…waiting for the platform to fall… because you know they hired the fastest and cheapest guy to build it! When Dodd Frank was implemented lenders started using appraisal management companies, eliminating appraisers relationships basically overnight. Appraisers embraced the change reluctantly and started accepting assignments from appraisal management companies. Over the years appraisal management companies showed their true colors and lowered fees, required appraisers to pay upload fees and forced many appraisers to pay for unnecessary back ground checks. Some have hired staff appraisers, completely disregarding the intent of Dodd Frank in an attempt to lower operating costs. Today, most AMC’s...
The FTC has cost the appraisal profession dearly in their pursuit of the State of Louisiana. This entire episode has been entirely misguided… The FTC’s time SHOULD have been spent investigating the AMC trade group known as REVAA to find TRULY non-competitive practices… The FTC is asking for public comments on the consent decree by the Louisiana Real Estate Appraisal Board. The time line to comment is short and ends on July 22, 2021. VaCAP asks each of you to take a few minutes and read the consent decree as well as the analysis provided by the FTC before commenting....
Relationships. It’s a lost art of business when it comes to the appraiser profession… I have been an appraiser since 2003, when I started my career path. Since then, the appraiser profession has gone through many changes, none more impactful than creating the Home Valuation Code of Conduct or HVCC law that was put into effect after the crash. HVCC created the new normal for the profession where Appraisal Management Companies (AMCs) were installed as the firewall or third party between the appraiser and the lender. Overnight on May 1st, 2009, appraisers all over the country lost every relationship they...
1. A Call to Comment has been issued. 2. VA is looking for Appraisers. 3. AMC Disciplinary Action Snowballs into Multiple States… A Call to Comment has been issued. The FTC is asking for public comments on the consent decree by the Louisiana Real Estate Appraisal Board. The time line to comment is short and ends on July 22, 2021. VaCAP asks each of you to take a few minutes and read the consent decree as well as the analysis provided by the FTC before commenting. The link for the Federal Register that contains all the information can be found...
I was able to sort time adjustment methods by data source used (mostly compiled, published reports) and by the analytic used… Time adjustments is a timely topic. Recent ski-jump rises in prices have been ramp-ant in many places. Valuemetrics.info provided a free, two-hour webinar on the topic, and we had almost exactly 1000 appraisers sign up. (Although many did not show – free, you know.) Prior to the webinar, I asked some reviewers about how appraisers were handling the price changes. Also, my friend Steve Smith raised the question on his National Appraisers Forum (NAF) to see what sources they are using to support time...
It’s never helpful for anyone to be mean. Even when we’re “anonymous” and hiding behind a keyboard, we need to be nice… Back in the 1980’s an American minister by the name of Robert Fulghum published a series of essays in a book titled All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten. One lesson that we should have all learned back in kindergarten, or before, is to “be nice”. Many of us did learn to be nice, but some of us need to re-learn that same lesson. The online world of social media (Facebook, forums, etc.) has made...
When the appraised value didn’t meet the sale price, the first assumption was that the appraiser conspired to lower the appraised value based on ‘race’ only. When interviewed by the TV reporter, the appraiser (off camera) was incredulous about that accusation… I’m getting tired of accusations of race bias in appraisals, which ALL have alleged the ‘low appraised value’ is caused by the presumed built-in systemic racial bias of the appraisers involved. Here’s another one: EXCLUSIVE: Former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs fights home appraisal he says delayed the sale of his house – ABC7 San Francisco (abc7news.com) Even the President...
Why can’t it just be accurate instead of “conservative” or “liberal?” Just be precise in the way you do your job… Some people might say a public forum isn’t the place to air this dirty laundry, but this is not really a public forum. Of my thousands of readers, very few of them are not in real estate appraisal. Right now, I’m talking to the bad apples. Maybe you’re in a situation where you want a lot of volume and want to be the go-to person for the local mortgage company or local bank, and you want to keep them...
In the past year, the appraisal industry has been under attack from various academics who claim “racial bias” on the part of real property appraisers providing appraisal services to lenders who provide home mortgages. These academics do not fully understand various types of valuation specialties, the appraisers who practice in these specialties, and the myriad of laws that must be followed. Help is needed to explain the appraisal industry, including the specialties and the types of reports. An understanding of the different components of the appraisal industry is necessary to assist various academics, journalists, the media, the public, and the public...
…the racial bias narrative will be what is utilized to remove appraisers from the lending equation… Removing us will finally put the FOX completely in charge of the HEN HOUSE…this entire narrative could very well end up costing us all, our way to make a living… Unfortunately, Professional Appraisers have no organized voice and I don’t see that we ever will. There is no one to defend us. And that has been used against us for years. After all that Appraisers have been through over the last 15 years, the racial bias narrative and the allegations of racial discrimination in...
