Is it now Necessary to Confirm the Verifiability of the Confirmation?
I am quite familiar with the reasoning for providing confirmation of each section and detail within the original report…
It appears that we, as an industry, have finally reached that all time high of stupidity in action. I was recently instructed by an appraisal management company to provide additional MLS sales on a grid to demonstrate market support for my opinion of value because I agreed with the origination appraisal. Had this been something other than a typical residential subdivision where the appraisal used sales from the same development, perhaps I would understand this requirement. Still, one wonders at what point have we crossed into the twilight zone of appraisal review.
I have attested to the confirmation of each section of the appraisal report. I have provided digital copies of all relevant public records, deeds, zoning maps, plat, flood, tax records, not to mention confirmation of MLS for each sale that was provided in the original report. Then a competitive market analysis for competing sales within 12 months of the date of value with a map and full printouts of each competing sale have already been provided. The appraisal was found to have been accurately reported and reasonably concluded. The value was adopted by the reviewer.
Despite all of this, now I am asked to provide additional sales to provide market support to my opinion of value? Really?! Having been a fraud investigator, forensic appraisal reviewer and review appraiser for the last 15 years, I am quite familiar with the reasoning for providing confirmation of each section and detail within the original report. I can even agree with the idea that the competing CMA data is helpful to the analyst at Fannie to determine the relevance of the data provided in the review appraisal. But at what point does the process become burdensome?
As I have stated previously, and oh so many times, sense has become like courtesy it is no longer common.
Common sense isn’t.
It is the AMCs goal to make sure you earn the minimal fee they provide. Was the requirement in the original SOW? If not – tell them an additional fee will be assessed. If they threaten to not pay you – turn them in to the state. What is next – verification that is was actually you that e signed the review?
Some of my favorite redundant waste of time and lack of common sense items in a report are:
1. the 1004D form. i have to add the following comment to every report – “This appraiser appraised the subject property on xx/xx/xxxx”. i guess it takes way too much effort to read “Effective Date of Original Appraisal” at the top of the page.
2. the contract section at the top of page one – is there any financial assistance? merely marking “no” is longer acceptable. now we are being asked to enter a “0” for the dollar amount. is that enough? of course not. now we have to enter “None” for the description too.
if you ask me, i dont think “no”, “0”, and “none” is enough. i really think we should be adding all the words “nada”, zip”, “nix”, “naught”, “zilch”, “not a thing”, “not a bit”, “not anything”, “nil” and “nothing” to our reports too to be even clearer.
it’s because of that type of stupidity that I am working hard at building another business so I can get out of the appraisal business within the next two years. it’s just never enough for these dumb AMCs, and the lenders are just as stupid to use them. I had one lender call me wanting to know where was his report. My answer was “call your AMC and ask them”. The AMC insisted that the subject MUST be viewable in the street pic. Well the subject was in the middle of a corn field, about a 1/4 mile off the road. I told the AMC if they want to see the subject from the road to Google it and enjoy the view and stopped answering they “revision request” after the second time I explained how far from the road the subject was. At least a week passed and the report had still not been delivered to the lender.
i am with you about an exit plan and i know of a few other appraisers locally who are doing the same. in another article, the question was asked, “if things are so bad, why isnt everyone leaving?” well, it takes time, thats why.
i too am re-training myself, and i have already passed a state test in another profession. i just cant handle the stupidity any longer, and the only people who are making money off of my hard work nowadays are the AMC’s. the local MLS, and Exon Mobil. i cant afford to work for free, and everyday we get nearer a point where financially it just isnt worth it anymore.
if the goal is to drive all appraisers out of business, then someone is doing a great job. if it isnt the goal, then big changes need to be made, and fast.
I believe that is the goal – drive everyone out. Who is going to go to college for four years (state college = 112k – my son is there now), then embark on a two year apprenticeship to make $20 an hour?? Better do commercial work or forget about it.
you are forgetting bryan, the four-year college graduate will have to make around $10/hr after all expenses during their entire apprenticeship, before they can make around $20/hr as a licensed independent appraiser. for the apprentice getting in today, by the time they become totally independent in say (3?) years or so, the costs to run an appraisal business will be even more expensive, and the appraisal fees he will receive (as dictated by others of course), will probably still be the same, or more than likely will go even lower than they are today because the banks will still be allowed to make even bigger profits at our expense.
if you ask me, the plan to totally destroy the future of the entire appraisal industry – every software provider, all appraisal organizations, all CE providers, all E&O carriers, every AMC, every appraiser, and all those employees in all those businesses, etc., is working flawlessly.
Don’t despair. Confucius said “take a deep breath.” Just yesterday I was asked to clarify when providing lateral views of a house if northern and southern flank meant right and left side. I inhaled deeply.
ROFLMAO!
Next time just say port or starboard and let them figure it out!
i’m a city boy. i though northern and souther flank were parts of a cow. what a world of amazement haystack.
That depends on which direction the cow is facing, Tom.
Show me an amc that takes the time to train it’s staff what the 8 page scope of work requirements actually mean, and I’ll fall over backwards in my chair. “Appraiser to state they have complied with: AIR,TILA,FIREA,FNMA,HUD, and state regulatory policies and guidance.” Well how the heck can I do that when the assignment company who manages the order has clearly overstepped the boundary between administrative and development review? It’s doubtful any single employee at most amc’s have even read one of those documents in their entirety, much less memorized them. It’s equally as doubtful that appraisers who answer those questions actually know the content either. As I like to say lately; Being an appraiser is as easy as memorizing war and peace twice. I give a sampling of those documents a yearly re read, as I need to stay refreshed. / It’s sure a good thing that appraisers and amc staff are not quizzed on their proper understanding of those processes, or there would be nobody but me and a handful of other brainiac nerd bookworm types left to do the work. And we certainly don’t work as fast or cheap as those ‘other guys’. Get an employee so I could help stem these systemic under training and over servicing issues? Take the time to educate the 10,000 new amc employees? Sure? Trainee pays me, and I’ll need a 3x + fee multiplier immediately for all work orders. This industry will continue it’s downhill slide. Somewhere along the line the appraiser gained the reputation for the last stop for borrower cost savings. Sorry. Charlie don’t surf. As far as those reviewer requests go, they’ve got to establish their value in the lending process some how. If they don’t have what it takes to know the actual regulatory structure and teach that to their employees, there is essentially nothing an appraiser can do about it. Just charge more to make it worth your time. Every time an amc sacks me with that kind of reviewer activity, two important actions happen. I immediately argue the merit of the correction, and immediately pump the fee by at least $100 dollars, if not $200+. If they’re ‘have to find something’ sort of clients, regardless of my work quality, the fee jumps to $550+ immediately.
this just in – next year it will be mandatory that all appraisers buy and wear one of these at all times while doing appraisal work. you know, to verify all the verifications that we verify.
what you are seeing though, is last years model. next years model will have just as many video machines pointing at the appraiser, as you see pointing away from the appraiser. you know, to verify the verification, that we are verifying that we are the ones actually wearing the thing while doing appraisal work,
You’ve TRUMPED me in the appraisal cynicism department Bubba. Thankfully you candy coat yours in humor. Much like Donald Trump I am too politically incorrect for my own good. Great photo BTW.
Wow. MORE cynical than even RA? Clearly you meant on this one topic right?
The minute they required you to provide different comparables and to independently develop your own opinion rather than to simply verify the credibility of the original appraisal they changed it from an appraisal review to an appraisal. Id send them an invoice for both assignments.
..ok, lets be honest. I’d have told them flat out to go to hell.
Interesting to read these old comments. With many outfits, that’s the current standard, one has to reform an alternative appraisal under the guise of appraisal review. To back into the same number or not to… I gave up on reviews coming from the origination level. “That’s a new assignment” conversations are some of the most informative instruction appraisers receive. I’ve got a long intro about limited scope of work these days.