A Baseless Bias Claim Turns Into a State Appraisal Crusade
My name is Steve Orlowski, and I am a retired Illinois Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser. In November 2020, I conducted a property appraisal. The owner deemed my value low by more than $100,000. He only complained to the State of Illinois Department of Real Estate and filed a racism complaint with HUD; he didn’t submit a reconsideration of value. Following an informal hearing, the State of Illinois Appraisal Board required me to acknowledge my wrongdoing, complete 35 hours of coursework, submit to public discipline, and pay a fine. I hired an attorney and declined. My attorney asked me to find an expert witness. I contacted two MAI-designated appraisers. Both MAI-designated appraisers confirmed that my appraisal seemed well-developed, but they declined to represent me due to their fear of retaliation from the appraisal board.
I received an oral cancer diagnosis a few months after the hearing. My attorney asked the appraisal board to postpone the case until after I finished my treatment. I experienced binocular diplopia as a result of a stroke I had during radiation therapy. Because of this condition, I am unable to drive. I applied for Social Security Disability, and nine months later, I was granted it. My condition and my inability to work were disclosed to the appraisal board by my attorney. Furthermore, he told them that I would not be renewing my license at the next renewal. The state appraisal board was adamant about pursuing the case. Six months after the license renewal deadline, when it was no longer valid, I consented to surrender my license, which put an end to the case.
Looking through recent real estate listings, I discovered that the property that has been causing me so much distress recently sold for $185,000. I appraised the property in November 2020 for $164,000. It seems my estimate was accurate given the slight rise in area values over the previous five years.
The shocking part of this story is how completely unaccountable the state appraisal board is. They prosecuted me without valid cause. I understand the federal government is the only entity that can discipline a state appraisal board.
Structural Reforms to the Appraisal Industry
________________________________________
1. National “Full Fee Pass-Through” Rule for AMCs
Request:
Require that AMCs pass through 100% of the appraiser fee minus a capped administrative fee ($75–$100 max), permanently ending low-fee bidding and silent fee skimming.
Rationale:
• Aligns with Dodd-Frank’s “Customary & Reasonable Fee” requirement.
• Blocks AMCs from using appraisers as revenue sources.
• Restores appraisal independence.
________________________________________
2. Ban on “Lowest Bidder” and Blind Auction AMC Assignments
Request:
Prohibit AMCs from assigning orders based on lowest fee or fastest acceptance.
Rationale:
• This practice created systemic quality failures and racial-bias accusations.
• It undermines appraisal independence rules and creates unfair pressure.
________________________________________
3. Transfer Appraisal Bias Investigations Out to CFPB or FHFA
Rationale:
• CFPB regulates AMCs, lenders, and ECOA — the correct home for these cases.
• Prevents future political manipulation or fabricated “bias investigations.”
________________________________________
4. Federal Requirement for a Neutral, National ROV (Reconsideration of Value) System
Request:
Create a single national portal for homeowners, lenders, and appraisers to submit, analyze, and resolve ROVs with equal rights for all parties.
Rationale:
• Eliminates ad-hoc political bias playbook.
• Creates transparency and reduces lender manipulation.
• Protects appraisers and homeowners from being weaponized.
________________________________________
5. Mandatory Evidence Threshold for Any Civil Rights Appraisal Investigation
Request:
Before any bias investigation can open, agencies must:
• verify jurisdiction
• verify lending involvement
• verify federal program connection
• obtain actual evidence (not speculation or “felt undervalued”)
• document statutory authority
________________________________________
6. Independent Appraisal Review Panels
Request:
Require that all appraisal discrimination allegations be reviewed by:
• a neutral third-party
• licensed appraisers
• legal staff
• not government employees who lack appraisal knowledge
Rationale:
This brings professional oversight to the entire system.
________________________________________
7. National Review and Revision of AMC Regulations Under the CFPB
Request:
Have DOJ require CFPB to reopen and rewrite AMC rules focusing on:
• fee transparency
• anti-consumer practices
• conflict-of-interest bans
• appraiser harassment protections
• mandatory reporting lines
• strict penalties for fee skimming
________________________________________
BOTTOM LINE
• are totally realistic
• fit directly into settlement negotiations
• are tied to your documented evidence
• address the structural problems created
• improve the entire appraisal profession
• protect both homeowners and appraisers
If any of you guys did appraisals wherein Letitia James was involved as the borrower, I’ll say a prayer for you.
What happened to Steve is a stark example of how a regulatory system can drift away from its mandate and begin operating without meaningful checks. A complaint with no evidence, no market contradiction, and no reconsideration of value should never have escalated into a demand for confession, coursework, fines, and public discipline. When two MAI designated appraisers privately affirmed the soundness of his work but refused to testify out of fear of retaliation, it revealed a culture where the board’s power is so absolute that even highly credentialed professionals feel unsafe challenging it. The board’s insistence on pursuing him through cancer, a stroke, disability, and the expiration of his license shows a system more invested in asserting authority than in protecting the public. And the eventual sale price, aligning almost perfectly with his 2020 opinion, underscores that the issue was never the quality of his appraisal. It was the board’s inability to admit it had no case. To me, Steve’s story is not just a personal tragedy; it is evidence of a structural imbalance where appraisers can be punished without proof, while the bodies that punish them face no accountability at all.
Very well stated Anna
Response to Steve Orlowski’s Case – Broader Industry Implications and a Needed Structural Fix
Steve’s situation is not an isolated incident—it exposes a systemic failure in how appraisal disputes are escalated, investigated, and ultimately prosecuted.
What happened here is not just a misstep. It reflects a breakdown in process, safeguards, and accountability that the industry can no longer ignore.
1. Failure of the Reconsideration of Value (ROV) Process
The most basic safeguard in valuation disputes—the ROV process—was completely bypassed.
The proper sequence should always be:
Submit additional comparable sales
Provide factual corrections
Request a formal reconsideration
None of that occurred.
Instead, the complaint jumped directly into:
A state regulatory complaint
A federal bias allegation
That is procedurally backwards. A valuation disagreement was escalated into an enforcement action without any attempt to resolve it at the transactional level.
2. The Real Problem: ROV Is Not Independent
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: even when ROVs are used, they are fundamentally flawed.
Most ROVs today are:
Controlled by lenders or AMCs
Influenced by transaction pressure
Lacking true neutrality
That means they are not functioning as a legitimate dispute resolution mechanism—they’re just an internal checkbox.
What the Industry Actually Needs
The ROV process must be independent. Period.
There are two viable models:
Option A: VA-Style Independent Review Model (Gold Standard)
The VA already operates a system that removes lender influence and creates a structured, neutral review process.
Key characteristics:
Centralized oversight
Separation from lender/borrower pressure
Defined escalation pathways (Tidewater / ROV framework)
Accountability tied to a federal standard
This model works because it removes the financial incentives that distort outcomes.
There is no reason a similar structure cannot be adopted more broadly across conventional and FHA-related transactions.
Option B: Independent Appraisal Review Panel
If not a federal model, then the industry needs a true third-party review panel:
Composed of experienced, vetted appraisers
Assigned randomly (no local or transactional conflicts)
Protected from regulatory retaliation
Required to issue written, supportable conclusions
This creates:
A neutral checkpoint
A documented record of analysis
A buffer between complaint and enforcement
Why This Matters
If Steve’s case had gone through an independent ROV review, one of two things would have happened:
The appraisal would have been validated → case ends immediately
Legitimate issues would have been identified → corrected at the report level
Either way, the situation never escalates into:
A state board prosecution
A federal bias allegation
A career-ending enforcement action
3. Lack of Evidentiary Threshold Before Escalation
There appears to have been no requirement for:
Objective market-based rebuttal
Demonstrable USPAP violations
Evidence of discriminatory conduct
A complaint alone should not trigger enforcement.
Without:
Verified data errors
Methodological deficiencies
Ethical violations
the system is no longer regulatory—it becomes punitive.
4. Chilling Effect on Expert Participation
Two MAI-designated appraisers reviewed the report and agreed it was well-supported—but refused to testify.
That is a serious problem.
When qualified experts:
Agree with the work
But won’t step forward
it signals fear—plain and simple.
Without expert participation:
Due process breaks down
Defense becomes impossible
Outcomes become one-sided
The industry cannot function if experts are effectively silenced.
5. Disproportionate Enforcement vs. Market Reality
The final sale tells the story:
Appraised value (2020): $164,000
Sale price: $185,000
That difference is well within normal market movement.
The market validated the appraisal.
Yet enforcement proceeded anyway.
That raises a serious question:
What standard is actually being used to determine wrongdoing?
6. Pursuit of Discipline After Exit from the Profession
Continuing enforcement after:
Medical disability
License non-renewal
Exit from practice
serves no meaningful public protection purpose.
At that point, it’s administrative persistence—not consumer protection.
Bottom Line
This case highlights a dangerous shift:
Complaints are being advanced without filtering
ROV processes are ineffective or bypassed
Experts are afraid to participate
Enforcement continues even when market data validates the appraisal
The Fix Is Not Complicated—But It Requires Structural Change
The industry needs to implement:
1. Mandatory Independent ROV Review
No complaint should move forward without:
Exhausting an independent ROV process
Documented third-party review
2. Separation from Transactional Influence
ROVs must be removed from:
Lenders
AMCs
Borrower pressure
3. Protected Expert Participation
Experts must be able to:
Review
Testify
Participate
without fear of retaliation.
4. Clear Evidentiary Thresholds
No investigation should begin without:
Data-supported claims
Identifiable USPAP issues
Objective deficiencies
Final Thought
Steve’s case is not about one appraiser—it’s about whether this profession continues to operate on:
Data
Methodology
Independent analysis
or shifts toward:
Complaint-driven enforcement
Process shortcuts
Outcome-based discipline
Right now, the system is drifting toward the latter.
An independent ROV framework—modeled after the VA or built through a neutral review panel—is the correction mechanism the industry needs immediately.
Without it, cases like this won’t be rare—they’ll become routine.
I believe that this complaint was BS, however I think the appraiser’s attorney failed. It says in the article that he went to an “informal hearing” this is basically where you don’t dispute the facts of the case and just accept punishment by the board. This appraiser should have gone to a formal hearing in court in front of an administrative law judge. Then the state would have had to prove to a judge that there was bias in the complaint. This would have been very difficult for the state to prove if the appraisal was rock solid.
Until the members of the state board are legally held responsible nothing will change. You don’t happen to know their names and addresses?
Of course I know their names. I could easily find their addresses. Members of state professional boards are basically immune to civil action, so what’s the point?
Read every comment, well informed. Let’s take this back a few decades. Predatory lending never went away, rather adopted new methodology using modern technology. The amc’s facilitated this transition by functioning as the pressuring utility. Appraiser grading and disproportionate assignment is the cover for open blacklisting and worker discrimination targeted at licensed appraisers, creating a space to continue value shopping in a far more efficient manner then ever before.
Rather than value shopping based on comp searching for individual deals with individual appraisers, one licensed appraiser communicating with one licensed mortgage broker, leaving licensed brokers exposed to liability, the value shopping is now based on ‘appraiser performance grading’. Statistical based tie ins with frequency of revision, unaccepted orders, shared grading among disassociated clients, managed through centralized tech systems. Among dozens of other performance measurements, when combined, provide a clear indicator whom advocates for the deal and whom does not.
Tiered status of vendors, in turn promoting unnecessary outsourcing and corner cutting, a result of grossly imbalanced appraisal ordering distribution. This eroded the trust of the public, compromised the viability of small business appraisers, drove quality standards down to the point complete substituting with automation can be excused away as a necessary activity.
An additional side benefit of skirting junk fee and unearned fee billing rules for a few extra billion to go atop the trillions of increasingly unserviceable debt which is the American housing markets. For as good as these companies are at keeping statistical track of appraisers individual performance, they remain mysteriously unable to keep track of the relationships of their industries influence on ever rising notices of election and demand, default rates, etc. Because they win on the back end as well, now amc’s are exclusively in charge of default management for FNMA. And if the amc’s are not getting the reo work, first purchase opportunities of defaulting loans are channeled directly at fire sale pricing to corporate investors. The Whole Loan program. Your calculator does not have enough spaces to accommodate all the zeros if one attempts to add up how much principal debt has moved through that system.
Amc’s, the long arm of predatory lending. In order to compete in this space, many lenders whom did not use amc’s or use them as frequently, have also adopted these methods. Amc’s inability to complete their intended task of providing separation from mortgage loan production influence reshaped the industries involved in housing, lending, valuation services, far beyond the amc’s intended scope of participation, which the now inadequate regulatory amc oversight was based upon. Subsequently the amc’s exist in a mostly unregulated space, having gained enough control to influence policy making from the top down through multiple industries.
Appraisers whom are caught up in the aftermath of this now well established pressure based system are merely collateral damage. Lenders exist in a corporate space which individual appraisers are unable to mount sustainable challenges, with inadequate attention from governing agencies, something the IVPI Proposal specifically set to counter by creating an independent institution more resilient to influence peddling. Appraisal trade groups capitulated to stake holder interests, accepting the loss of tens of thousands of their own constituent appraisers small businesses. Policy for sale. Consumers are the most harmed, having no recourse, now facing more uncertainty than ever in an accelerated housing market with steep affordability and trust based challenges that yet again is beginning to unravel.
One interesting and still effective way to counter false claims is to adhere to original uspap tenants of a self contained report rather than utilizing summary reporting strategy. The methods that approach requires are contrary to the principals of modernization, to take longer, provide greater detail, and in turn better liability protection and report defensibility, a more reliable appraisal product. This is how the best of the appraisers left are driven out of the GSE space, subjected to endless restraint of trade policies due to ongoing Sherman Act violations and various other forms of institutional level racketeering.
Missing the IVPI proposal yet?
https://www.workingre.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IVPI-Proposalfinal.pdf
The tangled web of a dysfunctional regulatory system. Image attached. Some say if you can’t beat them, join them instead. Yet interestingly enough the appraisal industry still manages to attract and retain people whom truly do believe in honest business dealings, whom have a dream of managing their own small business, carving out personal independence. The self proclaimed appraisal industry representatives are currently trying to convince appraisers to go with a franchise model, make everyone an employee. Ignoring the reasons for an appraisal licensing program in the first place, to give appraisers space to operate independently apart from lender and employer type influences. So that appraisers would not have to advocate or provide things of value to remain employed. The management rule in uspap. Again, exactly what the IVPI proposal set to counter, an attempt to fulfill the original intention of the national appraiser licensing program.
So incredibly unjust and unfair. I’m so sorry you went through all of that. Of all the cases I’ve investigated for alleged bias and discrimination I haven’t found one initial appraisal that was actually below market value.
Here’s one for you appraisers in NYC.
https://www.danielgreenfield.org/2026/03/mamdani-proposes-white-homes-estate-tax.html
Sue them for an justified complaint Smoking gun came out. It’s resale. With a market that has gotten out of hand. I feel your pain. I’m walking away because of the BS. 30 years no complaints from NY to Pa. I take longer that there only complaint by some. When public records contradict mls there is a problem. That’s what I see by me. Yest Real Estate brokers get away with a lot of there mistakes. There are many. Hope your health has improved. I feel like a dog because no one cares
Try “unjustified”
I have been a Certified Appraiser in NC for about 23 years. In that time I have had two complaints to the NC Appraiser Board claiming my value was too low. The investigator checked my report and looked for additional information which ended up showing my reports were accurate and the complaints were not viable. Some years later, I was contacted by the BBB with the same issues on another property I appraised. The lady who was the homeowner claimed I did not use properties of the same neighborhood and did not use comps with a similar age range. She also claimed I insulted her by complimenting her on what a beautiful home she had. One of my comps was on her street just a few doors down. Two other sales were less than 0.35 miles form her home. My comps were within just a few years older or newer, than her home, all in the early 1900’s. All were renovated in the same time frame as her property. So far, that is all the complaints I have had. This just goes to show homeowners will make false complaints concerning our appraisals if we don’t hit a number they like. Unfortunately, it seems that other folks work under an Appraisal Board that is not the same level of professionalism as the NC Board. Good luck to all.
LOL!!!! ILLINOIS- ALL THAT NEEDED TO BE SAID, A STATE LED BY A BUNCH LIBERALS, CHICAGO BY AN ILLERIATE. DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU HAD A CHANCE FOR ” JUSTICE” OR FAIRNESS. BY YOUR LETTER I’M ASSUMING THE HOMEOWNER WAS ONE OF COLOR AND YOUR WHITE. SWITCH IT AROUND, SAME SCERNARIO, LOW VALUE BUT YOUR THE HOMEOWNER, APPRAISER IS ONE OF COLOR, SAME OUTCOME? IF YOU THINK THAT I HAVE BRIDGE TO SELL
It happens in Red States too. Alabama has the same enforcement attitude.
The reason I am going public with this now is because the property just sold. It is located on the south side of Chicago, in a neighborhood with a paucity of data in the immediate area. The owner based his value estimate on a pending sale of an almost identical property. It was pending sale at $275,000, and after the effective date of my appraisal, closed for that price. The difference was that the property that sold for $275,000 is located across the street from the University of Chicago Medical School, a .5 mile away from the subject, in a neighborhood that attracts a more affluent buyer. I used sales that were in neighborhoods I deemed to be similar to that of the subject property. As we can see now, I was correct, and the owner, despite being a real estate agent, was wrong.
https://www.coldwellbankerhomes.com/il/chicago/6523-s-ellis-ave/pid_69236872/
Sorry this happened to you Steve. The state of the appraisal industry. Unlike other industries where trade groups and other members highlight and rally to others defense, tap into their treasuries to help struggling people out, form outreach programs, do their best to save their own people, save their business and income positions, advocate on their behalf. That’s not happening with appraisal. Instead we get a never ending lecture about ‘stake holder interests’ while ten thousand small businesses are systematically wiped out every few years, never ending stories of false accusations, all are proven wrong years later.
TAF and the Appraisal Institute have enough funds they could have really helped. Put forth group savings programs, provided independents their own special program access for retirement, medical, insurance, disabled care sort of programs. Put forth legal defense strategies that worked. They could have made a difference in regulatory and legislation activity at the national level that actually mattered. Instead they helped their own insiders capture the lions share of gse work, pandered and paid the same lawyers pursuing innocent appraisers, traveled around the world, peddled influence. Three cheers for the evolved beltway organisms. Chair swapping did not solve anything. What could have been… These people are not ethical experts. Far from it. They represent only their own best interests and nobody elses.
File a seriously well documented complaint against the realty agents and mortgage lenders involved with all this, keep filing that up the ladder. Especially when there is nothing left to lose, time for accountability to come due.
For anyone who wasn’t following the LinkedIn thread, one of the more surprising parts of that discussion wasn’t the story itself, it was how some appraisers reacted to it. A Certified General Appraiser jumped in saying Steve should’ve just taken the 35‑hour class, kept his head down, & accepted “today’s reality.” His take was basically: the system is what it is, we can’t change it, so just go along with it if you want to stay in the profession.
A few of us pushed back, because that attitude is exactly how the system keeps sliding in the wrong direction. When appraisers start treating unfair treatment as something we’re supposed to quietly absorb, we’re not being realistic… we’re giving the board permission to keep doing it.
He later doubled down & said he’s simply “living within a system I’m unable to change.” That’s the part that should worry all of us. If the default response to overreach is to shrug & accept it, then nothing improves. The pressure stays on the appraiser, the board keeps expanding its reach, & the next person in line gets the same treatment.
We don’t fix anything by shrugging our shoulders. If we’re going to stay in this profession, we should at least be honest about what’s broken instead of pretending it’s the natural order of things.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7441823689681207296/
Apparently the Certified General Appraiser didn’t read everything I wrote; I became disabled during the case. I can’t drive, which precludes me from working as an appraiser.
If anyone wishes to contact me: steveappraisal1960@gmail.com
This whole exchange is a perfect snapshot of how we ended up in this mess. The system didn’t magically gain this much power. We handed it over little by little every time an appraiser shrugged and said, “Yeah, that’s just how it is.”
When a Certified General says the only way to survive is to accept whatever the board hands out, it shows exactly why things look the way they do. That kind of quiet surrender is what lets the system drift further off course while everyone crosses their fingers hoping they’re not the next one dragged into it.
We are never going to fix anything if our go‑to move is to keep our heads down and hope the storm blows past someone else. That mindset is exactly how we ended up with a process that can launch a full action off a complaint with no evidence and no real review.
If we want anything to change, the bare minimum is to stop pretending this is normal.
What is happening to this profession is not a misunderstanding or a slow drift. It is a deliberate dismantling of the only safeguard that ever stood between the mortgage industry and unchecked exploitation of the American taxpayer. I watched it unfold for four decades. The pattern is too consistent to be coincidence.
The profession never built unity. It never built loyalty. It never built the collective backbone needed to defend itself. You cannot fight a coordinated assault when the dominant mindset is every man for himself. People talk because talk is easy. Talk gives the illusion of solidarity. But when it comes time to act, the momentum dies. The profession is loud in conversation and silent in courage.
Too many appraisers believe the path to success is undercutting fees to levels that belonged to another century. They think they are winning business. They are actually sawing off the branch they are sitting on. They are dragging their peers down with them and they cannot see it. That blindness is just one of many reasons the profession is collapsing under its own weight.
While appraisers have been busy fighting each other for scraps, the groups that want them gone have been organized, strategic, and relentless. They see appraisers as an obstacle to profit. They have spent years shaping the narrative, pulling in media, politicians, lenders, HUD, Fannie, Freddie, and the public to paint appraisers as the enemy. They have turned the last gatekeeper into a villain because a villain is easier to eliminate.
Money drives the mortgage industry and the erosion of the profession is not subtle. It is systematic. It is intentional. And it is almost complete.
The final blow has been the accusation that all appraisers are biased and racist. This message has been repeated so often that it has become accepted without evidence. It has poisoned public trust even though no coordinated wrongdoing has ever been shown. When evidence fails to appear, the accusation shifts to unconscious bias, a convenient phrase that allows guilt to be implied without proof. It is a tactic designed to make every appraiser defenseless. You cannot disprove something you are told you are guilty of without knowing it.
This is smoke and mirrors. It is a manufactured crisis. And the endgame is simple. Replace the human gatekeeper with AI that can be shaped to deliver whatever values the system wants. No questions. No resistance. No accountability. Just numbers that serve the interests of those who benefit from a world without oversight.
This is not a warning from the outside. It is the testimony of someone who watched the walls close in from the inside for forty years.
Good to see other appraisers understanding the big picture here. Great post ERME.
Just when we thought things could not get any worse. This; Executive order 03/13/2026; Promoting Access To Mortgage Credit.
I don’t need to spell this out in detail for experienced appraisers, you already know what’s coming. If you thought FHFA directing less use of full service appraisers was troubling, get ready for this. Appraisal modernization just went next level. As far as what else is contained here outside of what I copied below, would be interested to hear others opinions, good or bad?
(Southern rebel voice;) The Demins will rise again! Hey wait…. I thought we did not want that? Pack it up and go home, turn the lights off on your way out. The end is near in the gse space. Data cancer is also here to stay for the time being.
Presidential advisors… The appraisal trade groups failed in their duty to promote a well functioning appraisal industry, yet again. One ponders if they even bothered showing up or perhaps actually asked for this sort of thing. Instead of any attention to save the ten to twenty thousand appraisal small businesses currently going under, we get weekly emails about getting to know the board members. As if somehow personalizing the people whom allow all the rest of us to go out of business somehow provides a positive pr spin to the systemic imbalance. These changes are going up the ladder far beyond the gse realm with this one.
_____________________
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/03/promoting-access-to-mortgage-credit/
Sec. 6. Appraisal Modernization. (a) The Vice Chairman for Supervision of the Federal Reserve, the Director of the CFPB, the Chairman of the NCUA Board, the Chairperson of Board of Directors of the FDIC, the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Director of the FHFA shall consider, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law and their statutory authorities:
(i) modernizing appraisal regulations and guidance to expand the use of alternative valuation models, desktop and hybrid appraisals, and artificial intelligence valuation tools;
(ii) simplifying appraiser qualification requirements; and
(iii) reducing appraisal requirements for low-risk transactions, including low loan-to-value refinancing and small‑balance loans; and setting clear appraisal timelines.
(b) The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) shall consider, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law:
(i) aligning appraisal standards between the Federal Housing Administration and VA Home Loan Program where risk is comparable;
(ii) clarifying the distinction in an appraisal inspection between safety and habitability concerns that necessitate pre-closing repairs versus cosmetic concerns; and
(iii) expanding post-closing repair flexibility.
___________________
This is an interesting somewhat related article regarding automation and artificial intelligence utility. Published from Malwarebytes security labs recently. Did not take long for privacy and digital data security people within the general public to grow rather weary of these new tools. The AI tools immediately abused, as predicted they would be. Yet the gse’s are full speed ahead with the blinders on anyways, also predictable.
https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/privacy/2026/03/90-of-people-dont-trust-ai-with-their-data
Best comment I’ve read anywhere, any time.
What you went through raises some uncomfortable questions for all of us. How does a single complaint with no ROV, no evidence, & no real review turn into a full state appraisal board action? At what point did “oversight” quietly turn into “we’ve already decided the ending”?
And the moment you said two MAI‑designated appraisers told you your report looked well‑developed but they still wouldn’t stand with you because they feared retaliation from the board, that was the real jaw‑dropper. If even MAIs are afraid to back a defensible report, what does that say about the system the rest of us are working in?
We’re supposed to be part of a profession built on analysis, evidence, & reason. Yet your case reads like a cautionary tale about what happens when due process steps out for coffee & never comes back. How is any appraiser supposed to feel confident in that environment?
A lot of us saw pieces of our own fears in your story. You handled something most appraisers hope they never face, & you did it with more integrity than the system showed you. I’m glad your experience is finally out in the open. Sunlight is long overdue here.
Since when have facts mattered when there are fines to impose and misery to spread?
Reach me at: kjmull@aol.com or call 949-697-1717. Ken
Steve,
I read your account carefully, and what you described is deeply concerning—but unfortunately not surprising in the current regulatory environment.
I’m a Certified Residential Appraiser based in California, and I’ve spent the past several years closely analyzing appraisal-related bias allegations, regulatory enforcement patterns, and the procedural breakdowns that can occur when complaints are advanced without proper evidentiary thresholds or due process safeguards.
Your experience—particularly the absence of a reconsideration of value, reliance on a complaint alone, and the pressure to concede to discipline despite a defensible report—is something I have seen echoed in other cases.
I have developed a body of information and analysis that may be relevant to your situation, including how these cases are being initiated, evaluated, and in some instances, improperly escalated.
If you are still open to it, I would be willing to speak with you and potentially assist as an expert witness or provide supporting insight.
You can reach me directly—I’d be interested in learning more about your case and seeing where I may be able to help.
—Kenneth Mullinix
Certified Residential Appraiser
I followed your situation, well every appraiser I knew was following you and some of my appraiser friends are now scared to “come in low” if the owners are of any race but Caucasian. My heart goes out to you.
I had a kuffuffle years ago. When I was a trainee for four years, I’m not even sure I had a trainees license, but I sure know it didn’t expire at the end of two years. My trainee let hers expire and I stupidly “assumed” it was like the old days. At that point the Board didn’t make you take a supervisors course. Well. That was expensive, I had to hire a lawyer, pay a fine, increase my E & O. But mostly, it killed my ambition. I love appraising and I was going to become an expert at USPAP for my own sake. Now, I don’t care. I still do a kick ass job, always aware that we can be challenged and always cover my adjustments and opinions. But my heart died that year. I guess life can be unfair. Enjoy your retirement. I hope your health is good and getting better. Blessings.
Let’s recognize it for what it is … socialism. That should lessen the confusion on our parts. Nothing prospers under socialism except for the politicians and criminals. And, of course, everything is ruined.
“Now, I don’t care”. That is the worst part for me. I used to care and work my *ss off. Now I’m going through 42 years of files and shredding them. I look at many of them and remember much happier times and wonder why I didn’t get out of it 20+ years ago.