See Something, Say Something

…engage in a brief healthy debate with the other side to expose the falsities being spread…

Anyone wanna play the “what if” game with me? Ok fine… I’ll be the dreamer and you tell me the reality of it. Here we go…. What if… all of us independent appraisers, since we are the only ones with a voice for the industry, were to actively engage in a campaign to call out real estate and mortgage marketing propaganda across the internet as and when we see it, which should be several times a day.

The internet is riddled with lies that serve to damage our relevance and reputation and we have to sit by and allow it because we’re out matched and our livelihood is dependent on the salesmen telling their tales.

They say God is in the detail and if we each religiously engage in a brief healthy debate with the other side to expose the falsities being spread, we would actively be educating the consumers. Maybe even bring them into the conversation. While I believe we should pursue every avenue to protect our industry, we know that by ourselves we don’t have enough manpower or dollars to show up on Capitol Hill and be heard. However, with the information superhighway to bank our statements and discussions and with thousands of appraisers standing up for the truth we can do what the government originally intended for us to do as an industry which is to safeguard the best interest of the economy.

I’m sure there’s some of you that have, I haven’t done it enough and not consistently, but what if we start engaging daily, several times a day, with agents and lenders across every social media to respectfully point out pitfalls of marketing propaganda that does not serve the consumer and we make recommendations that is in the consumers best interest.

As a suggestion, as we definitely are an opinionated bunch and of course we will each use our own voice and style in approaching this but for the integrity of our industry, it would be beneficial to be professional, clear and concise and move on. There are two very good reasons to do this is; (1) We have plenty of lies to set right so let’s not linger too long, make your point and move on but most importantly, (2) to not get into vile debates in open forum that will not serve to elevate public trust in our industry.

I see some of the benefits and drawbacks in us committing to something, list this as a group, but I’d like to hear everyone else’s opinion.

I understand we all need to make a living and as a wide spread campaign this could have negative implications to the professional relationships, we each have with lenders and agents, but if we’re eradicated, we lose not just our livelihood but our relevance and our voice.

If this is something already discussed by the few hundred of you that attended AppraiserFest my apologies for being redundant and its awesome if you guys already talked about doing something like this. Now lets all of us talk about it.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. I don’t intend to go back to engage further just say my piece and move on.

https://youtu.be/H7U6QE0up3s

author

By Gynell Vestal, Certified Residential Appraiser at Vestal Appraisal Solutions. Gynell has a diverse appraisal background covering Commercial, Residential, Rural, Complex and Luxury Properties as well as National Appraisal Review work in the secondary Market. She began her Appraisal training in Oklahoma in 2001 covering Rural and Commercial Properties. With several years as a National Review Appraiser at Fannie Mae and other big banks, Gynell has keen insight into the secondary market guidelines and requirements.