Category: Appraisal Management Companies

Blast AMCs Emails Do Not Meet the Spirit of The Law 16

What Goes On Behind The Scenes…

This year it appears many AMCs have turned to blast requests of fee and turn time. We get them constantly and simply delete them. Last week we received a blast email from an AMC that sends out blast requests for bids. We have never worked with Appraisal Nation before and don’t know how we ended up on their panel. In their rush shopping for the cheapest and fastest appraisers, they forgot to BCC the appraisers they blasted. It appears that this AMC is not only incapable of maintaining quality control and assuring competency for specific assignments but by disclosing appraisers’...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Customary & Reasonable Fees

Influencing Appraisers & Controlling AMCs to Commit Fraud 14

Appraisal Fraud

You might want to read this article. Notice what it says about an AMC allegedly ‘influencing’ appraisers to report incorrect or high values in disregard to federal law about appraiser independence. This brings up a salient point: When AMCs hire and employ W-2 “staff appraisers“, is there a potential for AMCs to direct appraisal value outcomes based on how reports are reviewed and suggested ‘better’ comps provided as a requested correction to a submitted report? But to be fair, this can also happen with lender-based internal appraisal servicing departments, which my first-hand experience proves. It seems that no matter how...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Federal Housing Administration

Alternative Evaluations... Good or Bad 10

Alternative Evaluations… Good or Bad

All of these "alternative evaluations" are an attempt to reduce the fee of the appraiser… All this talk about alternatives to a full appraisal needs some common business sense added to the conversation. At the end of these comments I will include some of my background and you can make your decision if you think I am qualified to put my 2 cents in this discussion. I have said this before and I will say it again, the lenders (AMC included) just want an Appraisers signature and their E&O insurance with a value and they want it as cheap as...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / E&O

Alternative Hybrid Reports, Finding a Solution By Working Together 22

Solution for Alternative Reports

Lenders are having a problem finding enough appraisers to fulfill the number of ‘alternative’ reports… This is my follow-up to the previous essay about FIVE different types of ‘hybrid’ reports. You need to know some background about why I’m writing about this. I’m acquainted with a highly skilled appraiser/instructor of 40+/- years in the trenches. I had the pleasure of meeting this appraiser in glitter gulch in 2008, again in 2013, and we have stayed in touch over the years. I greatly respect this appraiser’s opinions and willingness to contribute cogent remarks in-person, when teaching, and via various forum posts, etc....

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisal Software / Appraisers News

Hybrid Reports - The Story About "Hybrid" Who Does What 11

The Story About “Hybrid” Who Does What

WHO actually fills in the subject info in ‘hybrid reports… Appraisers, This is a long message… grab a cold one and settle in! Last Wednesday, (yah, bad on me!), I sent out a message asking appraisers who have done, or are doing, the new ‘hybrid’, ‘alternative’, ‘bifurcated’ or “easy squeezie” desktop reports promoted by some AMC’s and others, what the actual process is concerning WHO actually fills in the subject info in ‘hybrid reports’. A number of appraisers took time to answer via email that afternoon. Among the responses, I actually CALLED and talked to 4 appraisers who are from different...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / The Appraisal Foundation

Clarocity May Have Gone Dark.... Have AMCs Gone Dark? 34

Have AMCs Gone Dark?

Clarocity May Have Gone Dark… VaCAP has learned from one of our members the Appraisal Management Company, Clarocity Valuation Services, may have gone dark. The VaCAP member has invoices for their services over 30 days old and Clarocity has been unresponsive to numerous emails and phone calls over the past several weeks. Additionally, new orders are being assigned through their portal, Appraisal Scope. Virginia passed a 30 day prompt payment law that went into effect July 1, 2017. The statute is very clear that an AMC must pay an appraiser within 30 days from the initial delivery of the report....

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News

Third Party Services Prohibited - Prohibition is Back! 24

Prohibition is Back!

AMC strictly prohibits the use of third party services. A recent review of an engagement letter from a large national appraisal management company revealed something pretty peculiar… “An appraiser is prohibited from using any third party services.“ Wait, What? No third party services? I am no attorney, and certainly do not know all the aspects of law, but it seems that the definition of third party services is pretty self-explanatory. To be sure I am not mistaken; I researched the definition of third party. FreeDictionary.com: “A person who is not a party to a contract or a transaction, but has...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending

Who doesn't like a good BRAWL 4

Who doesn’t like a good BRAWL?

So who doesn’t like a good BRAWL? Brokers Rallying Against Whole-Tail Lenders (BRAWL) is a network of independent mortgage brokers who have joined together against unethical practices by wholesale lenders. The group has created the term “Whole-tail”, a combination of wholesale and retail for those lenders who close both wholesale and retail mortgages. The group claims that some bad wholesale lenders are using the brokers to obtain client information to solicit clients directly through the lenders own retail divisions and affiliates. “Mortgage brokers are beyond tired of various wholesale lenders acting like they’re on our team, when they’re actually just...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News

Subject Inspection for Hybrid Appraisals & USPAP Compliance 62

USPAP Compliance & Hybrid Appraisals

WHO does the SUBJECT INSPECTION? Appraisers, Some appraisers have questioned the name ‘Hybrid Appraisal’ because the requesting client WON’T USE THAT NAME for the product. When they call or email you, they’ll say something like “We have a really fast appraisal for you to do that you can do on your desktop without leaving your office.”, or “Can you do an exterior appraisal for us?” or they might identify it by the ‘name’ that client uses for the product. The FIRST question you need to ask is simple: WHO does the SUBJECT INSPECTION? If they say ‘someone else does that’…...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Automated Valuation Models

Reliable Is the Ugly Lie of Hybrid Appraisals Scope of Work 11

Lies, Damn Lies and More Lies

These so-called accurate and ‘reliable’ data sources are factually wrong… I was reading the Scope of Work contained in a sample Hybrid Appraisal, one of now dozens being promoted by multiple AMC’s, lenders, software developers, etc., which seem to be sweeping the secondary lending arena these days. It says… Identified and verified subject characteristics from a reliable data source such as MLS, County/City records, GIS, and online data sources. – Researched comparable sales and listings from reliable data source such as MLS, County/City records, etc.” “Reliable” is the ugly lie and supposed truth promoted by very naive or unaware people...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / E&O

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