Let’s compare the average appraisal fee to the cost of gas during the last 20 years. One of the requirements of your job as an appraiser is getting to the property to appraise it. Unless you are appraising a property within a few blocks of your own house or office, chances are that you will be driving there. Today, the costs of driving — higher gas prices, higher insurance premiums and higher maintenance costs — have gone through the roof. This got me thinking: the cost of almost everything that we, as appraisers, need to do to successfully perform our...
Are Realtors and AMC’s Killing the Home Valuation System? In a word, YES! Many Appraisal Management Companies are now demanding that appraisers change the square footage details listed within their reports. Why? Because they saw a different number on Zillow® or in public records. How have we gone this far wrong? Appraisers generally turn first to their own files for square footage details. Next, they turn to the MLS, which is touted as “the most trusted source of real estate information in the world.” Then, if there are no other options (like in the many areas where the MLS does...
You Are Being Robbed Blind (24 Hour Membership Deadline) AMCs are concealing their profits within YOUR appraisal fee, and using coercion to drive down YOUR income as far as they can. This government-permitted process allows them to rob you blind while building their appraiser-squeezing power even stronger. NOW is the time to take a stand to fix this broken industry and the career you have spent a lifetime building. The Appraiser Prosperity Coalition was formed to fight for the legislative and regulatory changes needed to save this devastated industry. If you are willing to join us today, we can defeat the...
Banking Agencies are Told Proposed AMC Rules Fall Short on Guidance In comments filed June 6 with several federal banking agencies, the American Society of Appraisers (ASA) and the National Association of Independent Fee Appraisers expressed our concerns that rules proposed to regulate appraisal management company (AMC) conduct lack sufficient detail to allow for effective implementation. Additionally, the organizations expressed concern that some provisions of the proposed rule depart from Congress’s intent when the enabling law was included in the Dodd-Frank Act, and could negatively affect the overall public policy goals. In the comment letter, ASA and NAIFA cover numerous...
The Appraisal Profession & Appraiser’s Business Decimated by the Increasing Dominance of Appraisal Management Company Services (AMCs) For the past two months, VaCAP has participated in a networked council consisting of 13 professional state appraisal organizations in responding to the Agencies request for comments of the Proposed Rules on Minimum Requirements for Appraisal Management Companies: Dear Agencies; This letter is in response to the Agencies’ request for comments on the Proposed Rules on Minimum Requirements for Appraisal Management Companies. The undersigned represent a networked council of professional state appraisal organizations. We appreciate this opportunity to comment and thank the Agencies for...
Missing the Good Old Days Does anybody miss the good old days of having to deal with the mortgage broker? After spending about 53 minutes on the phone with an appraisal management company, who will remain nameless, I am almost missing the good old days myself. I originally called, because the appraisal management company called to see if I would take a forensic retrospective review for a new client they just acquired. This of course is a Fannie Mae client, and any of us who have dealt with Fannie we know there is a specific format, guideline and style in...
We urge appraisers to review the PADS Model Current economic trends suggest your appraisal practice will not survive beyond 2015. Appraisers are running for the exits, with many moving into Ad Valorem, and some into cost estimating. Client accounts you thought were safe have been converted to ether and dispersed among a dark refinancing void. You’ve gone from completing six appraisals per week to camping by your email, in hopes of an AMC broadcast assignment appearing. Where you once had time to think about accepting the assignment, you now have less than 2 seconds to accept, because like you, ninety...
Proposed Federal Regulation of Appraisal Management Companies (Minimum Requirements for AMCs) I hear a lot from appraisers concerning their interactions with various appraisal management companies (AMCs). Many keep wondering why appraisers are licensed and strictly regulated while it seems that AMCs for the most part have been left to do whatever they want. That was the case for a while; today the majority of states have already imposed regulations on AMCs. Currently, as part of the Dodd-Frank Act, a group of agencies are working together to set federal guidelines for AMCs. They are looking for feedback on these proposals and...
Dear Appraiser Colleagues, Awhile back, you responded to a request from VaCAP to supply your e-mail address to participate in an upcoming Customary and Reasonable Fee Survey to be conducted by the Virginia Center for Housing Research and the Virginia Tech Program in Real Estate. This communication is to notify you of the survey’s eminent release. Please look for it to be sent to you via e-mail in the next couple of days. Your participation in the survey is vital to the success of this endeavor. Please take the few minutes necessary to complete the survey; it should only take...
Appraisers to be paid within… It is all-too-rare that we hear positive news regarding the appraisal profession. There is an awful lot of complaining that goes on, most of it justifiable, but little good news that gets shared. Part of the problem is that there is no central source for information regarding our profession which appraisers might utilize in order to find out what is going on across the country and affecting our profession, and could be used to enhance our industry and our citizens in our own state. From what I have seen, most of any good news is being...
