Elliott & Company Appraisers


MAY 2004	A Publication of ELLIOTT® & Company Appraisers



ELLIOTT® ANNOUNCES APPRAISALS WORLDWIDE

ELLIOTT® & Company Appraisers, which for several years has been performing real estate appraisals in all 50 states, now offers appraisals worldwide. “ELLIOTT® & Company Appraisers is expanding internationally in order to follow the lead of our clients and worldwide mortgage markets which are becoming more prevalent in other countries outside the United States,” said Charlie W. Elliott Jr., the company’s president. “Some of our clients in this country are expanding internationally. Furthermore, we have foreign banks, including Canadian ones, here in this country.” Elliott said that the company is becoming international by expanding its network of appraisers, that it already has, into a worldwide network. Currently, the company has a network of over 2,000 appraisers and over 5,000 clients. “We have always been a company that covered a large geographic footprint,” Elliott said. “We began as a small company covering several counties from our original headquarters in North Carolina. Later, we expanded to become a statewide, then a multi-state operation, and eventually a national operation. Becoming a worldwide company is just another extension of our expansion.” The company plans to begin its international operations in countries most similar in economic structure to the U.S.A. “I would say we expect some of the larger and more developed countries to be providing most of the business in the beginning,” Elliott said. “As we grow, we expect to expand into smaller and less developed countries.” This international move is a natural progression for a company that has been in business since 1980. The secret to the success of ELLIOTT® & Company Appraisers’ ability to produce appraisal service over a large geographic area is that of having relationships with some of the best and most professional appraisers in the industry, located in areas distant from its Central Office in Greensboro, N.C. “The world is taking the lead of the United States in the mortgage industry, and they’re adapting our format, our templates and our system,” Elliott said. “They’re fine tuning it a little bit to fit their needs. There are differences in the ways properties are evaluated in other areas of the world, and we are prepared to meet this challenge.”

THE EXPANDING INTERNATIONAL MORTGAGE MARKET

The mortgage industry in the most developed counties outside the United States is about where it was in our country 25 years ago. Nevertheless, it probably won’t take 25 years for this industry in these countries to reach the point where we are today.

Japan has adapted its Government Housing Loan Corp. after Fannie Mae and now has the second largest mortgage market in the world. China had virtually no mortgage market in the late 1990s, but now has one of well over $100 billion.

While most U.S. mortgages are now sold into the secondary mortgage market, European mortgages are still funded primarily by savings deposits. Also, mortgages in this country tend to fall into the 15-30 year span, while most European mortgages are for five years or less. The United States has almost six times as much outstanding mortgage debt as either Germany or the United Kingdom, and that these two countries have over twice as much mortgage dept as any of their European counterparts. Look for this to change, however, now that European countries have had a chance to observe the boost our mortgage industry has given to the U.S. economy.

PRESIDENT'S COMMENTS

The State of the Global Property Evaluation Art

As is in many, if not most, areas of commerce, the United States is the hands down world leader in business systems and practices. This is, without question, the case in real estate appraisals. We have been the world leader in mortgage lending for many decades. This has paved the way for us to develop a sophisticated system for evaluating collateral for these loans. Thanks to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Appraisal Foundation and the Appraisal Institute, among others, we have the best collateral evaluation system in the world with approximately 80,000 state certified appraisers. If we have the best system what are the other countries doing?

First, there are few, if any, government certified real estate appraisers in other parts of the world. The bar for qualification seems to be much lower and is usually tied to membership in some organization or relegated to real estate sales people, surveyors, etc. In Canada real estate appraisers are members of the Canadian Appraisal Institute. In England this function is relegated more to brokers and surveyors. In fact, a real estate valuator in England is referred to as a surveyor. In some of the lesser-developed countries the profession is even much less sophisticated. Rather than a traditional appraisal, which we are accustomed to receiving, the highest level or state of the art appraisal may be the rough equivalent of a BPO. This may be prepared by someone with few, if any, official credentials.

Regardless of the state of the art in a given locality, local rule trumps everything else in real estate valuation. What may seem rudimentary in the United States may be presented with an air of professionalism in other countries. Thus, the traditional method of collateral evaluation employed in a given area will dictate the method used, even if the lender might prefer a more sophisticated product. This is due to the lack of local data sources and professionally trained vendors, as well as the absence of strict government regulations.

IN THE NEWS

ELLIOTT® adds new Web address

The Web site of ELLIOTT® & Company Appraisers can now be accessed at a new Web address: www.appraisalsworldwide.com. The home page can still be reached at www.appraisalsanywhere.com and, for that matter, www.elliottco.com.

For the past three years, the real estate market values in Shanghai has been growing by over 20% annually. Last year real estate values in this large Chinese city increased 28%. The municipal government has recently issued rules to hold back mortgage loans and prevent short-term investors from buying before the buildings are finished.

Foreign money is being heavily invested in Florida real estate according to local and international officials who attended the recent Metro Orlando International Summit held at Disney World. Investors from France, Canada and Saudi Arabia appear to be leading the way.

Inflation of real estate prices is also strong in Great Britain, where housing prices have been growing at nearly 20% in recent years. Interest rates have risen three times in recent months to combat this.

QUOTES OF WIT & WISDOM

“Until Eve arrived, this was a man’s world.”
                                                    – Richard Armour

“The world is but a large prison out of which some are selected daily for execution.” – Sir Walter Raleigh

“The world does owe you a living, but it doesn’t home deliver.” – Richard Saunders

“God owns heaven, but He craves the earth.”
                                                        – Anne Sexton

“We cannot ply innocents abroad in a world that is not innocent.” – Ronald Reagan

“If the world is cold, make it your business to build fires.” – Horace Traubel

“The earth is the cradle of the mind, but one cannot live eternally in a cradle.”
                                                                                      – Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

“The world owes you nothing; it was here first.” – Mark Twain

“Christopher Columbus, as everyone knows, was honored by posterity because he was the last to discover America.” – James Joyce

“The world has narrowed to a neighborhood before it has broadened to a brotherhood.” – Lyndon Johnson

“Like a 10-ton cake, the world is more than anyone can eat at one sitting. Select a piece of it, then enjoy the party.” – Samuel Silver

“The real world is not user-friendly.” – Richard Throop III




Contact Us
Newsletter Editor: kevin@elliottco.com	Web Site: www.appraisalsanywhere.com