Action Reminders
Topics getting a lot of attention…
Life can be hectic around this time of the year and we wanted to remind everyone of a few items that need your attention and action:
First: The AQB has another exposure draft out concerning appraiser licensing qualifications.
The big issues are Degree Requirements, Alternative Tracks, Practical Applications and Experience Requirements. These topics have been getting a lot of attention as the “perceived appraiser shortage” card is being played by lenders and AMCs.
Please take a few minutes and share your thoughts. The exposure draft and comment instructions can be found here. VaCAP urges every appraiser to comment on these topics. The deadline is January 12, 2018.
The AQB will also accept public comments at its meeting on Thursday, February 1, 2018 in Washington DC. All appraiser within a reasonable distance should attend this meeting. AMCs and lenders will be present and it is more important that the appraisers voice, not only be heard, but remembered.
Second: A few weeks ago VaCAP asked for your help in tracking purchase contracts. We asked you record the contract ratification date, the lender/ AMC, property address and the date the appraisal assignment was accepted. Please make sure we have your spread sheets in by January 1, 2018. We are anxiously awaiting to compile this information.
To see the original request and download a spreadsheet, click here.
Third: Pay attention to your receivables. There are stories and comments on blogs, forums and Facebook groups about several AMCs in serious financial trouble and appraisers reporting past due invoices. Protect yourself and your business.
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IMO, the proposal to reduce the experience requirement from 2000 to 1000 hours is insufficient. 2,000 experience hour requirement is barely enough as it is. It’s a combination of working under someone who has experience with the data first and then gaining experience with the data personally, that truly allows an appraiser to gain insight to how everything really fits together.
Agree. I believe the rational for increasing the education requirements in 2008 was to legitimize the profession. However, lowering the education & experience does not legitimize the profession, it just makes it easier to become an appraiser… and how does that protect the public trust?
Eric West (& any others interested) FIRREA of 1989 did not require a college degree to become a real estate appraiser.
The qualifications and tests established by TAF with the blessing of the Appraisal SubCommittee were deemed to be adequate. In the early years and right up to the present the complaint is that the tests are too difficult to pass…even for college educated applicants.
I know degreed individuals that have taken tests up to five, six even seven times to get from licensed to certified. Great appraisers – bad test takers.
I am more impressed by their perseverance and dedication to their profession than any degrees they have.
TAF added the degree requirement much later in their history. There is an ulterior motive that has little to do with appraisal quality and a lot more to do with guaranteeing the longevity of TAF.
1. IF the TAF has done the job it was charged to do – that of establishing test criteria for the various license levels over the past 29 years, then those tests should determine who is or is not qualified at the various levels.
2. If TAF has NOT done their job in establishing meaningful test criteria then they are hardly in a position to decide the additional education needed in lieu of passing their flawed tests!
3. Elimination of an unnecessary burden and requirement (college degree) that was a late addition to the AQB requirements; and that has proven itself to be a great impediment to attracting new appraisers to the profession does not ‘lower’ standards.
A degree in basket weaving, physical education, art, or even engineering does not make one a better appraiser (worst trainee I ever had was an adjunct professor / Engineer – brilliant guy – but had no clue about market perceptions and due dates).
TAF has long ago failed to protect the public trust. It started with the bi annual standards and principles manipulation and inclusion of non real estate appraisal disciplines on its various boards.
Reread FIRREA folks. Please point out where in Title XI that it mentions anyone other than real estate appraisers. So, rules, standards, principles, and yes even basic qualifications for REAL ESTATE APPRAISERS have been proposed, promoted and voted on by people that are not licensed or certified REAL ESTATE Appraisers. People that don’t even have to pass the same tests we do. (Im not saying they aren’t smart folk, but they are NOT real estate appraisers!)
We need a far better reason than the unfounded claims that a college degree somehow “legitimizes” us. I don’t need to be legitimized. IF TAF wants to impose unnecessary college degrees (as they have) then at least adopt the exact same standard of equivalency that the federal government does. 2:1 years experience equal to college. Eight years relevant experience equal to a four year degree… and so forth.
History is full of famous people without formal degrees. They include multiple United States Presidents; Founding Fathers, Founder of Bank of America, internet moguls and a host of others.
My two favorites are a couple bicycle makers named Wilbur & Orville. They identified and solved complex aeronautical conditions affecting flight (wing warp; pitch & yaw) and the engineering solutions to overcome them. Oh yeah, since the thing they built was also unknown to colleges, they also taught themselves to fly it.
http://jamesaconrad.com/TK/famous-scientists-who-never-had-a-science-degree.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/top-100-entrepreneurs-who-made-millions-without-a-college-degree-2011-1
Read up on that Columbus character – having been a blue water sailor, I can really appeciate sailing the ocean in a 58′ (LOD) wooden tub of the era! Contrary to popular myth, one doesn’t just go get some pearls from the Royals of Spain and aim the boat west. If he’d been college educated he’d probably have had more sense than to try it!
Appraisers that WANT to be appraisers, and that WANT to educate themselves to be better appraisers tend to make far better appraisers than those that approach our profession with a sense of entitlement based on their college degrees.
WHY SHOULD TAF CONSIDER LOWERING EXPERIENCE requirements for them? The thing they need most to become good appraisers, is not the thing that should be reduced!
Want to solve the manufactured appraiser shortage? Eliminate the college degree (including for General Certified); toughen the test if you are admitting it is no good, Increase the time it takes to go from licensed to certified instead of decreasing it.
If the new college primadonnas cant be bothered to dedicate themselves to their profession enough to really learn it, then I don’t want them in MY profession!
We are already professionals by our tested knowledge, acquired real world experience; adherence to meaningful professional standards and principles, CE and our integrity.
Remove all restrictions on appraisers having trainees. Feds and other regulators are seriously proposing UNLICENSED inspectors for hybrids and yet we cant decide when our own trainees are capable of unsupervised inspections; or how many we need at any time? Defend that one if you can (anyone – it’s not directed specifically to or at you Eric).
As near as I can tell TAF fulfilled its Congressionally mandated mission years ago. Now, its just trying to justify its continued existence to the detriment of the public trust!.
In ALL the time of their existence, has TAF done ANYTHING to really eliminate the adverse challenges facing appraisers today? Promote C&R fees? Appraiser Independence? Promote meaningful enforcement and elimination of the constant attempts by their own sponsors to force non USPAP compliant practices and forms on us?
Take a look at the new changes. How do they promote the public trust in real estate appraisal?