Inman

The Real Word: Why are there discrepancies in appraisals?

Byron Lazine and Nicole White are two agents in Connecticut who give us their thoughts on the week’s news every Friday in “The Real Word,” a weekly video column on Inman.

Last week, Byron and Nicole discussed a HousingWire article that reported on racial discrimination in the appraisal industry, moving on to talk about the errors and discrepancies of appraisal process.

After a barrage of disapproving comments on that episode’s video, this week, the duo brought on appraiser Warren Sumner (who’s also a real estate agent) to continue the appraisal discussion. “If it’s so sophisticated of a process, if it’s so dialed in, why do we have these huge gaps from time to time in different appraisals?” Byron asked.

They also talked about the appraiser-agent relationship. “Real estate’s not a lot of fun right now,” Warren said. “Not with the current market … I just want to see us all kind of work together and respect each other more.”

More this week: Ramsey Solutions surprised agents by saying it will no longer be working with eXp agents. According to Inman, the coaching company gave “eXp Realty agents a startling choice: Switch brokerages or stop getting leads from the well-known coaching firm.”

Marketeer of the week

VistaBrooklyn.com, a website for an apartment property in Florida, was awarded as a 2021 Webby Honoree. It was one of three in the world (and the only one in the country) to be given the honor, according to Inman.

Want to nominate a “marketeer of the week”? Drop your thoughts in the comments section below, or shoot us an email.