I agree with your assessment of the industry. Unfortunately no one sees the importance of having licensed or at least people with experience doing these jobs. I know how our AMC works and I know the training that they go through which includes a truncated USPAP so they understand why an appraiser will not do the crazy thing the lender just asked.

I miss the clients we had pre 2008.

Wayne, I know but I think you missed my point.

IF we cant get agreement as to what the solution is in something as simple as a blog; we’d never get enough for any kind of meaningful boycott…not one day, not a week or indefinite against amcs.

We keep trying to stamp out individual sparks and embers while ignoring the forest fires.

Until all affected appraisal organizations (those dealing with SFR; 2-4 anyway) agree to a minimal common effort to be resolved at the federal level we’re going to keep stomping out little fires all over the place instead of resolving the fundamental problems.

Previously, when there was no separation from loan production and lenders direct sales agents assigned the appraisals, there was no additional cost since it was part of the mortgage bankers job. Now mortgage bankers work less and earn more, the opposite of what happened to the appraiser. If one agent acted out of place, we’d fire them and call the guy next to them. There was never a shortage of experienced licensed professionals to work with. These days, you’re lucky if the desk manager has anything close to 5 years of indirect lending appraisal or realty experience, and it’s a true actual miracle if the people assigning appraisal orders hold any licenses or have any direct experience. Lenders have thrown everyone from clerks to human resource managers to business degree persons in these positions, people who no longer hold appraisers licenses, and everything in between. They’re still pretending to be confused why it’s not working. Only an appraiser is qualified to manage another appraiser. It’s not rocket science. It’s the accountability of having an actual individual personal license that matters, and that’s the only thing that matters.

There’s no way for lenders to manage the appraisals for just $25 a file, no way for an AMC to do that either. Technology fees between all the different platforms are more than that. The lenders don’t want to deal with the headache of compliance, payment of appraisers and the back-and-forth.

The system SHOULD be cost-plus. Appraiser is paid their fee for the appraisal. Management company is paid their fee for the management of the process. They should have never been co-mingled on the disclosure forms. There is so many stupid bogus fees in the lending process I’m not sure why they didn’t require this with the new laws.

I agree lenders are getting the hint.

+200 amc hassle fee. Go for it. Lenders are getting the picture one order at a time.

Gee Whiz Mike….I an not talking about a one week 100% boycott! The boycott I am talking about is until Jesus Christ comes again! Honestly and seriously I mean that we should stop each and every damn appraisal assignment for any AMC! JUST STOP THIS SHIT! Quote “Too many of “us” would see it as an opportunity to enhance their own positions”. Really…if any appraiser is so F—–ing pitiful that they are soliciting AMC work then my comments are not for them! Those pitiful appraisers are welcome to all of that work that they want! God Bless them! I have recently retired…but could take any assignment. Just today I received the email: Good Afternoon – We have a client that has requested a 1004C Manufactured Home FHA purchase appraisal on the property located at 2156 Blairs Landing Rd, Karnack, TX 75661 (Harrison). Unfortunately we do not currently have an appraiser available to assist with a manufactured property. We are looking for a Certified, FHA Approved appraiser that is not currently listed on any major lender exclusionary list and will provide proof of E&O coverage. If you are interested is assisting with this, please provide your fee AND turn time for this assignment. Kindest regards, Accusured Management, LLC 195 Wekiva Springs Road, Suite 360 Longwood, FL. 32779 321-972-8273 office 407-209-2905 fax orders@accusured.com http://www.accusured.com This invitation was sent to you by Accusured Management, LLC, 195 Wekiva Springs Rd, Ste 360, Longwood, FL 32779. Unsubscribe

Some poor pitiful lender and some pitiful buyer and seller and Real Estate agent are thinking that SOMEONE is interested to doing this assignment. The lender could probably get this done with a single phone call…. but the involvement of an AMC will cause it to not happen! I do not care, ….do you?

Great concept, unrealistic numbers. From what I’ve gathered, since this is a hot topic for me and I try and learn the distribution of the total fee for each and every client I work with, the numbers are much higher. In house will be 100 to 150, and there is no limit to amc raking, if they can charge 800 and farm out the appraisal for 250, they will. The primary difference being that amc’s play both sides of the coin. They’ll drive up consumer fees in times of high demand, then retain that high fee in times when there is less demand, forcing appraisers to compete among each other for the order. Of course, they don’t pass cost savings back to consumers. In the end the separation from loan production rules are counter productive, creating injustice in middle management assignment trends, arguably virtually legal junk fee application with no limits to consumers, or alternatively forcing additional staff requirements if they’re in house. You know we did not have these problems when the mortgage broker simply filled out a 1 page appraisal order form and sent it directly to the appraiser. And the next challenge is to find companies whom hire appraisers, which aside from mortgage bankers or underwriters, is really the only qualified person to ‘manage’ appraisal distribution. I’ve never before seen such a large group of managers whom present consistently as having far less skill, experience, and credentials of those they are ‘managing’.

In my opinion Wayne, the real issue is the lack of separation of the AMC fee from the appraisal fee. Appraisers are in direct competition with the AMCs to get lender business. Choice A for the lender is to keep the expense in-house (say at $25 per report), or choice B which is to have NO expense by way of having the appraiser pay the AMC ($say $125). With the separation, would the lender pay out of pocket an additional $100 to keep their AMC? Would the borrower be charged $125 for the separate AMC fee? Without the free ride (appraisers paying for the AMC), perhaps lenders would abandon the AMC model all together and keep it in house at $25). Lastly, when you have leaders in the industry coaching a merry band of cheerleaders in support of the AMC model (only the good ones), many with the highest soapbox see no problem (AMC’s) as long as locally, and individually they can benefit.

Seek the truth.

A one week 100% boycott during any moderately busy period is all it would take. Knowing its only a demonstration, ASC nor anyone else would authorize temp waivers.

It’s a pretty sure bet rates would go up and a few well articulated listing of more onerous AMC burdens or BS would disappear.

The challenge is (in my opinion) that we would never get 100% or even a meaningful number to participate. Too many of ‘us’ would see it as an opportunity to enhance their own positions.

Bill….so many lenders are sold a bill of goods by the typical AMC. The lender is told that each appraiser is just tickled to death to work for them. All of us are jumping up and done and happy as hell to work with a damn AMC. If appraisers were to let the typical local lender know that we will be happy to work with them but we WILL NOT accept work from an AMC….things will change. I am not talking about the big boys like Chase or Bank of America. I am talking about your local credit unions and small regional banks. I have not accepted an assignment from an AMC in over a decade. I am completely and totally aware that there is so much appraisal business out there that I could work 24/7 and never have a day off. Why do some appraisers find it difficult to get an assignment without sucking hind tit? Oh well, to each their own!

Wayne, the typical residential assignment performed by the typical residential appraiser typically (80%) goes through an AMC. I’m not saying a boycott of AMCs wouldn’t work, but how long could the typical appraiser (say 40,000 of them), keep the doors open if their work volume was reduced by 80%? Who would blink first? Also, don’t assume a free market approach would solve the problem, as instead of letting the system work for weeks, months, years, (higher wages, improved work conditions), I’d bet a nickel the powers that be would step in and authorize increased PIW use, or approve other ways to avoid the issue.

Seek the truth.

Agreed

What if appraisers did not sign up with them? Then what? Would they do the appraisals? How do you manage appraisers if you do not have any? If appraisers (some of us) do not prepare the appraisal for them, how do they make their income or pay their bills? How long could these AMCs stay in business if appraisers refused to accept any assignment from them? How could these AMCs continue to be a pain in our ass if they have no income provided by some of us? Money talks and bullshit walks and always has. Cut them off at the paycheck! (or continue to be at their mercy forever)

That one changed a while ago. The use of Mercury only requires xml, which all software provides, and you do not need to have alamode to use mercury. You probably do for some whom use plug ins, but for the better non amc clients, they don’t use plug ins so you should still have access. Just recently I viewed some distributor side solicitations which also reiterated this. Remember, the coupling of alamode and mercury was at first, owned by the same company. Then alamode sold, mercury was uncoupled. Then open access. Then, a surprising turn of events, now both are owned by a singular company again… So really anything could happen but a rule of thumb, don’t buy the more expensive subscriptions to any software, avoiding distributors whom use proprietary plug ins is a good thing. The proprietary plug in is nothing more than an overly detailed rule checker list which adds review correlative requirements over and above the appraisers internal software EO checker. This defies logic to imagine the amc tech staff whom are not appraisers selecting which rules apply for their company but that is in fact what happens. If a company wanted a gotcha for each and every ‘review’, they merely need to check more review boxes. The internal EO reviewer in alamode is very important, that would be my primary side by side investigation point if looking at new software. Alamode can miss dates now and then, does not always have spell check work on 4-6 page, index pages don’t overflow properly, but those issues would be minor compared to inadequate internal EO checkers with other softwares. Although not customizable, it still is thankfully almost all-encompassing regarding FNMA hard stop rule sets and a variety of other correlative warnings. That should be the appraisers primary focus because that’s the illusion gaming part of it all. There would be no need for plug ins and other review software which they sell to distributors, if they would allow the appraisers those complete tools in the first place. What a racket, a million complex rules, one company supplying all the review tools, give half the tools to the report developers and the other half to the distribution side ‘reviewers’. The profit incentive to market the tools to the distributors is one key reason that assignment and software has become so unfair lately. Any company whom holds out on tools for appraisers and markets those tools to lenders can not say they’re prioritizing appraisers first. I’ve had access within Mercury distributor side, along with other platforms, these programs routinely offer more tools to lenders than they do to appraisers. Where is my open order capacity setting? Where is my proximity and by zip customizable per individual client control feature, my ability to scroll through participating subscriber lists and create a panel, my specific customizable review rule checklist with hundreds of alert for this or not check box options? Those are just a few notable features distributors are given, but appraisers are not. If you want to guarantee your question will not be answered, ask questions about features and controls, inquiring if there is fair balance between what lenders and amc’s are offered vs what the appraiser is offered. Subscribing to plug ins is akin to paying more, to receive less.  If the appraisal software providers were to give every possible feature to the appraiser, we could self manage assignment platforms and distributors with no middle man what so ever. Seeing the bigger picture yet?

9. False. There is no FNMA rule which states I must keep my fee, which the borrower actually pays, a secret.

Let’s go fishing…and party! Southwest Airline from Hobby for about $330 round trip, luggage included! Check it out! Of course…that does not cover room or food or excursions, golf cart rental, water taxi, etc…..but compare the total cost to an appraisal conference and we will have more fun. I am trying to be honest about the cost…however it should be cheaper than the Appraiserfest! No profit to me (Not trying to profit)…. just a good time! Why the hell not? LOL
If you like to snorkel or scuba this is the place for you! This country has Mayan Ruins, Jungle, mountains, etc. etc. check out the videos on youtube, etc.

I have an email address that you can contact if you have interest. I do not have all of the answers or even most of them but I will try to help. This is a world class deep sea fishing trip, you and your spouse will get your fill of lobster and conch! The Belkin beer is awesome! Those interested can group up with me and we will plan some fishing trips or whatever,,,I am not a travel agent,,,,just an appraiser like you that wants to have fun. contact me at: Redbayou@aol.com

exactly

I really liked the video for Reggora may have to test drive it.