A Review of MEIN COMP: The Last Appraiser
If Orwell moonlighted as an appraiser, and Kafka had a side hustle in compliance, “MEIN COMP: The Last Appraiser” by David Samnick would be their love child. But this isn’t dystopian fantasy, it’s a forensic autopsy of a profession that was methodically dismantled while regulators smiled, and algorithms sharpened their knives.
Samnick’s book is fiction the way a courtroom sketch is fiction. The names are changed, but the faces are familiar, and the tactics are real. Through a cast of fictional appraisers, each representing a phase in the slow-motion collapse of independent valuation, we witness the insertion of middlemen, the tightening of compliance nooses, the scapegoating campaigns, and the final algorithmic coup.
The foreword opens with a chilling riff on Niemöller’s famous warning: “First they came for the underwriters…”
It closes with a line that doesn’t need carving into stone. It just needs to be remembered by anyone who thinks their profession is safe: “They came for the appraisers. Tomorrow, they will come for you. Who will be left to speak?”
This book doesn’t ask for pity, it demands attention. It documents how appraisal management companies (AMCs) inserted themselves into the process, siphoning fees while adding no value. How compliance morphed into a stranglehold. How accusations, often baseless, were weaponized to silence dissent. And how automation was sold as progress, while expertise was quietly buried.
Angela Torres and the Desert Rebellion may be fictional, but the lawsuits, board complaints, and retaliatory tactics she faces are pulled straight from the real-world playbook. Appraisers didn’t go down without a fight, we organized, testified, sued, and resisted. But we were fragmented, outspent, and ultimately outmaneuvered by corporate interests that controlled the narrative, the tech, and the rules of engagement.
As an appraiser, I read this book with a mix of recognition and rage. As a colleague, I’m proud to see our story told with clarity, grit, and zero sugarcoating. And as a citizen, I’m alarmed by how easily this same playbook is now being deployed against other professions, accountants, engineers, teachers, lawyers, even doctors. The tactics change. The strategy doesn’t: regulation, accusation, automation, elimination.
MEIN COMP: The Last Appraiser is not just the story of how a profession dies. It’s a warning to every skilled worker who thinks their judgment can’t be replaced by code. Read it carefully. Your profession may be next.
- A Review of MEIN COMP: The Last Appraiser - September 8, 2025
- The Appraisal Profession’s Perfect Storm: A Veteran’s Take on a Dying Craft - May 2, 2025
- Lack of Fee Transparency: Exposing the AMC Exploitation - July 31, 2024
David has captured the essence of what we are, ourselves, witnessing with our industry being consumed by the comporate government hounds.
I haven’t read the book, but I’ve lived enough of the story to recognize the arc. After 30 years in the field, I watched our profession go from respected to sidelined, first by policy shifts, then by tech platforms that promised speed over substance. The narrative that appraisers are the problem? That’s been pushed hard, and it’s painful to see how easily it’s taken root. If this book speaks to that erosion, of judgment, of independence, of trust, then I hope people read it. Because what happened to us isn’t fiction. It’s already history
20+ years as an appraiser. 35 years as a RE Broker.
I have not read the book yet but I suspect I have lived through what has been written.
Another year and retirement. It was a decent profession at one time. The downfall ALL started with the AMC’s.
I’ll say…….no more.
I cannot say how much I agree with you
If I actually got the job on every to-bid I get, I’d still not be making a living. Thus, I’ve mostly stopped bidding. Just the bidding process takes up so much time it’s hardly worth it even if I do get the job. And, if you get a job and do it perfectly, given recent developments, you will be eaten alive with arguments, revisions, threats, demands for higher value opinions, racism accusations, etc., etc., etc. It’s a far, far cry from my first, very good Appraisal Institute courses at U of C in Boulder in 1983. I’m fairly certain that the next step will be to send the required information and photos to “appraisers” in India. I’m sure they’ll do a great job.
Pray. That’s the point of the bidding process, to seek out and identify appraisers whom are not following stringent rules. To find appraisers whom can say with certainty in two seconds flat for the lowest conceivable fee below everyone elses, they will take the order first. They are not hesitant, because they know ahead of time they’ll make the deal work. That’s the entire point. That and twelve billion of unregulated amc junk billing unearned fee skimming and counting. Bidding each order individually has a two in one benefit; the assignment company constantly pressures appraisers, then gets to keep half the consumers appraisal service fee in secret. Finding ways bid lower and land that work is often the only way appraisers can achieve a ‘good performance score’, ‘better’ than other vendors, to make ‘top tier’ amc vendor status, in order to get a reliable work load. They take the lions share by way of outsourcing and offloading every possible duty to non licensed people and third parties, which was meant to be completed by a licensed professional. Everyone else rides the bench. ‘Appraisal independence.’ This is exactly the platform which ‘appraisal modernization’ is built upon. ‘Valuation independence.’ Who’s still buying this? I’ll tell you who; The new FNMA director whom has a vested special interest in closing more new construction loans. Can’t make it up, not even if you tried.
Great work here! Pay attention folks! They are gunning for anyone that get’s in the way of their progress (greed).
Our jobs have always been compromised by idiots. WE are not united. WE formed separate groups that do not play together very well. If we all walked out and said no to the BS, two things would happen. We all need to start looking for a real job that respects us or someone may listen to us. This will only work if 75% of us cause this distraction. Need to reach the highest level of government. 2008 is occurring again. the seeds have been planted. Non appraisers with no licensing are asked to help us fill the forms and have us sign a report which we WILL be RESPONSIBLE for. Me I’m 66 and have doing appraisals since the 90’s in rural and in densely populated areas. I found more respect for the rural appraiser because of the lack of credible data available to work with. Our business has been dead and soon we will be forgotten. Until the next bust. Which maybe soon. We have to thank covid for that and the beast that sat in his office for 90 days doing nothing. At 66 I have a large shed full of boxes. I am not moving with them.
Remember when fnma made a big deal about; only licensed persons are allowed to inspect properties?
Something, something; prudent underwriting decisions…
Not anymore! ‘Appraisal modernization’.
Selling guide 2015; An accurate description of the physical condition and quality of the subject property is a critical element in arriving at a supportable opinion of market value, as well as in the prudent underwriting of a mortgage loan.
NOT ANYMORE! (psychotic laughter) Now it’s better if nobody inspects the homes, rather the homes get waived through the system, instantly approved via automated process, aka; ‘value acceptance’. Or if an inspection is absolutely necessary because of god awful credit history or non conforming property characteristics; it’s better to call in someone without any training in real estate or any professional licensing, aka; property data collectors. ‘Appraisal modernization’.
I tool over my father’s business. I was a Director of Special Ed and had a great career started but we lived in rural MA and I loved the flexibility. I have my Master’s ftom Smith, earned my SRA in 1990. My dad went to Columbia. He sold a successful business in NY when we moved to the Berkshires. He was also an SRA. The Society of R. E. Appraisers.. before merger had a Chapter in western MA.. It was sooo active. Many members. I was the last President. No one came. This was maybe 1997 or so.
When licensing came in my dad said to me this is the beginning of the end.
With licensing no one will care who is doing the report.. we’re all the same. He was so right.
I retired my SRA MAYBE 8 yrs ago.. no one else cares. Why spend the extra money for it.
I have 44 yrs in AND remember.. I had 8 yrs in education before
I am part time now as we have an adult daughter on disability so stashing money away for her. The mental health services in MA are imploding where we are. She’s discharged tomorrow after 5 mos. There are no visiting nurses, no help for her at all.
FYI…Euthanasia is now being offered in many countries to those with severe mental illness ess..no treatment but this. NYTimes has written on this over recent years and within last few months
Both Democrats and Republicans are together with what’s happening. Why didn’t Biden arrest Trump as soon as Biden was inaugurated??
We’ve been led down a road.
All the mentioned professions will be AI driven
So..what does this mean then??
I am a firm believer in euthanasia…when it comes to AMC owners, AMC employees, and Andrew Cuomo (creator of this mess). I partially agree with your Biden/Trump thesis but would have preferred to see the arrest followed up with a courtesy call from Seal Team Six. Biden DID after all have the legal right to do so thanks to our recently (mentally insane) Supreme Court.
If there is one thing you can count on, nobody will go to jail. People say the government is partisan and can never agree. That’s not true. They always agree on one thing; Taxing you more and spending more of your tax dollars on themselves, their pet projects, special interest associates. You’re all watching political theater. They have everyone whom talks in this manner exactly where they want them. Keep cheering for your team. Pay no mind you’re talking about incarcerating American citizens for political reasons. If that makes you feel good and that’s what you’re about, I guess that’s what makes you feel good and that’s what you’re about. Would you like to play a game?
I’d rather focus on appraisal here. If the lender is responsible for the appraiser’s end quality… Why are appraisers only to blame whenever someones expectations are not met? Attached. 2010 selling guide reference. One can learn the oddest things about appraisal, by simply revisiting old now retired guidelines.
Per the above 2010 SEL reference; Additional revisions have been made to clarify that the lender is responsible for for the appraisers qualifications and quality of work, and to provide guidance for determining an appraisers qualifications. / The selling guide has also been updated with regard to the lenders use of third party vendors, such as AMC’s (appraisal management companies), to clarify that / Neither the HVCC nor FNMA requires the use of a third party vendor. /
NOT ANYMORE! (evil laughter) The HVCC is DF Reg Z and they’re mostly similar. Now per the AVM final rule passed this last year, lenders are required to use third party vendors instead of direct and full appraiser service on most loan origination, which includes requirements to use unlicensed property inspectors aka PDC’s or property data collectors. Because; that’s like, how you better protect consumers and stuff. ‘Appraisal modernization’.
My family owned a jewelry store in a small town for over 65 years. My father was a watchmaker/clockmaker. He and my mother together raised and educated my sister and me.
I remember when battery powered watches came out…..my father told me there would be no further need for watchmakers in the future, because if the watch broke they would just open it, take out the faulty battery-powered movement, replace it, close it back up and VOILA!!!!! There would be no more need for watchmakers. Correctly the demand for watchmakers went into the toilet. I have thought about this long and hard. FAST FORWARD to today……can you find a watchmaker???? If you can you can bet your ass he/she can name their own price!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, no gig whether professional, wigget maker, or service is immune from technology and progress. My grandad used to tell me how farriers and blacksmith were up in arms when horseless carriages started eroding their business all the way to video-game rental stores being replaced by NetFlix (where did Blockbuster go?), and all those 30-minute photo developer providers – where did they go…? The comment preceding mine references her dad being a watchmaker and watching power watches replace his expert service. So instead of writing or reading doomsday essays often looking for a boggyman to blame, look for opportunities the technologies and progress brings. I found the book, “Who Moved My Cheese” to be insightful to open my perspectives a few years ago. Now looking at Artificial Intelligence mgt opps. Assets will always need to be valued for a miriad of uses and purposes, look for and learn new ways of providing more technological valuations and remember that users, purposes, and needed scope will likely change – for me usually about the time I figured out the last change 😉 The marketplace will ultimately determine our future, so stay sharp and curious…that keeps this old guy, young.
Have You Faced a Bias or Discrimination Allegation? We Want to Hear From You
Over the past few years, appraisers across the country have seen a rise in complaints that allege racial bias or discrimination in the appraisal process. These cases can be life-altering for the appraisers involved, not only in terms of reputation but also financially and emotionally.
While much has been written about the issue, what hasn’t been widely shared are the personal stories of appraisers who have been on the receiving end of these charges. Many have never spoken publicly, often because they felt isolated, silenced, or intimidated. That silence makes it difficult to understand the scope of what is happening in our profession.
This is a call for appraisers to come forward.
If you have ever been accused of bias or discrimination by a government agency, lender, or any other entity, your story matters. Whether the allegation was resolved, dismissed, or still lingers, documenting these experiences is critical for the profession.
We are not looking for case files or sensitive documents — just testimonies from working appraisers who want their voices heard. The goal is to build a collective understanding of what is really happening, what patterns exist, and how appraisers can better protect themselves moving forward.
If you’re willing to share your experience (confidentially or publicly), please reach out. Your testimony could help shed light on whether these investigations are being conducted fairly, and whether the appraisal profession is being subjected to a unique form of scrutiny compared to other fields.
This is bigger than one individual case. The more stories we collect, the clearer the picture becomes — and the stronger our profession stands.
If you are an appraiser who has been accused of bias or discrimination, please contact us. Together, we can document the reality appraisers are facing and ensure the truth is part of the national conversation. Contact Ken at: kjmull@aol.com.