Black Cat Causes Fair Housing Issue with AMC
An appraiser was required by an AMC to edit/crop the photos in an appraisal report because of a black cat. The AMC claimed that the black cat violated fair housing act. This was the response of the AMC in regard to the cat:
“Please be advised that the following issues were found: a cat appears in the rear open patio photo and the landscaping photo. Please edit or crop this photo accordingly, as this is a fair lending issue for the client.”
Fast forward the video below to 1 minute:
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That had to be PCV Murcor or Appraiser Loft before they bit the dust. I submitted a report once to one of these two companies along with a ton of photos because of the numerous issues the property had. The third photo (typically used for the street scene) showed one of many photos that I took of the front of the home. The photo was clearly labeled (Front Photo III). The AMC asked me why there was a photo of a house in the street scene. I said there was not as each of the 15+ photos were correctly labeled. We went around and around over removing the photo. It came to a head when they sent over 40+ comparable sales and asked me to review each sale and address in detail why we chose not to use these sales. When I offered to complete the work for $50 per comp they threatened to cancel the order that had already been completed and rested in their computer banks.
In response, I turned them in for coercion and attempting to change our value. I received payment via FedEx the following day.
In hindsite I now realize that a computer was reviewing their documents and would only recognize a street in the 3rd place photo location. This is the primary reason that the majority of AMCs appear to be a collection of innept bubbling A Holers. Their high school phone kids are simply relaying instructions handed to them that are generated by computers.
Now you have a clue why Appraiser Loft bit the dust. The rest will follow in time.
This article reflects one single instance regarding events that happen every day of the week. If the persons handling the appraiser, appraisal review, and appraisal management knew what they were doing, the proverbial litter would not have hit the fan with this one. Some other examples if industry terms and approaches amc’s are clueless about are as long as the industry issues themselves.