Your employees did not come from Taco Bell, they delivered your pizza! In a recent New York Times article by Julie Creswell on 01/21/2017, former executives of Quicken Loans confirm “many employees come in with little or no background in financial services. One employee joined after delivering pizzas to the Quicken Loans Offices”. No need to say anymore, that statement speaks volumes. The article titled “Quicken Loans, the New Mortgage Machine” is a tell all article, right down to the founder and Chairman Dan Gilbert’s physical altercation on a former colleague at a religious function, to his public tirade against LeBron James,...
E&O coverage has nothing at all to do with underwriting mortgage loans… Do not include your E&O binder page in any appraisal report. Period. End of story. Especially if you are being ‘managed’ by an AMC who has that in their engagement agreement, claiming it’s a lender requirement. A while ago, I received a “correction notice” via a prominent AMC for a report I submitted: “Per lender requirements, evidence of E&O coverage must be included in the report.” My response to the AMC directly via email, not in the report, was this: “To: AMC rep Is there any way you...
New wave of AMCs desktop “appraisal” products… VaCAP has received several emails from members concerning a new wave of desktop appraisals available from some AMCs. These products have an inspection of the property performed by another individual and the photographs and property specific data is provided to the appraiser. The AMC’s are claiming that the entire product is on-line and no written report is needed. They also claim the report is USPAP compliant. They are looking at compensating the appraiser $65 and the report should take approximately 45 minutes to complete. VaCAP does not have any specific knowledge of these...
Clear Capital suggests that the VA consider the use of a desktop appraisal On April 4, 2017, the House Committee on Veterans Affairs held a hearing on “Assessing VA Approved Appraisers And How To Improve The Program For The 21st Century.” The hearing was designed to “assess VA’s current appraisal process, as well as specific difficulties for timely appraisals in highly rural areas”, as well as to investigate possible technological solutions to mitigate timeliness issues. Much of the hearing focused on two areas: The requirements for becoming a member of the VA appraiser panel, and the baseline requirements for comparable...
Big Corporations like CoreLogic are like sharks… This morning, as I do every morning, I made some coffee and began work on one of the two appraisal reports that were soon to be due. The first was for an AMC known as Speedy Title and Appraisal Review Services. This appraisal management company is owned by CoreLogic. From their website “CoreLogic is an Irvine, CA based corporation providing financial, property and consumer information, analytics and business intelligence. The company analyzes information assets and data to provide clients with analytics and customized data services. The company also develops proprietary research, and tracks...
No paid lobbyist, just appraisers talking with the Senators and Delegates about the abuses of some AMCs… Governor McAuliffe signed SB1573 into law requiring appraisal management companies to pay within 30 days of the initial delivery. This becomes law July 1, 2017. Here is how it happened…. Two appraisers, both small business owners, sat down and had a conversation with Senator Frank Wagner about some of the issues appraisers are facing. By the end of the conversation, the three were on the phone with a representative of Legislative Services drafting the verbiage of the bills needed to help protect the...
Excessive markups are common but consumers usually “know nothing about it”… The Chicago Tribune has published an article written by Ken Harney concerning appraisal fees. The article is very telling of what appraisers already know. Now the consumers are aware. Please read and share the article with your colleagues, agents, local MLS Board, Realtor Board, Appraisal Board and your Legislators. The more the abuses of some AMCs are exposed, the more opportunity we have to protect the consumer. Are you paying unseen add-on fees for your appraisal? By Kenneth R. Harney Are you getting fleeced on appraisal charges when you...
Mortgagee letter on choosing FHA appraiser, AMC &/or 3rd party fees… Does HUD have a Better Understanding of the Role of AMCs? Recently an old HUD/ FHA mortgagee letter has resurfaced. The mortgagee letter, 2009-28 has to do with choosing a FHA approved Roster Appraiser and Appraisal Management Company and / or Third Party Organization Fees. This mortgagee letter specifically states “the fee for the actual completion of an FHA appraisal may not include a fee for management of the appraisal process any activity other than the performance of the appraisal.” This mortgagee letter was written prior to the Final Rules and...
Amendments to Sales Contract & Updates to the Appraisal… Fannie Mae recently issued the following: Currently, we require the lender to provide the appraiser with all amendments made to a sales contract, including amendments that are made after completion of the appraisal. With this update, we have clarified when the appraiser must be provided with updates to the sales contract and circumstances that warrant updates to the appraisal. For example, if the contract is amended in a way that affects the description of the real property used by the appraiser, then the lender must provide the updated contract to the...
Very often the public records are dead wrong… Appraisers, We all know Fannie Mae (FNMA) has their Collateral Underwriting (CU) report scoring system after the .xml file of the report is submitted through the Uniform Collateral Data Portal (UCDP) portal used by both GSE’s. This system of theirs is used to ‘score’ an appraisal for a loan quality rating, and it’s also used to provide a lender with a guarantee of relief from a FNMA loan buy-back demand, if the report ‘scores’ a number of 2.5 or lower. We’ve previously discussed how that can be manipulated by a lender or an...
