Mike,
we are grateful to you and appreciate your contributions on this blog, for getting the conversations started, for educating and informing appraisers about key issues affecting all of us, and volunteering your time to help your peers. We, at AB, love hearing from you!

I appreciate the call I received from Brian Trotier who provided a LOT of background. The position insurers find themselves in is not that dissimilar than the position appraisers find themselves in with respect to AMCs.

We all KNOW what the obvious solutions are, but our individual business needs preclude us from joining together to DO what needs to be done. Hopefully FREA and AGA will be able to work together on this and other issues in the future.

Once again I can’t say how grateful I am to have this blog available to all of us. I’ve received more calls and emails as a result of this blog than any other information source I use. Great for both networking, and informing ourselves & each other about appraisal issues and concerns.

Other good sources include WorkingRE and Rey Cano over at Malibu Appraisal. Thanks to all but especially:

Thanks AB!

He is being sued for non-payment of school taxes for two years and his property taxes have not been paid. The IRS and Dept of Justice are listed as defendants which would lead me to believe they have an interest in his property likely to suspicion that he did not pay taxes on money earned and that he “earned” the money in an illegal manner. The last couple of times he was arrested he couldn’t seem to come up with the bail money and had to use a bail bondsman. His bail was $500 and $1000.

I believe he is a con man and would think his companies are actually Ponzi type schemes (and this may explain the Dept of Justice interest in his home).

I first became interested in this man due to the way he and his family behave. Every day for a year his wife cut me off in the carpool line. She would bypass the line, go straight to the front, double park with her flashers going and wait for her girlie to jump in and then take off. Her children are obnoxious bragging about how rich they are and how big their house is and the fact that they would never buy anything on sale. I thought to myself “what does this man do that they seemingly have so much money and are so flashy”. A little internet research and I came to see that he has a long history of criminal activity and scamming/bottom feeding.

While all this going on his still has lawn service, his wife posts about how great her house looks after the window cleaners have come and they still act like rules are for other people.
He is a toothless shark whose house of cards should collapse soon.

Thank you for helping others to see how to not be afraid of him and his lawsuits. Hopefully he gets his just desserts soon.

Keep on keeping people aware.

Then I need to point out that the article itself seems to wander off into different issues with no clear sense of direction other than “Ganters bad & appraisers vulnerable.”

Are appraisers being asked to change the American legal system? IF so, you just lost all the democrat readers. To act as attorneys ourselves and pursue out of state “review” appraisers? Oppose banking interest lobbies? All of the above?

IF an entity or entities are out there filing nuisance suits, then who better to put an end to them than the very E&O insurers that are the bait for such suits in the first place? Most appraisers don’t have either the money OR THE ABILITY to counter sue. E&O coverage includes the right of the insurer to ‘settle’ cases even where appraisers not only say “No, please do not do that”, but “HELL NO! Don’t Do It!”

ALL the E&O company attorney has to do are those very things they tell US to do! They can compel copies of the so called reviews to be provided (which themselves can then be reviewed for USPAP compliance and adequacy). They can then post copies of those reviews on the internet for ALL appraisers to see and to hold the quality of work up for the reviewers peers to see and opine about “in the public interest” ; and or  file multiple complaints to the state agencies.

No doubt FREA and others do not want to litigate these cases. Until they do, the suits wont stop. Use the same gunshot analogy. You can’t shoot yourselves in the foot and then expect US to somehow bail you out. The next time an appraisers insists they did nothing wrong, DON’T SETTLE the case!

Find out WHO is selling these and other discounted bulk loans. Are they acquiring them from FNMA? IF so, have THEY complied with FNMA’s own bidder requirements and guarantees? Those are pretty strict. Possibly the E&O providers can get the Ganters disqualified for future bids?

I REALLY want to be on the E&O provider side on this, but they make hard do so. HOW ABOUT HELPING US OUT WITH LIMITING LIABILITY VERBIAGE that will make it through FNMA?

At a minimum how about sending summaries (ONLY with original appraisers permission) or case citations to the American Guild of Appraisers (AGA) so that we can build up a database of offenders?

IF Mr. Trotier and FREA are serious, then contact the AGA (OPEIU/AFL-CIO) all well as other professional peer groups such as AI; ASA, NAIFA, etc. and lets develop a coordinated plan to oppose these types suits. You can reach AGA at (301) 220-4100 and ask for Peter Vidi (President); or call me at (&14) 366 9404 (Mike Ford-Peer Review Committee Chairman: and other “Special Projects”). Among us we can certainly arrange for local area expertise; possibly at no cost.