Appraisers, Pull Together and Fight Back!
Dear Real Estate Appraisers of America,
To date, each of you have invested years of your life and tens of thousands of dollars to create your real estate appraisal career. No small feat. You have sacrificed greatly to get to where you are. And, now you are feeling as if everything you have worked so hard for is being stolen away from you.
Tragically, over the last 5 years there has been a whirlwind of events that has resulted in a very frustrating situation for appraisers. AMCs who have been permitted to increase profits by driving down appraiser fees and constantly push for dangerous turnaround times, have largely taken control. Lenders, Fannie Mae, and the like continue to creep up the assignment requirements to dizzying levels.
In spite of this awful situation, there seemed to be no one on the offensive to directly attack the harmful onslaught. Who is out there making real moves to bring appraisers the changes they so desperately need? We couldn’t find anyone or any group that was on a legitimate warpath.
So, in the spring of 2014, likeminded appraisers began meeting together to come up with a plan. They decided that since most of the biggest problems were solidified at the federal level with Dodd-Frank, that is where the problems needed to be solved. Without having any knowledge of how to go about making legislative changes, these appraisers identified a champion who has succeeded in bringing these types of changes for other professions. They identified Federal Advocates, Inc.
Immediately they began working with Federal Advocates, Inc. to develop a “grassroots” strategy to involve the appraisal community. They developed a powerful problem analysis / solution plan (posted on the website). They developed a real strategy to fight back and work toward renewing a profession that could otherwise turn into a total wasteland.
Since then, hundreds of appraisers have become members of this exciting coalition. These appraisers have felt confident about their involvement because every appraiser’s identity is protected so that there can be no unintended consequences. Federal Advocates, Inc. received adequate funding to officially launch their efforts by the summer of 2014. They immediately began contacting every relevant group to introducing the new coalition and unify allies.
In December of 2014 the Appraiser Prosperity Coalition along with Federal Advocates, Inc. conducted face-to-face meetings with key Members in the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the agency given the highest authority over all financial services in the U.S.A).
The good work they are doing is heating up. At this time, the current appraiser members of the Appraiser Prosperity Coalition would like to officially ask each of you to deeply consider joining our ranks of membership. For a very small monthly amount, you can do your part to make a difference in the future of this profession. The coalition needs every single appraiser who cares about the future of this industry to step up to the plate and contribute to this important effort. The more support that is brought to the table, the more work we will be able to pour into the noble cause.
Having already spent tens of thousands of dollars to create your career, will you please consider investing a very small monthly amount of support to redeem our beaten and broken profession? Real Estate Appraisers of America… it is up to us, at this time, to do what we need to do, to pull together, to each throw a little bit in – and fight back. Together we can pull this off!
Join right now by simply visiting www.AppraiserProsperity.com. Check out our plan and then click Join the Coalition. Thank you for your strong consideration.
Sincerely,
Hundreds of Already Committed Appraisers
Appraiser Prosperity Coalition (www.AppraiserProsperity.com)
Federal Advocates, Inc. / Grassroots Division (www.FederalAdvocates.com)
1701 Pennsylvania Avenue, Ste 300
Washington, D.C. 20006
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If I were still in the business I would certainly join your coalition. I submit the following suggestions to the coalition.
*Create a poll this week to get the attention of appraisers. It’s a fine way to get your name out there while people are scouring the web for tidbits on how others are being affected by CU.
*Generate at least one YouTube video on the rape of the appraisal profession to fire up appraisers (preferably more).
*Use TheNationalRealEstatePost.com and Phil with VoiceOfAppraisal.com to get the word out.
*Find a create way to use a platform like KickStarter to raise funds from appraisers. They only pay if you reach your goal.
Best of luck!
Obviously appraisers are unwilling to boycott AMCs or FNMA over fee rape or scope create. Here is a thought that came to me from out of the blue. Childish? Yes Effective? You have no idea how effective this would be IF APPRAISERS WOULD SIMPLY PARTICIPATE. (We all know that they won’t).
Create a website named appraisersfightback.com Appraisers across the U.S. submit a selfie of themselves mooning the powers that have destroyed their profession (Banking Lobby, FNMA, etc.). Compile a few thousand of these selfies along with the comment from each appraiser and I guarantee the concerns from appraisers will finally find their way into national news. I cannot imagine a single active appraiser that wouldn’t participate after this week’s slap in the face.
Wake me up if this organization actually makes any headway. Good reading points though. Suggested reading;
Each of the suggestions are great for ‘getting attention’, THEN we have to have a plan and a way to implement it.
APPRAISERS State Coalitions are part of the solution but they currently lack the numbers to get meaningful Congressional attention and responses.
That’s I why joined AGA. While we have no more appraisers than the coalitions we DO have over a 100,000 professionals of OPEIU plus well over 15 MILLION members and family members of the AFL-CIO that we can call upon. Are we going to launch ‘actions’ by fifteen million people? No.
We are going to launch actions in the form of legislative suggestions by appraisers in conjunction with any coalitions that cooperate; citing our over 15 million members and consumers. THAT gets Congress attention.
Heck, AARP has about 37 million members and their advocates can get scheduled appointments with legislators all around the country as often as they need to with little problem (I used to be one).
If we limit ourselves to coalitions or even ‘coalitions of coalitions’ and had a 100% success rate, we’d still only have 85,000 appraisers. Its just not enough to effect significant, timely changes that are in OUR best interests.
California appraisers, please join me at an introductory teleconference on February 20th at 10 AM PST. Take 30 minutes to learn how to save our profession. No obligation. Just bring an open mind.
Call me at (714) 366 9404 or email me at mike@mfford.com for the call in number and PIN #. Other states are currently being scheduled, but if you do NOT have one set already, then join me in my states session-just remember its 10 AM PST (1PM EST).
I don’t discourage any from joining the articles cited ‘coalition’ but lets keep in mind it is sponsored by other real estate interests, and we had no definitive say in the selection of the advocates, nor in their agenda / proposals to Congress.
As long as this coalition does not put their own interests before those of appraisers, Id say the more voices we have, the better off we will be.
By the way, I liked most of the suggestions of their site. Don’t agree with all; but most are very good.
My main issue would be to stop calling for AMCs to separate fees, inferring that we still want to be paid through AMCs at all. Yes, separate the fees but go back to the traditional payment method of field collection by the appraisers at the door at the time of the appointment.
We should NOT have to allow our fees to be used for AMCs or banks ‘float’ profits; nor should we continue to carry the risk of non payment.
Anyone that thinks AMCs have eliminated appraiser pressure to ‘hit the numbers’ is living in a make believe world. It happens all the time.