Comments on: Usual & Customary? According to Who?

By: bubba jay

bubba jay — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 03:21:42 +0000

the ONLY way we will ever get reasonable and customary fees is if WE, submit an invoice for the work have done! THATS IT. a quoted or billed fee should never come from anyone else. we should be able to bill for the work we have been asked to do. the fee we will be paid for our appraisal should never come from an AMC or anyone else for that matter.

secondly, if an AMC wants paid for their work, then so be it. BUT, their fee should NEVER come out of someone elses pocket, including ours. the AMC should be a line item cost similar to title work, termite inspection, whatever. they are another service, let them bill the consumer for their service.

reasonable and customary fees for us are a total farse and will never happen, as long as an AMC or a bank is in control of our fees, and their profit is tied into what we are paid.

keep adding work to my report, i dont care, but i expect to be paid for it. our fees have not gone up in 10 years, but the workload certainly has. a step in the right direction to save this profession and keep good appraisers, is to pay them appropriately based on the work that is asked of them, and their exposure to liability, both which are very high right now.

until at least this happens, you will continue to lose more and more people.

By: Paul Lander

Paul Lander — Sun, 26 Oct 2014 00:20:07 +0000

“Usual and customary” fees were mandated so that the newly established AMC’s would be guaranteed a profit so that many of these new corporations would form and thrive. Of course no politician or bureaucrat was concerned that the guaranteed profit for AMC’s was taking money out of the appraisers pocket and that many of the best appraisers would leave the industry. The neophyte appraisers living in mommy and daddy’s basement would take any fee offered by the AMC’s. Appraisers are currently powerless.

By: Prolink Amc

Prolink Amc — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 15:20:26 +0000

We being a non-national AMC we are appraisers and we pay full fees to our panel. We don’t nickel and dime the appraisers and our clients appreciate our ability to take care of them and our appraisers in order to get a quality appraisal within a reasonable time. We do, however still deal with difficult LOs that think it is still the old days but for the most part they appreciate us and our overall structure.

When you talk with a national AMC you generally are getting someone who may have never seen a 1004 let alone know what one is. I know someone who worked in compliance for an AMC and didn’t know anything about an appraisal, just how to order one for the cheapest and quickest they could find to make the company as much money as possible and hose the appraiser in the process.

National AMCs are ruining the appraisal business and what appraisers work for. If they paid good fees and gave some respect to appraisers it would be one thing, however that is not the case anymore and they are going to end up getting their clients and appraiser panel into trouble.

By: Benji

Benji — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:24:27 +0000

The “Profession” needed change. It needed Independence. Only an enslaved mentality would call it an Industry. Independent Appraisers are doing fine. At least I am. I use my Independence to the fullest. Unfortunately, the enslaved mentality won’t get far and they are a detriment to the “Profession.”

The change didn’t come with the HVCC. It came with Independent Appraisers in late 1998 and in 1999. It took 8.5 years to create the entire HVCC Document and White Paper. The HVCC was something that came about as being part of the beginning; it was a document timed and it went public months before the collapse “on purpose.” The HVCC got the Professionals talking, as well as, Skippies and those Appraisers that came to the party late.

If Appraisers properly knew the history they may get some where. Just Sayin’

By: Edd Gillespie

Edd Gillespie — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 12:58:36 +0000

In reply to Appraisermorons.

Is it a given that among morons there is at least one idiot?

By: Baggins

Baggins — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 16:43:56 +0000

There is a distant parallel to big ag, with these issues. Control the price, eliminate the small scale suppliers, then supplant the large scale suppliers. The appraisal profession is under attack, because once we are gone, the lender can control both price and value at once. Eventually they’ll eliminate the salespersons as well. There will be no checks left, in the checks and balances system. Appraisers are being phased out, to pave the way for a brave new market where all burden of responsibility falls on the consumer, regardless of the behavior of the lender or sales persons.

By: Appraisermorons

Appraisermorons — Sat, 01 Mar 2014 16:26:14 +0000

Things have changed in this job. I was tempted to call it a profession but it’s not a profession anymore. Adapt or die. The cheapest and fastest is the new norm. The newbies are making more money than they did sharing fees. Get out while you can before you lose everything. All these moron appraisers telling everyone to boycott AMCs is a joke. Never going to happen. Sell your house and move into a one bedroom apartment if you want to continue to be an idiot thinking that things are going to change. The banks are in control and always will be. You have no chance.

By: gt

gt — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 06:49:49 +0000

Just a thought.

April 1 is coming up and is has been 3 years since us appraiser’s were to be paid “Customary and Reasonable fees”. How about on April 1, 2014. All the appraisers start quoting the same fees we were charging prior to HVCC. This would send a message to the AMC and to the regulators.

Tell a fellow appraiser. We have no more to loss.

By: Retired Appraiser

Retired Appraiser — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 20:39:45 +0000

Excellent observation Mr. Thomas! Mr. Thomas is one of the few people who figured this out years ago; in fact he wrote an entire book on the subject of appraisers getting screwed.

The fact that appraisers are given the task of valuing most people’s largest asset, yet they can’t even place a fair value on their own time. ~ That simple fact should go down as the biggest joke of the century.

I recommend that every residential appraiser who remains in business (you know, the new guys) read the book that Mr. Thomas has written on the subject. I also challenge you to grow a set and boycott every AMC order on the 5th anniversary of HVCC (May 1st). Who knows, perhaps your wife and kids will stop laughing at you behind your backs if you step up and fight for your beloved “profession”.