2012 update to the RPR Board of Directors:

Appraiser Tools Development

The balance of the fourth quarter has been spent on building out the Appraiser Tools for beta testing in the early 2013. The Appraiser features leverage and extend the comparables analysis technology framework released prior to the Orlando meetings, additional functionality has been added in each area of the interface to support the more complex search and comparison needs of the Appraiser user.

As the team turned its attention to the development of these features, we reviewed our plan with RPR’s Appraiser Task Force and provided the group with a list of key questions. In return, we received some very specific, actionable, and incredibly thoughtful input from the group that became central to how we defined our approach. The core concept of RPR Appraiser Tools is to build upon our strengths as a database and analysis engine, by fulfilling an Appraiser’s need for fully-matched data that reconciles public and private sources (such as MLS) in a format which supports the user’s field and observational work, while reserving the derivation of conclusions to the unique skills, training, and experience of the Appraiser user. 

There's still time for Florida REALTOR Appraisers to make the trip, attend the meeting, and get the update on RPR, along with all the other information. It would be great to see you there.

Florida Realtors Mid-Winter Meetings - January 11 - 15, 2012

Florida Realtors meet in Orlando this week. There is an Appraisal Council meeting on Friday, January 13, 2012 at 1:00-2:30pm in the Captain room at the Buena Vista Palace. The agenda includes quite a bit of interesting topics for discussion.

If you are a Florida Realtor - Appraiser, it would be great to have you attend. You may register onsite. There is no registration fee for Realtor - Appraisers.

Appraisal Events - Florida Realtors® 2011 Convention

From August 24 - 28, 2011, Florida Realtors host their Annual Convention & Trade Expo in Orlando. The event will be held at the Rosen Shingle Creek, 9939 Universal Boulevard, Orlando, Florida.

In addition to the regular business meetings for committees and the Florida Realtors Board of Directors, a number of education sessions will be offered on a variety of topics. There are two specific offerings available for attendees:

On Friday, August 26, 2011, the Florida Appraisal Council will meet from 1:00 - 2:30 P.M. If you are an appraiser and belong to a local association of Realtors, you are welcome to attend. The new AMC Registration laws and rules will be discussed, along with the Fast Track Application for NAR Appraisal Designations. Educational opportunities to assist in completing 2012 Continuing Education will also be planned. Your thoughts, ideas and suggestions are welcomed.

On Saturday, August 27, 2011, Rick Baumgardner, Chairman of the Appraisal Foundation Appraiser Qualifications Board, will present "What's Happening With Appraiser Qualifications?" This will be a discussion of the 4th Exposure Draft of Proposed Revisions to the Real Property Appraiser Qualification Criteria. Among other things, Rick will discuss trainee and supervisor qualifications, background checks and education.

Take a ride over to Orlando and stop by!