We took a long look at labor and employment issues, ADA CADA EEOC CCRD Fair Practice and Collective Bargaining, and so on and so forth. Basically employee rights. What was interesting was the familiarity of many activites which are regulated for employees, which are treatments appraisers have acclimated to. Many daily activites with those tasked both managing and distributing work in the appraisal industry would otherwise be outright illegal prohibited discriminatory activities which investigators would have enforcement power over, were the appraisers employees. An interesting side note, Department of Labor Standards and Statistics may be a good place to turn for unpaid work performed should such a need arise. The trade off is freedom of time but the value of that freedom is being constantly diminished. Well, at least 13 people commented as of the effective date of this post. Thank you.

Check this one out. How would you like the tiny home on the exact east shady side of the mid rise, sandwiched between highly mixed use and changing zoning with variable sized land plots and parking limitations? I saved the photo as; ‘the impossible comp search’.

Baggins, Appraiser’s voices have never been heard. I have bitched, cried and complained to my clients till the cows come home. I have given up hope. WE appraisers are way outnumbered by the elite crazy’s and really have little say. We are a necessary evil in the lending transaction. Period.

Mr Don and Mr Dave.

Now is the time to make your voice heard on the anti competitive nature of amc’s.

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/06/22/2021-13139/louisiana-real-estate-appraisers-board-analysis-of-agreement-containing-consent-order-to-aid-public

I am one of only four comments. We need to flood this comment board immediately, please drop whatever you are doing and comment today. Phone a friend for them to do the same. Per this call to comment from the blogs just today. I posted an image of my comment for comment structure if needed, the other comments already visible.

https://appraisersblogs.com/ftc-has-cost-the-appraisal-profession-dearly-in-their-pursuit-of-the-state-of-louisina

Mark, Dave, Dustin, George, Johnathan, Maureen, Julio, Cotton, Bill, Pat, Tammie, Mike, Advocate, Chase, MD, Bobbie, Midwest, Seneca, EJ, Vince, Wyatt, Marlaina, Donna, Anna, Wyatt, Anna, Diana, Denise, Pratt, Hamp, and even that deplorable Retired appraiser, and all the lurkers, where are you at? Please comment.

“The medium of communication is the message.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message

I remember mapping out my inspection schedule to include stopping off at various lenders. If one I already worked with, I stopped just to say “Hi!” and chat a little. If it was going to be morning, I’d stop off at Krispy Kreme first. 🙂

If there was a lender I hadn’t work with yet, I’d stop to introduce myself and leave an “info-packet” I’d put together and had printed…to have something to put in their hands about me. I too miss those days when I felt like my clients knew me and I knew them.

Like you, I have begun to do what you talk about…actively worked to get away from “AMC” work. I have also tried to forge relationships with Realtors® that I respect…those that do a great job and aren’t “hostile” toward appraisers. However, those numbers are growing smaller as we speak. I’m not really sure at what point Realtors® started seeing us as the enemy.

It’s such a shame that so many in real estate sales have no clue what a Professional Appraiser does. But to be honest, we as appraisers must own our part in the failure to educate those outside our “circle”.

When an opportunity presents itself, I try to take a little time to briefly “educate” Realtors® and others and hopefully make an overall good impression for them to take away. And maybe, just maybe undo some of the damage done by a previous “bad experience” they had with an appraiser. But lets be honest…my measly efforts in that department won’t make much difference. Especially when all it takes to be a BAD appraiser, is not arrive at their “magic number.”

I’d honestly like to see the NAR’s Valuation division be more of an advocate for it’s Professional Appraiser members (of which I am one) and to actively promote a better working relationship and respect between Realtors® and Professional Appraisers. Luckily, that exact thing is beginning to happen…thanks to some really great Appraiser Members that have stepped up to Leadership Positions over recent years. P.S.A personal “Thank you!” to Pete Gallo for all his hard work in that area. 🙂

In my feeble attempts to try to help Realtors® understand, even a little, what changes Professional Appraisers have gone through since HVCC/Dodd Frank, I’ve asked them before to consider this scenario;

All of a sudden…overnight…the entire way a real estate broker does business changes. The “powers that be”, without any real input from you, changes the rules and requirements.

These changes effectively cut your income in HALF.

*You are no longer allowed to have direct contact with any lenders you have relationships with to send you buyer client referrals. Your name is placed on a list…along with hundreds of others. Maybe you will get calls, maybe not. In addition, these lists contain real estate agents from areas that may be hours away from where you typically work, and buyer referrals may or may not be given based on the proximity to the property in question.

*You are no longer allowed to seek out listings. Instead, you are “signed up” with multiple 3rd Parties for a “panel of approved real estate agents” and you designate what market areas you cover. Nevertheless, agents from hours away may receive listings that were only a few minutes from you.

*These 3rd Parties determine what “fee” they will offer you to list a property. This fee is the same regardless of the type of residence, 1100 sf ranch or a 5000 sf mansion. It doesn’t matter how much work you will need to do in order to market and sell a property, or what you consider to be a customary & reasonable fee for that work. You are allowed to request a fee increase, however the 3rd Parties determine if they will accept.

*These 3rd Parties send out emails to every real estate agent they have on a long list, offering them a chance to “bid” in order to receive their listings. This bid period may even be a brief 2-4 hour window, which doesn’t allow you much time to research before you submit your “bid”.

*There are restrictions in the “agreement” you must accept in order to receive their listings, that prohibit any discussion you may normally have regarding your “fees” with anyone other than the 3rd Party. You begin to realize that when a seller contracts with these 3rd Parties, they pay a fee to them up front. Then the 3rd Party seeks out bids from it’s list of agents. Any difference in the fee already paid by the seller and the “winning bid” the 3rd Party accepts, is kept by the 3rd Party.

Soon you begin to realize that these 3rd Parties are assigning orders based on the “cheapest & fastest” agent, not the most qualified.

*The fee paid by the seller is listed on closing statements as “Realtor’s® Fee”. However, it is not identified as “Fee Paid to Realtor®” and “Fee Paid to the 3rd Party Management Company”. Therefore, the public, (sellers & buyers) have no idea that you, the Realtor®, did not receive the total fee identified. This results in the misconception that Realtors® fees are much higher than needed. You may be accused of “price gouging”. But remember, you are prohibited from disclosing any fee information.

*The 3rd Party, at their discretion, may impose time limits on when the property must be sold by, that may or may not accurately reflect the subject properties market area. However, if you accept their “listing order”, you must complete the sale by the required deadline.

*If after completion of the sale of the listing, the 3rd Party determines they aren’t happy with the outcome, they may decide not to pay you. You may have to fight to get paid, or even file in small claims court. When it’s all said and done, you may STILL not get paid. As a result, this process causes you to have a certain percentage of your work that you are never paid for.

*If the 3rd Party, seller or buyer don’t like something about the sales price you eventually got for a property, or about anything else you may or may not have done during the performance of this “listing order” you accepted, they may decide to file a formal complaint with the Real Estate Commission about you. Then it’s up to to defend yourself.

*At any point in time, you may be removed from the 3rd Party’s “approved list” and find yourself with fewer and fewer listing orders with no indication as to why.

Now, as a Realtor®, if these were the conditions you worked under….would you still be a Realtor®?

Since your income has been effectively reduced by HALF, would you continue to hire assistants and/or bring on additional agents in your office?

How about how you market your services? Since you have much less control over how you get business, would your marketing methods change?

And doesn’t it make you wonder how much the number of Realtors® would have declined?

I continue to be amazed that the AMC business model has not been challenged by the lenders that hire them. Truth is, many of the lenders/banks actually OWN AMCs. That makes them identify fees on a closing statement as going to the appraiser, when it fact it’s going to the lender…in a back door kind of way.

There are a growing number of lenders going back to ordering their own appraisals. These lenders are the ones I have sought out. It’s seriously much less stress. 🙂

Dodd Frank only serves, predentary lenders and AMC’S, to make money from bad appraisals, never served a purpose, the consumer is the looser. When you talk to the one giving you an appraisal assignment, and they say to you”’ I CAN’T HELP YOU I DON’T KNOW A THING ABOUT APPRAISING, WHAT DO YOU MEAN–A FORCED HOT WATER SYSTEM, WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE FROM ANYTHING ELSE-“” but aren’t they suppose to know about the assignment they are giving you and that was the reason for Dodd Frank, they are suppose to know about what they are giving you and know what you are doing and know that they are the authority to protect the home owner and the lender from the big bad appraiser, they are the authority as designated by the government of the United States o shame–what a crock, charging $750 for an appraisal and offering us $310 or $290 or, nonsense—what a joke. THE APPRAISAL PROFESSION HAS NEVER HAD ANY REAL ORGANIZATION TO STAND BY THEM AND IS WHY IT IS A WRECK.

Feel free to hit me up via email wiwapp@gmail.com or via my website atlantapropertyappraiser.com and I can also send you an invite to it and explain it more. Anything to help out.