Hello Mr. Baggins: Of course you know the really simple secret: Just be thorough, competent and honest. That is about it. Maybe lucky too!

If you’ve retired and moved on and appraising is so bad why do come back to appraisal boards?

Focus on other things like health… and organizing or new skills or relationships or hobbies or whatever…

I am looking to get out of the field. The suggestions are great but the income is low unless you get volume.

Cut expenses!

Another area of work. Try real estate acquisition companies that purchase single family dwellings for wholesale/fix n flip. These type of companies buy single family dwellings that need work. These companies are looking for as-is and as-repaired values in a narrative format for internal purposes only before making an offer. I work directly for such a company. It’s been a very nice change of pace.

Or, rather than retraining, rebranding, and remarketing yourself in 5 different ways you can simply move to ONE career that actually pays more than beans and gives you a forty to fifty hour work week. One example of many: web coding. HUGE demand… 4 to 6 months training.

https://www.bankrate.com/home-equity/reviews/

Search HUDs list of approved lenders too. You can google online appraisers lists and get on them for free. Don’t join without reading the TOS for pay to play sites who just want to rob your automated payment method for fake appraisal assignments or inquiries. I had a bad experience with ThumbTack. Be careful with any other service guides requiring your CC to join so they can steal referral fees from you automatically. Some of them refuse to remove your company listing and will use your listing for their own spam or marketing purposes.

The AMC model is set up to profit the easy street. Any company that sends you an invite should be looked up online for jobs reviews or company reviews so you can avoid the bad actors. Employee reviews tell you a lot about the company management. AMC model is broken model of industry abuse & intimidation out in plain site because the mortgage industry has gone to offloading blame downstream. All (AMCs,Lenders, Banks, GSE’s, Borrowers) want is your license, signature and liability to blame and claim you harmed them. Now you CA appraisers have mortgage disclosures about Value discrepancy or bias complaints which should have had language about the correct complaint process of ROV’s and conducting peer Standard 3 reviews. The claims focus is not on getting the truth, its on getting borrowers their money back and then getting YOU out of the way. Its not focused on improving the appraisal industry its focused on a straighter line to getting $$. The industry is looking at your work to meet the minimum USPAP requirements and that YOU SIGNED for it. They dont really care because they know if there’s a complaint, YOU the appraiser are going down- then on to the next who will Play Ball for less money until they go down, –then on to the next. They keep your name on the panel but attach a profile tag ‘Do Not Use’ and never inform you as they fly under the regulation radar. Why do I know, I’ve gotten emails with Removed after my name and another email asking that I verify I was not on WellsF Do Not Use List.

Appraisers are the ones left accountable because AMC’s will settle complaints directly or with their own EO for a low fee and avoid court -why not of course.
The new PAREA program is the next band aide instead of fixing DUDD Funk with fee disclosures. I believe all appraisers fees should match what VA pays period. Why cant your state representatives agree you deserve a Reasonable and customary fee that the gubberment itself has agreed is fair. Fee manipulation intimidation is why the industry lacks appraisers. AMC’s cant exist paying decent wages and as long as the State Reps dont value your opinion or wont support you in your role nothing will change.

Straighter lines to money is get the appraisers removed from the mortgage industry and then bring in new rubber stamps appraisers for over-valuation, sellers profits and GSE’s to make more loans. The AMCs have nothing to lose supporting this model. New proposed MWaters legislation for grants to trainees is set to create an easy path for minorities but not for all races. What?? Grants to trainees funding tuition/expense as free money like hand outs that don’t need to be repaid is a offensive move to those of us who suffered greatly to get where we are. Free money to get trained is a disaster. That should be regulated assistance program as a Student Loan like every other education loan in our country. What do you think those paid off trainees will think when they are asked to push values and they got funded by the legislation passed to benefit the investors. I think that answer is clear, they will repay the favor until they get caught doing fraud or USPAP violations. PAREA is going to be Appraisal Institute wanting the education rights for profit & to stay relevant with FHA authority. A grand idea a grand solution to feed the Industry’s grinding machine just like the AMC’s are feeding the grinding machine with no care or worry. Anyone going through PAREA needs to have a special identifier attached to their license qualification and be accountable for the training they received. Today some people look at getting into appraisal just for a jobs program they can get gov funding for classes and paid living expenses which is proposed by the new legislation. The new trainees will get funded to go through the motions. They will have to be very very good test takers to pass any 7 hour state exam. PAREA program needs its own accountability on licensee complaints matching public data AQB/ASC keep track where & how they were trained.

Now Its reported 50% of all GSE loans are using AVM’s with desktops. The new cheap fee products for Desktop work using Aps to allow trainee or 3rd party inspections is just a creative way to get a insured appraiser to sign off on the report. Per Certification the appraiser is liable for ALL information provided to them the relied on to be correct and the AMC and lender laugh all the way to the bank paying you even less and charging the same fee. Be scared as hell using those unencrypted inspection aps like one called GroundWorks which discloses to you on the play store your property video or borrower owner information is uploaded sent over unencrypted communication. YIKES…..Graham Leech Bliley ACT violations for appraisers using those aps when your phone or the data gets breech and borrower gets identity theft and blames You!! Nobody cares… They just need your signature!!! The GSEs need to get out of receivership but cant because they still make too many bad loans with complicit appraisers help accepting all the liability like desperate manipulated people on a crash course with State complaints. State Complaint=No work by AMCs so you are constantly threatened with no work if you don’t play ball for a low fee and Hit that number while you state in your report you complied with AIR. Now the complaints are focused on bias or appraisal GAPS like its your fault the sale price is not supported because buyer wants to over pay, the realtors are incompetent & greedy & predatory lender wants to make any loan they can legally sell off for a profit or foreclose on.

The latest data from UAD made public in 2022 seems to show appraisers are false recipients of value complaints by GSE’s & FHFA. The AMC model wont change until rules of disclosure change and HUD fees to appraisers are mandated. You need to disclose your fee paid on top of your text addendum with the name of the AMC spelled out there in your report without fear.

Look up the rules for AMC’s in your state, most do Not require any appraiser to qualify the AMC license. Why IS that allowed by your state board, why? Any person with no appraisal license in any state can register a company in your state with no Appraiser credentials only a state registered business license. ?? Sorry but that is all wrong and AMC rules must change so that someone from their company takes a share of responsibility. Its time to start building a separate path to finding private work because to have no work or be forced to work for less than a living wage with no other way to survive will not benefit you. For a low fee $250 I think every appraiser should join NAA and write to your state legislators and those sitting on the ASC committee. What is lacking for this industry is that the major Appraisal Group players do not come out with public statements in the form of a Tweet, or a Blog supporting appraisers and their groups lack the lobby strength to make a difference.

We like that simple argument too Jaydee. It’s theft of services to constantly think it’s o.k. to drain appraisers time and resources like we’re advocates of the amc, all our time and energy constantly available to amc’s so they can shop us to infinity on a per diem assignment pattern forever to increase their own profits over our well being. They condition appraisers to become advocates of the amc or you don’t get anything. That’s not how an ethical appraiser should operate. If they returned cost savings to consumers instead of using that as a financial incentive to select the lowest priced appraiser, it would be different. But as we all know, the amc has that financial incentive because they refuse to implement rotational assignment, flat rate to appraisers, and cost plus for their own services, there is simply no way around it.

At one point during the hayday of around 2015, 2016, I was tracking my expense hours to provide amc quotes. Some days I was getting in excess of 300 fee and tat quotes every single day. I would spend approximately 2-4 hours every single day just trying to land orders, even with uncomfortably simple and brief property research like appraisers are supposed to provide. Even then I was lucky to ever work another 40 hours on actual full fee appraisal work. And when I did land orders it was always end of the line complex assignments and I forgot how nice it was to complete simple tasks like condo’s and town homes. That kind of beneficial low stress lower liability work became a distant memory after about 5 years of trying to work with amc’s, if not longer. At one point I was approved down the entire TAVMA list and beyond, as it was exceedingly easy to get approved with new amc panels, still is too. Got that chore done in a week and spent the next decade regretting it. Although I tried to seek them out, I never once ran across an amc whom had a cost plus basis. I came across a few with flat fee and rotational so they were better. But even so, the fee was always a little lower than lender direct. When I nearly got in trouble when lazy amc employees were forgetting to include counter offers, then asking me to revise and rov appraisals to cover for their mistakes, I was enough is enough, pass forever.

Funny story it had been so long since I’d applied anywhere I mistook First American for a default management company because I was tracking down this old interhinx link or something like that, a company which FirstAM had apparently bought out. I did not make the association. I filled out the application only to stare at the FirstAM vendor services agreement again like 14 years later or something which they sent to me in an email. 24 hour tat, immediate updates, penalties, non payment clauses, indemnity agreements, sterling systems records check, auto sharing of data with everyone from that network Joan Trice put together, unnecessary oversight. lol! I was like, please excuse me I thought you were a default management focused company, please erase my application and remove my numbers and such. And just like that I received a half dozen new amc panel invites. Oh darn, my mistake. I’ve quite literally spent more time asking amc’s to stop contact me than I’ve ever spent trying to work with them. And by this time all the panel invites, I don’t even bother responding. Because I keep all those records in a massive digital client file system so I track them down or review them years later. Every few years here they come again with new branding and a new pitch, but it’s the same old company whom failed every qualification metric I threw at them in the past. They’re even changing their forward facing names lately, lol. Like we’ll just retool everything and trick all the appraisers back, lol. Amc’s have become telemarketers recycling an every shrinking contact list. Shoe is on the other foot these days. I just can’t help but continue to advocate for something better for the appraiser profession. One way or another, it’s going to happen.

Holy smokes Will, that’s like truly impressive. What is your secret or do you have any tips for us? Wow, normally I’m claiming that at twenty but you’re twice that and then some. I lose sleep at night sometimes thinking of how if a first complaint hits, it may be my last and I’d simply walk away. Thanks.

What the majority of appraisers would accept. If an appraiser is good enough to be on panel, they should expect a fair share of assignments. It’s no surprise that with such little respect paid to appraisers ability to maintain operational status, appraisers consistently devalue and under prioritize amc’s. Why can’t amc’s simply distribute orders fairly in a rotational manner to all panel appraisers?

Again, a self inflicted wound. You think things are rolling along nicely, then the next appraiser ‘sets their own fees’, and you’re toast, the entire workload compromised, client relationships fizzle out and the amc says you have to compete by fee if you want continued assignments, make tough choices, cut back, and lay off the new hires. Violations of federal registry guidelines on appraiser selection based on competency and not fee but who actually follows or cares about those rules anyways. As far as sitting down to figure out solutions, people tried that, nobody listened.

https://appraisersblogs.com/appraisal/20-reasons-appraisers-should-get-paid-full-fee/

I can sell the lender on my services and attain those fair fees but what stops the amc’ from being able to represent on my behalf equally if not better? These are matters of competent agency. Why would anyone in their right mind accept an agent representative who’s sole intention is to sell you down the river and cut your income, put one in a situation ripe for future exploitation and operational instability without notice? Amc’s helped many appraisers remember or learn the hard way, we do a better job of representing ourselves.

We respect there are still a few stragglers and good people left in the amc industry but what we don’t understand is why. If you want better service, better appraisers, to grow and stop struggling or ever taking losses, just go with a simple reliable program. Go against the grain and advertise to appraisers; rotational distribution, stable reliable C&R fees which match or better the VA Panel fees. And that’s it, it’s that easy. You’ll never get past the lenders whom use amc’s though, they use amc’s to take advantage of the process, not for the betterment of the appraisal profession. Appraisers can’t get around it so many choose not to participate. Get better at sales, at representing appraisers rather than pandering to lenders. We’re all just standing by looking for better opportunities and far better representation.

Likewise, I now have 45-years of no E&O claims, no lawsuits and no Board of Appraisal complaints, discipline or sanctions. No known lender losses due to my work either. Proud of that even though there is almost no work out there right now.

I am with Garett. I have been an appraiser for over 20 years and also own a small AMC. I always push clients to go with cost plus pricing. Some refuse and we do flat fee pricing, with complexity increases. When it comes to flat fee pricing, we make extra profit on some files and no profit on others…in fact, we even lose money on some assignments, but it is what it is. The clients that choose the flat fee pricing understand that the model is not necessarily fair to their clients as some of their clients pay more for their assignment, while others pay less. They choose it because of TRID and disclosure requirements. In every case, our invoice outlines the appraiser fee and the management fee.

I know why AMCs have a bad reputation and there are many that deserve to be shut down. We treat our appraiser’s as partners and our appraisers set their fees. Unfortunately, there are many bad apples in the appraisal industry just like there are bad AMCs. Competency is also a major issue. We have a solid panel of preferred appraisers who’s quality is off the charts and they always follow through. However, there are many appraisers who give false ETA’s, outright lie and do mediocre work. Many of the “problem” appraisers feel they are justified in their behavior because you know, AMCs suck.

I would LOVE to start a group of appraisers and AMC leaders get together to help solve the problems. There are many AMCs still getting away with paying dirt…the giants come to mind. They literally pay $125 (with a 15 tech fee) for their new hybrid 1004. I can’t believe any appraiser would accept that, but they do. We also have AMCs who do not pay their appraisers on time, but they somehow get away with it. If we could all sit down and discuss the issues all the way around, maybe we could clean up our industry and get the bad actors out of the way.

I believe that the comptroller is not in the decision matrix for this. The VA is not paying us directly, payment comes from the lender. That would be outside the OCC’s purview unless I am mistaken.

The chief appraiser does not make comptroller policy.

But they haven’t. That is still the bottom line. Don’t you think the appraiser’s will balk at a pay cut? You’re working for the government directly, the government drags their feet on everything. I know first hand USN/Ret.

They will, the chief appraiser has said as much.

But they haven’t as of yet. Now have they?