President's Message

February Newsletter -   Legislative Edition

The mission of The Appraisers’ Coalition of Washington is to advocate for real estate appraisers, ensuring laws and regulations protect the profession's interests while promoting public trust.

We took our message to Olympia, and under the direction of our lobbyist, we met with legislators to share our concerns and work to resolve issues affecting appraisers. We want to get to know the policymakers and have them get to know us as we connect in solving issues.

The 2025 Washington legislative session started on January 13^th, will run for 105 days, and will have a focus on housing. We have already seen an Executive Order from our new Governor to remove, identify, and amend rules and regulations to facilitate housing production, followed by an action plan from Lieutenant Governor Denny Heck. The Coalition has several important pieces of legislation being considered in this session that may fall under this directive for efficiency.

At our Day on the Hill event, we enjoyed meeting with Senator Mark Schoesler, from the 9^th Legislative District, who is supportive of our causes and who we can count on for support. Lieutenant Governor Denny Heck, as always, added a sense of lightness to the day and was interested in our perspective of the real estate market. He told us that he likely gets more out of our meeting than we do. It is always a pleasure to work with him. Representative Brandy Donaghy gave us cause to hope (see below) and we had an in-person session with DOL to resolve administrative issues and legislative actions.
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Licensing Fees

We were excited to talk with Representative Donaghy about her plans to “drop” a bill in the next few days that will address the funding issues with the Department of Licensing to alleviate our fee increase.  Along with Chair Dave Paul of the Postsecondary Education & Workforce Committee, who has assumed responsibility for the DOL licensing program oversight, the fee increase is being re-evaluated. We are extremely hopeful that we will see a new bill soon which gives appraisers some relief.  Representative Donaghy is a member of the Consumer Protection and Business Committee, author of HB 1081, and is a champion for Washington appraisers. We look forward to continuing to work with Representative Donaghy on ways to protect the appraisal profession from unfair treatment.
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Highest and Best Use

The Coalition continued to work with the concerns surrounding the Highest and Best Use analysis. As you know, we were successful in having a FAQ added to the DOL website which stated “For assignments to appraise residential property with four or fewer units that have been rezoned to allow for additional units, the allowable residential zoning is not determinative of an appraiser’s statutory authority to appraise the property.”  We are working on getting this guidance added to the state regulations. The Coalition is working with DOL to determine the appropriate location for the comment in either the RCW (law) or the WAC (rules).  We are very close to a final determination. The Coalition has suggested the following verbiage: The Highest and Best Use Analysis of a property when used to determine whether an appraisal, appraisal assignment, or specialized appraisal service can be performed within an appraiser’s license level is not in and of itself an appraisal, appraisal assignment or an appraisal report. 
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Waiver Valuations

The Coalition is also actively seeking changes regarding the Waiver Valuations in Eminent Domain. The problem is a conflict between Federal regulations which state that Waiver Valuations are not appraisal reports, and WA State law which states that they are appraisal reports. Individuals performing Waiver Valuations violate state law if they are not licensed appraisers. Licensed Appraisers are violating state law and are subject to disciplinary action if they complete waiver valuations and do not include all necessary components of an appraisal report, thus turning a waiver valuation into an appraisal report and defeating the intended purpose of a waiver valuation.  The proposed changes would eliminate any conflict between federal and state law. Again, we are working with DOL to determine if the RCW needs to be modified or if we can add this to the WAC. The Coalition has suggested the following verbiage:

Waiver Valuations performed under 49 CFR Part 24 or Title 8 RCW for purposes of federal, state, or locally funded acquisitions are exempt from the provisions of Chapter 18.140 RCW
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Housing Task Force

Through lobbyist Tony Sermonti, appraisers were added to HB 1108 which creates a legislative task force on housing cost driver analysis. The task force will be composed of members representing all areas of housing development. We felt it was important that real estate appraisers be at the table.

Federal Issues

ASC / IRS / PAVE

On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order instituting a regulatory freeze pending review. This order directs all executive departments and agencies to halt the issuance of new regulations and to withdraw or postpone pending regulations until they undergo review by the new administration.

The recent ASC’s proposed rules on state appraisal board oversight as well the IRS’s proposed update that appraisers would statutorily be required to conform to USPAP or International Valuation Standards in Administrative proceedings, are delayed as they are reviewed and approved to ensure that they align with the administration’s policy objectives.

The action also affects the entire appraisal profession, in that the executive order establishing the PAVE Task Force has been rescinded. The PAVE website and corresponding information have been disabled.

For an in-depth analysis of the executive order   Click Here

The coalition is continuing to monitor bills as they pass through legislation, you can too. Click here More importantly you can support us by reaching out to your elected representatives to get their support for the bills noted above.  While the Coalition and our lobbyists work with the legislature advocating for our profession, letters from constituents carry enormous power.

Join Us

Your voice is important, and we welcome your participation. If you wish to become a member, renew your annual membership, or donate, click the Join tab above. We appreciate and need your support to continue working for you. 

 Kathy

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Board of Directors Meeting

The Board meets every month to discuss action items for the Coalition. Everyone is welcome to join us. 

Our guest speaker will be Nathan Buck, Program Manager, Centralized Investigations & Audits Unit, DOL, discussing the complaint process.    

Save this link to your calendar: 

Join Us on Zoom
Meeting ID: 916 5642 7004

Tuesday, February 11th at 4:30

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We Appreciate Your Support

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