Tagged: Wall Street

Dazzled by Wizardry, Federal Mortgage Regulators Ignore Zillow Debacle 17

Dazzled by Wizardry, Federal Mortgage Regulators Ignore Zillow Debacle

This rulemaking is one more sign that federal bureaucrats are all in on a whacky plan to use technical wizardry to tease out the value of individual properties across the country… Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara was a committed technocrat. Under his direction, a team of policy advisors descended into the Pentagon’s cavernous basement in 1967. They fed punch cards into the basement’s IBM mainframe computers with everything that could be quantified about the Vietnam War. Numbers of ships, tanks, transport helicopters, gunships, fixed-wing aircraft, artillery, troop strength, machine guns, ammo. They queried the computers, “What year will we win...

Look in the Mirror 15

Look in the Mirror

The phrase “take a look in the mirror” is a common idiom used to encourage self-reflection and introspection. It is a powerful statement that can evoke a range of emotions and reactions from individuals, from contemplation to defensiveness. At its core, the phrase is a call to examine oneself honestly and objectively. It asks us to step back from our assumptions, biases, and preconceptions and consider our behavior, choices, and beliefs in a critical light. When we take a look in the mirror, we are forced to confront our flaws and shortcomings, but also to recognize our strengths and achievements....

Racial Targeting Under the Heading of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion 22

Racial Targeting Under the Heading of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

This time around, the racial targeting is masked as a virtue under the heading “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” or “DEI.” Valuation Jiu-Jitsu Will Lead to Future Addie Polks Addie Polk was a 91-year-old African-American widow who shot herself in the chest in 2008 during a Fannie Mae-initiated eviction in Akron, Ohio. It marked the low point in Fannie’s embrace of toxic mortgages. Fannie, now in federal conservatorship, bought or guaranteed subprime loans made to vulnerable borrowers in the years leading up to the 2007-2008 financial crisis. There are now signs of new abuses. Under the banner “equity and inclusion,” some...

What If the Appraisal Comes in too Low? - Contesting a Low Appraisal... 17

What If the Appraisal Comes in too Low?

…how to prevent a low appraisal in the first place… As real estate brokers in New York City, many buyers ask us what options exist if the appraised value comes below the contract’s purchase price. We explain how the appraisal rebuttal process works and how to prevent a low appraisal in the first place. Here are the most frequent questions buyers ask us. For this reason, we will draft this article like a Q&A. What happens when the appraisal is below the purchase price? What to do when the appraisal comes too low? How to contest a low appraisal? Can...

The Honest Appraisers Warnings Should Have Prevented the Global Financial Crisis 4

Honest Appraisers Who Risked Their Careers

Meet the Honest Appraisers Whose Warnings Should Have Prevented the Great Financial Crisis The honest appraisers’ warning was ideal. It was timely, blunt, courageous, and unambiguous. If the regulators had acted on the warning, there would have been no Great Financial Crisis (GFC). Unfortunately, the Presidents Clinton and Bush (II) appointed financial regulators because they were anti-regulators, so they ignored the appraisers’ warning. From 2000 to 2007, a coalition of appraisal organizations … delivered to Washington officials a public petition; signed by 11,000 appraisers… [I]t charged that lenders were pressuring appraisers to place artificially high prices on properties [and] “blacklisting...

The Con, We Were All Sold a LIE 11

The Con, We Were All Sold a LIE

The Con, a 5 part docu-series premiering August 5, 2020 at 8pm EDT, is an in-depth investigation into the 2008 financial crisis nine years in the making. Through interviews with regulators, former officials, foreclosure victims, industry whistleblowers, and journalists, THE CON connects the dots to what America used to be and where we’re headed in 2020, as nearly 40 million Americans are currently claiming unemployment. Stay tuned for a live conversation with the filmmakers and voices from THE CON after the screening. William Black: “Most things viewers “know” about the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) are false…. The GFC was not...

The Con, the American Dream Dies Where Power Lies - End of Corelogic? 11

The Con, The American Dream Dies…

The Con is a 5-part series in-depth investigation into the 2008 financial crisis. If you attended the Appraisers Economic Forum, better known as AppraiserFest, in San Antonio, Texas back in October 2018, you may recall a couple of guys with video cameras. Many of the appraisers attending were  interviewed for this production. The 5 part docu-series premieres August 5, 2020. You definitely want to clear your calendar to watch. See the trailer below and sign up for updates here. From writer/director Eric Vaughan, producer Patrick Lovell and executive producer Adam Bronfman, The Con is an in-depth investigation into the 2008...

Professional Opinions Can Never Be Replaced By Automation 10

Professional Opinions Can Never Be Replaced

Professional OPINIONS have value that can never, repeat NEVER be replaced by automation… Earlier this week, George Dell‘s article titled “Why is Residential Appraisal in Trouble?” was published on AppraisersBlogs. Respectfully, George misses or misinterprets a few items. There has been zero evidence that an AVM produces credible approximations of MARKET VALUE consistently or with even an acceptable degree of variance. None. Like George indicates, an AVM is NOT an appraisal. By definition, it is not an appraisal. FIRREA required appraisal standards; NOT banking industry and TAF proposed alternatives. TAF is very far out of line giving AVMs any imprimatur...

Hybrids, Invitation to Fraud - The New Subprime Fiasco of This Decade 6

Hybrid Appraisals, Invitation to Fraud

Until FNMA released their version of a test format for hybrids (1004P) there was not one hybrid form appraisal process and online form reporting system found that was not egregiously misleading in the entire country. Not one. Not Clarocity’s, nor Clear Capital’s or Mueller Inc. A “typical hybrid” sample follows. https://appraisersblogs.com/clearval-value-hybrid-appraisal Not those crafted in Hyderabad, Pakistan for $8 Billion for just one year’s Wall Street Investments (as published by Cezary Podkul Wall Street Journal) where the preparers claimed to be able to produce 360+ per day by illegally using broker login credentials from state-licensed brokers in America. The entire...

Price-Fixing, Who's Shocked? CoesterVMS Wrap-Up, Free FNMA/Freddie 9

Price-Fixing, Who’s Shocked?

…criminal investigation into price-fixing… The State of Pennsylvania has filed a class action law suit against some of the biggest banks and financial institutions in the country. The claim is these companies conspired to fix the prices on almost $500 billion in bonds issued by Fannie and Freddie over a mere 5 year period from 2009-2014. The named defendants are: Bank of America – Barclays Capital – BNP Paribas – Citigroup – Credit Suisse – Deutsche Bank & Deutsche Bank Securities – First Tennessee Bank & FTN Financial Securities – Goldman Sachs – JP  Morgan Chase – Merrill Lynch –...

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