Category: Appraisers News

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Appraisal Advisor Now Completely Free for Appraisers

Appraisal Advisor is completely free for appraisers from here on out. They will not be charging appraisers anything to rate and review clients, and appraisers won’t be charged to view other appraisers’ reviews either. The OCC is now requiring that lenders “assess the third party’s reputation, including history of customer complaints or litigation,” and “assess the third party’s financial condition.” What does this mean for appraisers? It means that lenders are required to listen to what you’re saying about AMCs based on your scores, the invoices, reviews, and fees

AMC / AMC Ratings / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisal Technology

Regulatory Claims Exclusion 0

Regulatory Claims Exclusion

Navigators Sues More Appraisers to Deny Coverage under “Regulatory Claims” Exclusion Last Thursday, November 14, Navigators Insurance Company sued two more appraisers to enforce “regulatory claims” exclusions in the E&O policies they purchased. These appraisers are in Nevada. Like the appraiser sued by Navigators in Florida on November 6, the Nevada appraisers are being sued by the FDIC for professional negligence in cases filed about a year ago. The objective of Navigators’ lawsuits is to seek court confirmation of Navigators’ legal position that there is no coverage under Navigators’ policy for damages awarded against the appraisers to the FDIC, which is demanding about $500,000...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / E&O

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OCC bulletin regarding AMCs, lenders, and Appraisal Advisor

On October 30, the OCC issued a bulletin to all national banks and savings associations entitled “Third-Party Relationships: Risk Management Guidance.” The bulletin, in a nutshell, outlines how lenders should manage and ensure compliance of their third party vendors. AMCs, third parties in the OCC bulletin, must be managed by specific guidelines in order for lenders to maintain compliance. Appraisal Advisor offers compliance with that regulation by providing lenders, AMCs, and appraisers with its ratings and reviews system. Appraisers’ constant scoring of AMCs on Appraisal Advisor is now, more than ever, THE key deciding factor in which AMCs lenders use....

AMC / AMC Ratings / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisal Technology

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AMC Background Checks: Fair or Not?

“I was just asked by an AMC to get a background check. Do I have to comply?” As risk management advisors for Appraisers and Inspectors, this is one of the questions we hear over and over again. Let’s face it — appraisal fees are lower than ever before. Essentially, AMCs are asking you to do the same amount of work for less pay. In some cases, they’re even asking you to do more work. Does it make sense then that you have to get a background check in order to work for a specific AMC? Unfortunately, the increased costs associated...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / E&O

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Fannie Mae Releases UCDP Appraisal Notes

Fannie Mae will implement new proprietary appraisal messages in the Uniform Collateral Data Portal beginning Nov. 9, the government-sponsored enterprise reported Sept. 24. The new appraisal messages will expand on existing Fannie Mae appraisal messaging and focus on providing additional data validation and reasonableness checks. The messages also will highlight possible eligibility concerns prior to loan delivery. The data included in the reports is based on the appraisals provided to the UCDP in the previous month, and includes an overview of all appraisal messages (including Fannie Mae critical messages),

AI / Appraisal / Appraisal Institute / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News

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FDIC Lawsuit Against Appraisers in CO

Federal Court Rules on USPAP Confidentiality Issue in FDIC Lawsuit Against Appraisers in Colorado On September 5, 2013, in a professional negligence case against two Colorado appraisers by the FDIC, a federal court ruled on an issue concerning USPAP confidentiality.  It was a simple issue, but it’s one of the very few court decisions relating to USPAP’s poorly written confidentiality rule (this previous post here explains why the rule is poorly written).  This is the rule: An appraiser must not disclose: (1) confidential information; or (2) assignment results to anyone other than: the client; persons specifically authorized by the client; state appraiser...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / E&O / Errors & Omissions / FDIC

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GSEs Still Finding Problems with Home Appraisals

Three years after the creation of a database seeking to standardize the home appraisal process, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to see major issues in numerous appraisals submitted by mortgage lenders, American Banker reported Sept. 12. Fannie Mae conducted a sampling of appraisals and determined that 17.6 percent contained contradictory information, typically pertaining to the condition or quality of the property, Robert Murphy, the GSE’s director of collateral and single-family risk policy, told a Phoenix conference of risk managers. He added that those two factors are the most important in determining a property’s value. Elevated appraisals contributed to the...

AI / AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Institute / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News

Why are Appraisers Furious at Fraud by their Peers while Corporate Lawyers are Complacent? 1

Appraisers Furious at Fraud by their Peers

Why are Appraisers Furious at Fraud by their Peers while Corporate Lawyers are Complacent? I have done a series of articles about the efforts of honest appraisers (which began in 2000) and loan brokers to alert the lenders, the markets, and the government to the twin fraud epidemics (appraisals and “liar’s” loans) committed by lenders’ controlling officers that drove the financial crisis. Honest appraisers could have profited greatly by becoming dishonest appraisers who would be given the lucrative assignments by fraudulent lenders’ controlling officers and their agents. Instead, honest appraisers suffered serious losses of income because they refused to succumb to...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News

Financial Crisis Looming 2

Liar, Liar…Pants on Fire

My money is definitely on another financial crisis I recently read a summary of an interview of James Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley. When Gorman was asked about the chances of another financial crisis like the one we had 5 years ago occurring, he replied that “the probability of it happening again in our lifetime is as close to zero as I could imagine”. To this statement, my reply is quite simply “bull—-!” Here are the reasons why another financial crisis can happen in the next few years. Government and personal debt remain at unsustainable levels. The US budget is...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / E&O / Errors & Omissions / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac

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Appraisal Guidelines

In the August edition of the AppraisalPort Newsletter, I reported on some of the general information covered at the National AI Connect Conference in Indianapolis, July 23-25, 2013. This was a great conference, covering a wide range of topics. This month, I want to pass on some information covered in one of the breakout sessions for residential appraisers. The session was titled, “Residential Chief Policy Roundtable” and included presentations from Fannie Mae’s Robert Murphy, the Appraisal Institute’s Bill Garber, HUD’s Ada Bohorfoush, and the VA’s Gerald Kifer. At Fannie Mae, Murphy handles many of the issues regarding appraisers and the...

AI / Appraisal / Appraisal Institute / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News

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