Since I last wrote on this thread a year ago, I joined the AGA. (American Guild of Appraisers); http://www.appraisersguild.org . I’ve found myself agreeing more and more with “Retired Appraiser” and appreciate him for being the necessary goad that he is. I also joined NAR as a full fledged REALTOR (r) which nearly ALL appraisers can do; and became designated by NAR (GAA & RAA). There is a long range plan associated with that.

More importantly, I also found the people Dustin was talking about. Peter Vidi; our unpaid Guild President Leo Regensburger, his right hand man, and Jan Bellas our National Marketing Coordinator and spark plug of the organization. By the way, you can reach any of them at 1 (800) 660-1835.

In the past three months, there was not a week that went by in which I didn’t hear of some horrific new potential or actual career destroying abuse of appraisers. These were not isolated incidents or anecdotal tales. As the [pompous sounding but necessarily parsed] National Appraiser Peer Review Committee Chairman who investigates and responds or recommends response to these individual issues I can state the number of instances is growing. The threat and risk to good appraisers being referred for investigation to their State Boards is increasing drastically. Through no fault of their own! Being an MAI, SRA, IFA, ASA, GAA, RAA, etc. does not protect you from this. Who do YOU call when you need help?

We’ve already written letters to Governors, Governmental Labor Relations Boards, Individual Lenders, Attorneys and others on behalf of our members. We have already seen numerous successes. So far we have NOT had a single definitive failure in our efforts to resolve our members problems! No doubt we have been blessed so far though statistically that cannot hold up forever. However, the point is that we ARE doing something and we ARE making progress!

If you are one of those (like I used to be) that cannot abide the term ‘union’, OPEN YOUR EYES! we understand unions past reputations and we have no intention of being just another corrupt voting block for one favored political party. We WILL set our own destiny. In the process we may well educate our sponsors.

Not convinced? OK, then answer this. “How will YOU address or handle the MANDATORY complaint referral to your state board when your client ‘shops’ your value because you would not change it (raise it)?

You appraise a brand new house for the sale price of $750,000. Its the highest sale in the project. You at the extreme upper end of what you believe is the reasonable range of market value; but you documented your work well and strongly supported your conclusion. You even had a same price comparable from the developers adjacent project that’s a near model match. A week later the lender realizes they made a mistake. An addendum to the escrow instructions supposedly not then in their possession modified the sale price to $810,000 due to $50,000 more in upgrades the buyers decided they needed; AND $10k added to cover seller concessions to the buyer (they are called something else, but a ‘credit’ not previously there shows up too).

You cannot support the ‘new’ higher price either as a new appraisal or a modification via addendum. Lender says the tract sales manager told them a competitors project three miles away sells for $800,000 to $900,000. You checked it out and all sales and neighborhood are superior to your subject. Your data shows you are still at $750,000. This famous Banks In house AMC Regional Appraisal Manager says you are killing the deal AND they have another appraiser who already said he can ‘bring it in’ at the sale price using the ‘new comps’. You hold firm.

They do a desk review of your work. You disagree with its results and hold firm. YOUR appraisal report is forwarded to their National Appraisal Review headquarters, in say, Phoenix. You are notified next in writing that you have been suspended (or removed completely) from their approved roster of appraisers for various USPAP offenses including a misleading appraisal report with a low value.

Three months later your state board asks for your work file. NOW it is a crap shoot! You did a great job but your regression analyses were not absolutely definitive. They are arguably subjective. Same with limited pairings you used. Your M&S cost figures are lower than those the developer provided to the lender. The LEAST that happens is you have six months of worry ahead; including reporting the incident to your E&O provider as required. You also retained an attorney, because you are in Minnesota or similar state perceived as having an over reactive enforcement board to make up for past years laxity; or more interested in ‘scoring’ large fines. True or not, you have a mess on your hands.

Can’t happen to you? Far fetched? WRONG! Lenders are not allowed to shop appraisers OR to do reviews just to justify second appraisals. Despite that, their AMCs do it all the time. Also, in order to justify ordering the second (higher) appraisal they HAD to find deficiency in your work. Dodd-Frank also REQUIRES the lender to refer deficient appraisals to the state regulators. It is NOT optional anymore.

By the way, even if you prevail with the state, it does not get you back on their list OR FNMA’s or Freddies! Do you think you or your state coalition has the power to influence Freddie Mac or the lenders regulators? Guess again my friends. Several state coalitions are wonderful organizations, but limited in their scope and effectiveness.

The above ‘incident’ was a compilation of three recent cases I reviewed and worked on through AGA. One already succeeded, with the appraiser being reinstated. Two are pending and likely to take awhile. One of those may become a new legal test case potentially to be brought by the Appraisers Guild (AGA). That is till being considered.

We need YOU right now. Respectfully, you also need “us” just as much. We want to end unfair blacklisting; establish a rehabilitation& reinstatement  process for those who made past errors, and we want to focus on the “reasonable” side of customary and reasonable fees. We want to retake our profession and insist on being treated as the highly trained professionals that we are. There are many other issues we’d like to take on as well, but we need your bodies and financial support to do so! Feel free to call me at (714) 366 9404 anytime.

Lets put some of the independence back into being an “Independent Fee Appraiser” and ALL of the professionalism back into being an appraiser!

Dear Retired Appraiser,

We don’t need a gripe site slanted to stir up home owners to fight for what WE need and want.

We need to focus PRIMARY efforts on OUR needs; not to dilute our message by straying off into the weeds of homeowner issues, valid as those may be.

Respectfully disagree.

Each of us have been “trying to organize” for years now (at least since 2009). In California we had the Ca. Coalition of Appraisal Professionals. GREAT people. Rey Cano of Malibu Appraisal STILL sends us each very helpful emails monthly. Problem is they had too little participation to remain viable.

I AM going to join the AGA ($275 a year). They will be exactly as WE make them. Trying to reinvent the wheel (union) when one exists will just waste another five years.

Dustin (The Appraiser Coach) is 100% right in his union advice-& I don’t often find myself in agreement with him. READ about the AGA. Most of what WE don’t like about unions is not applicable to AGA. Also we will NOT find stronger advocacy than the OPIEU of the AFL-CIO.

I have been a member of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), AND United Steel Workers (in a different life, eons ago). Neither were worth a damn. At least AGA has tried to DO SOMETHING!

Don’t wait on The Appraisal Institute. They’ve lost their direction. Don’t count on Appraisal Foundation either. THEY have become just another huge federal agency designed to promote self growth.

My son was just given suspension for the exact same thing that you had from LandSafe. Must be on their list to accuse people of missing busy streets. He went up and took about 5 pictures and sent it to them showing there was no cars anywhere. It was a route# and may have been busy 20 miles away. They must be trying to end the business because they are doing a good job with their lies. I heard in class that they have 1000 pat phrases of wrong doings that are just thrown at any good appraisers. They want total control and we aren’t included. 10 yrs there won’t be any appraisers or management companies only the greedy crooked bank.

Agreed. There are nearly a dozen groups that say they are fighting for appraisers but it goes nowhere.

Wouldn’t it be great if these groups could unite for one cause? Independent in spirit but united temporarily for a single purpose. If you can that off Dustin you’ll earn the title Grand Wizard.

Best Of Luck

I recommend that you take the fight directly to the homeowner and expose the crime there. Expose the crime, get them fired up, and you have instant an instant mutiny on your hands. Remember Molly Katchpole? Bank Of America remembers her…vividly. The only difference being that the national media was quick to expose her cause. They refuse to touch this issue.

If you want a coalition or angry mob Dustin (either will do) turn to homeowners. They were given 1/10 of the screwing that appraisers were but they have a knack for getting wrongs righted when they are given the full story.

I’m willing to turn over the keys of http://www.BankRape.com to you coach if you are willing to work it from this angle. We’ve removed nearly all references to appraisers from the site because it was confusing the message to consumers. We’ve also abandoned efforts to garner attention in the media and turned to the poor man’s news network (but just as effective) as a means to getting the word out to consumers (TOPIX). Topix has over 10,000,000 readers who love nothing more than gossip. In this particular case the gossip is 100% truth.