i would LOVE to see those reports. you and i would never accept those assignments because we are doing our jobs as required of us, and we know there is NO WAY that any appraisal is ever worth that kind of money. if an appraiser is doing EVERYTHING he/she is suppose to be doing – inspecting the property, measuring the property, taking the comp pics, doing the research, due diligence, explaining properly, etc., then he/she would KNOW that an appraisal could never be worth $200.

taking into consideration everything such as gas, writing a GOOD report, our time, software, state and federal taxes, health care, education, etc., a 1004 is easily worth $500 all day long. too many appraisers do not understand the true value of the job we do or our professionalism. (i guess it doesnt help when we have no control over our fees anymore either).

i used to think that most appraisers were some of the smartest people i know. i am beginning to think they are the dumbest.

the bleeding continues . . . . .

OUTSTANDING Baggins!

I used to quote shotgunned orders at $650 but $500 is cool too. Also heartily applaud you for sticking to your guns on the $15. Its not the fifteen bucks; it’s the constant undercutting! IF AMCS had been paying $450 or more to begin with, we’d not be having these posts and discussions. Now it is too late. $450 is not enough anymore. Not with UAD; 1004MC and CU to contend with.

Join me in the American Guild of Appraisers (AGA) and lets start working for the ‘reasonable’ part of customary and ‘reasonable’!  http://www.appraisersguild.org

There are some of us out there to blame also. In one of the areas I cover appraisers are accepting full appraisals for $200 from AMC’s! There is no way I’ll ever except that measly fee! Glad that I took the time to diversify my business and being in more than one area.

Bubba Jay you are 100% right. AMCs have never thrived in a competitive environment. Just look at the history of LSI; ATM or Ocwen (who had to change their name because they became so tainted!).

The real problem is they produce no product. Neither physical nor intellectual. They provided a service and once the successful model is out there, any monkey can duplicate it.

To compete effectively, they first cut fees. They didn’t have to do ANYTHING to cut quality-that happened all by itself! THEN they started offering pre screening for value (pretend we don’t know anyone at an AMC running ‘comp checks’ first!). Some pay kickbacks (WHAT A SHOCK!). All are seen by banks and direct endorsement lenders as giving them ‘enough’ cover for statutory compliance requirements.

Of course none actually DO the things regulators charged banks and lenders to assure get done under FIRREA or Dodd-Frank.

At best, they gave banks ‘cover’ for inflating “appraiser fees” and pocketing the surplus.

The real solution is simple. IF a lender is big enough to make decisions about lending a quarter of a million dollars (times many hundreds or even thousands of transactions) of government sponsored or insured or guaranteed loans, then they are big enough to have their own internal ordering departments AND to be required to conform to appraiser independence regulations. They don’t need illusory separate departments. What they need are PRISON SENTENCES for anyone that violates independence requirements!

Congress is so far removed from ethics OR honesty that they forget it USED to play an important part in American business. It USED to be celebrated, rather than scorned by certain college academic elitists.

The Andrew Cuomo experiment in granting huge windfalls to title companies was and remains an abysmal failure. Most of the originators have abandoned the ‘profit center’ and gone on to new scams. All that’s left are the second and third strings.

Does an attorney make his work files available to clients on request? How about a CPA engaged in tax advising? A psychiatrist?

My work files are just that MY work files. They may or may not be intellectual property, They may or may not have privileged data. They may or may not even be legible to others. They do not have to be. Because they are MINE!  Period!

I am a State General Certified Real Estate Appraiser; A Realtor(r), hold two appraisal designations from NAR, am a peer review committee chairmen for my appraisal guild and am a former Senior Appraiser with the Treasury Department.

If you do not believe me qualified to perform your appraisals do not hire me!   MY ONLY response opt being asked for a work file by anyone other than my state regulators or a duly executed subpoena is “GO TO HELL!”

Nahhhh….   Don’t be a defeatist.  Embrace liberty.  Seek and you shall find.  Knock and the doors shall be opened.  You have liberty of choice, and nobody can take that away from you, if you don’t let them.

TomAl thanks for the input, but I put dislike for their reasoning.

BS! They’re blaming us again for all the problems. Must of had enough appraisers jump ship for them to change to optional. Still wouldn’t work for them. Reminds me of another AMC (SL) that I tried working for a few years back. They kept coming back with asinine revision request and when I said bye bye they kept moving their fee up and up. I still said No Thanks!

the bleeding continues . . . . .

Appraisal Workfile – Update 
On 4/28/2015, LenderVend Appraisal Zone posted a notification detailing a policy change that would require panel appraisers to provide a copy of the work file for each appraisal submitted to LenderVend effective 5/21/2015. LenderVend is making a change to that notice as follows:
• LenderVend will make it optional for the appraiser to upload a workfile (instead of a mandatory requirement).
• LenderVend will create a separate upload utility where appraisers can upload their workfiles voluntarily. LenderVend will provide notification to appraisers when this technology is available on Appraisal Zone.
Note: Recent changes to the mortgage industry, investor requirements and regulations have resulted in closer scrutiny of appraisals. Lack of support and documentation in the appraisal make it difficult for the intended users to understand the report. A well-documented and well-supported appraisal reduces turn-time, disputes and questions, while promoting report quality. The leaders in appraisal product quality will secure the majority of market share, which directly benefits the appraisers. The workfile is the responsibility of the appraiser. LenderVend urges its appraiser panel to ensure that appraisers’ research and diligence are documented in their workfile. Reminder. The appraiser’s workfile must be made available upon request by Client and/or designated entities (such as the AMC).”

way too often, i am being asked to waste my time answering questions that are clearly coming from someone who knows a lot less than i do. if uneducated list checkers, sorry, “reviewers”, arent capable of understanding what we do now, how do we expect them to understand the whole darn work file? it seems like the more information we put in our reports to try and make things clearer, the more ammunition we give someone only to nit-pick. the time we spend answering questions is already bad enough, but this would just make matters far worse than they already are.

the bleeding continues . . . . .

The ONLY response I recommend to these types of requests are the following written response: “KMA!”

It means exactly what you think it does. My ‘work file’ is not a completed USPAP compliant appraisal report. It may contain many hypothetical analyses and conditional “what ifs”; or trial and error cross checks that are NOT intended for anyone but myself. IF subpoenaed, I can legally allow a court or attorney to look at it in its raw state. It is enough for highly trained state regulators to duplicate my steps and arrive at similar conclusions. That does NOT mean it has enough data or order to be understood by an underwriter; investor or investors attorney when the BAD LOAN goes bad five years from now!

I cannot believe they even consider suggesting what they have in their article.

I dare say someone will have to PROVE to me that Standard Rule 2 allows me to “communicate” incomplete work file data containing various and sundry initial opinions that may or may not be supported during the development of my appraisal. Data which not only has a chance of being misunderstood; it is a virtual certainty it will not be understood by all the intended users.

thank you VG, but i was being sarcastic. 🙂

Why not just send an AMC representative out each day to shadow the appraiser during every step of the process.  They could even help out by rejecting and selecting comparable sales prior to writing the report.  Come to think of it the shadow could even take a photo of the appraiser taking photos of each comparable sale used (you know…to prove they actually looked at the comps).

Bottom Line: The Valuation Profession can no longer be trusted, regardless of how much experience they have, how many classes they’ve taken, and how many ethics courses they’ve endured.

The profession became a joke in 2009.  Since then (Extortion based ordering model, UAD, CU, Multiple Comps, etc.) residential valuation has become a grotesque caricature of of the incredible career that it once was.  When I think of the appraisal business pre 2009 and 2015 I am reminded of Jocelyn Wildenstein and how obsessive tweaking changed her life…and not for the better.

Hopefully LenderVend will run off all appraisers. Let’s see them manage appraisals if they do not have any!

i dont know about the rest of you, but i have decided that if i am going to be forced to run anything, i will be requiring that either the listing agent or the home owner be there while i do it. no need to up the insurance. i dont need to take on any more liability, especially at this kind of pay.

i can write up a very long list of reasons and stories as to why i touch as little as i have to during my inspections.

once again, over-educated idiots, who have no clue what we really do in our businesses, are creating junk rules and regulations simply to justify their existence.

the bleeding continues . . . . .

Like: Thanks for the information.

Dislike: Just another thing to get blamed for if something is wrong with the appliance the day after we are there. Several years ago had a home inspection on a property we were purchasing and the home inspector broke the end of the dishwasher (5 yr old) locking handle. He felt terrible and I stated don’t worry I’ll fix it and I did. Warning everybody to up your insurance and put in a more heavily worded statement that your not a home inspector, plumber, electrician…etc..etc

…next thing you know, someone will be forcing us to run the dishwasher in the house to see if it works.

Per FHA new handbook effective 09/14/2015

“The Appraiser must operate all conveyed appliances and observe their performance.”