Comments on: Appraisers Under Siege & Cost of Appraisals

By: Tom M

Tom M — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 07:59:06 +0000

RE: Dead end Business Model. The same can be said for Cab companies competing with UBER for business. The appraisal industry chances are will evaporate someday with a stroke of the pen or click of a button. The same can be said for UBER which is attempting to now replace realtors with a lower fee servive to sell homes. In the meantime, I will continue to be an appraiser and a real estate broker for as long as it is fun.

By: John Pratt

John Pratt — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 18:40:37 +0000

AMCs & lenders are complaining about the long turn time to get a completed appraisal. Here is the solution. Respond back to the next request with a sliding scale, my fee is $ 1,000 with a 5 day turn, $800 with a 7 day turn, 600 with 10 day turn, $550 I will get it completed when I can fit it in. Now the ball is in their court, they can choose their poison. I can not understand if you have 10 or 15 appraisals on your desk why would you ever consider taking another one for $ 500 or less. My last 2 requests came to me for $ 450, I replied with a fee of $ 650 on one and $700 on the other and got both of them and that was with a 10 day turn time. Give it a try, you won’t get every one but you will get some of them.

By: Wayne

Wayne — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 13:53:58 +0000

In reply to Baggins.

Baggins, you ask what can be done? I think it is already being done. First: You and I both refuse to work with them. The more hassle they give appraisers the better. In other words make other appraisers so mad that they join us and also refuse to work with them. Second: Approximately 200 appraisers are dropping out of this profession each month. If that trend continues each of us will have more work than we can handle coming from decent clients that pay and treat us well.

I have always said that Appraisal Management Companies cannot manage appraisals if they do not have any appraisers. Good luck to all!

By: Baggins

Baggins — Sat, 23 Jul 2016 18:22:09 +0000

The majority of the amc’s are so rude lately. They’re behaving like telemarketers, never stop calling, never stop emailing. Xfinity Comcast refused to let their emails stay in the spam box, when I click them to spam. The amc’s refuse to stop calling, and I never signed up with them in the first place. They refuse to respect my demands to not be sent broadcast orders or individual order placement phone calls. I write management and they make veiled threats it would have been better for me to stay silent. The phone workers get testy and hang up the phone on me, then I write letters to management saying don’t call me just to be rude to me for not going with your inefficient time wasting program. This is like legal harassment. In any other business the police could be called if you repeatedly called and emailed someone whom has repeatedly and specifically denied you service and told you to stop calling.

Correct me if I’m wrong but that’s professional misconduct.

What can be done?

By: KenQ

KenQ — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 23:54:33 +0000

In reply to Baggins –.

Baggins, care to share the name of the AMC?

By: Baggins -

Baggins - — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 18:48:42 +0000

Amc in response to me telling them to stop emailing me blast orders and assign them directly instead, calling a high fee standard is needed. I also found their use of possessive when referring to appraisers to be another point worth highlighting.

I don’t have you in our system to place you on vacation. ALL OF OUR APPRAISERS in this area are swamped and declining orders. My hope was to find an appraiser that would be able to accept this order and be able to provide it to our client by mid August. We DO pay our appraisers good fees. You would have been better off just not responding to this email and directing our office how to run an AMC. We’ve got it figured out, thank you!

Yeah, they’ve got it figured out eh? Is that why they’re shotgunning orders all over town, failed to state the supposedly good fee, and did not even bother signing a name to their rude response? Just another day in the life of an appraiser whom is harassed by amc’s day and night. Accsrd.

By: Baggins

Baggins — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 19:54:27 +0000

In reply to Bob.

By: Baggins

Baggins — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 19:48:11 +0000

So cartoon satire also works and works well for activism. Just make a free account a meme generator, create a pic, click view picture only, hotlink the address bar to the blog tool picture icon, and magic; online unique picture displayed.

By: Baggins

Baggins — Tue, 19 Jul 2016 17:47:48 +0000

In reply to KenQ.

And they paid a fortune for Washington lobbyists to make sure the updated HUD1 form did not include separation of management and appraiser fees. CFPB, friend of the big lender.

By: Baggins

Baggins — Tue, 19 Jul 2016 17:46:25 +0000

In reply to TOM D.

Try getting off the mobile device and reading on full screen. That should help. You’ve got to skim through sometimes. Blogging is so open ended that way, something good for everyone.

By: JC

JC — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 18:06:04 +0000

In reply to Retired Appraiser.

Pre HVCC I used to charge $550 for a cookie cutter conv. appraisal. Why $300?

I received a copy of an appraisal last week from an agent and the fee stated in the AMC invoice was $650, appraiser got paid $325. Take out the AMC, pay the appraiser $600 and the consumer saves $50.

By: KenQ

KenQ — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 15:28:06 +0000

“AMC movement has gutted the industry”

amcs have ruined the profession. Their biggest concern is turn time & they want to use Joe $200 so they can make more money. They inflate the cost of an appraisal to a consumer and keep a big portion of it for nothing more than pushing papers.

By: Retired Appraiser

Retired Appraiser — Sat, 09 Jul 2016 11:45:18 +0000

In reply to TOM D.

Your last sentence is DEAD ON ~ pun intended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA

By: Retired Appraiser

Retired Appraiser — Sat, 09 Jul 2016 11:40:32 +0000

In reply to JC.

Not sure I agree with that statement either. Subtract the AMC fees and you’ll still be left with a $300 appraisal fee (the same as you were getting paid 10 years ago). Appraisal fees were well overdue for being raised (dramatically). AMCs simply pulled it off and pocketed the profit with appraisers taking home just enough to cover their bills. It’s undeniably a dead end business model either way with hundreds of different businesses out there that pay better.

By: TOM D

TOM D — Sat, 09 Jul 2016 01:09:09 +0000

i can hear judy garland singing “somewhere, over the rainbow”. but jc be right. i would prefer a slogan from the 70’s to cure this gangrene rotting of our business.

“BURN BABY BURN”

but then again, we may be already dead and don’t know it. a bunch of zombie appraisers blogging about the living days.

By: JC

JC — Sat, 09 Jul 2016 00:30:53 +0000

The extra fees the consumer is being charged is because of AMCs. They bring no value and devour/steal half or more of the appraiser’s fee.

You want to get rid of the rising cost of appraisals? Simple, get rid of AMCs.

By: koma

koma — Sat, 09 Jul 2016 00:26:56 +0000

In reply to bill johnson.

Darn right Bill! We are required to be market specific why not the lender client.

By: bill johnson

bill johnson — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 21:55:43 +0000

In reply to TOM D.

A few paragraphs is nothing Tom D compared to the 15+ engagement letters that many lender clients have adopted today. Its always funny how clients go to great lengths to tell us where to put an update (example), but give us 3 pages breaking down what 49 other states and Puerto Rico require.

By: TOM D

TOM D — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 19:44:34 +0000

for a bunch of very busy appraisers, some of you are getting to wordy. i can’t finish some of your comments, too long, after working 8 days a week.

By: Ralph

Ralph — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 15:08:52 +0000

I still don’t understand the purpose of what an AMC does. I received an AMC request Friday July 1st w/a due date of July 5th, w/a little old holiday squeezed in between all for a $325 fee. The order was very close by, but I won’t even respond and took the week off for vacation. They remove the order a day later and go shopping again, meanwhile this is a sale and the only ones getting screwed are the borrower and appraiser who accepts the order. How is this business model sustainable? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it all started 15 or so yrs ago w/Landsafe promising fee split companies oodles of work but insisted on 48 TAT. All other AMC’s followed suite with this flawed approach and now it’s finally come back to bite, especially if you are in an area w/a shortage of appraiser’s. Hopefully those of you who have to take AMC work to survive are counter offering the crap fees and insisting on pushing out the un-realistic due dates and getting what your worth!