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...
VA Announces Electronic Appraisal Requirements: Appraisals must be in MISMO XML Effective June 1, 2014, all Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) appraisals will be processed in WebLGY under the VA Appraisal Management System (AMS). Therefore, beginning June 1, 2014, all VA appraisals must be uploaded in WebLGY in Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) compliant XML 2.6 GSE file format as VA will no longer accept appraisals uploaded in WebLGY in PDF format. Prior to June 1, 2014, VA appraisals must continue to be uploaded in WebLGY in PDF file format. Historically, VA appraisal form/formats conformed to appraisal industry form/format...
…“preaching” about the basics of this industry… The more I read residential mortgage related appraisals, underwriter comments and comments from the quality assurance departments from major lenders, the more I have come to realize that it is far beyond time to get back to “preaching” about the basics of this industry. For those of you who have been in the business back when you would take the photos, pull it out of the camera, wait a few moments before you pulled the front off the photo before coating it with the “magic wand” to keep it from fading (thank you...
In April 15, 2014 Fannie Mae released its updated selling guide. It conducted a comprehensive review of the Appraisal Requirements (B4-1) chapters of the Selling Guide. As a result of that review, new policies have been developed, current policies have been clarified, and additional guidance has been incorporated. Further, significant changes have been made. In some cases, topics and paragraphs have been re-titled and content has been reorganized with the expectation that searching for specific information will be much easier. The clarifications are a result of internal reviews, frequently asked questions, and the analysis of Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) data....
Fannie Mae’s new “Appraiser Quality Monitoring” initiative that creates an appraiser “do not use list” or “blacklist” has alarmed many working appraisers, especially since at least a portion of the process is automated. Placing an appraiser on a Fannie Mae exclusionary list would effectively end a career, therefore, it is critical that appraisers…
A Journal Piece of Appraiser Independence (Part 2): Appraisal Independence Violated History is an important reminder to us all of what went wrong and what went right. When history is known we tend to skip the mistakes we made. We can either choose the right path for the wrong reason, the right path for the ‘right’ reasons and, we can take the wrong path in a similar manner. The MARKET needs to take the right path for the ‘right’ reasons. In years of late 1998 and 1999 several ideas were brought forth to a Forum filled with Individual Appraisers carrying...
A Journal Piece of Appraiser Independence (Part 1): Where Do We Go From Here? Buyer Beware! Where is the Value? (PART 1) In the years of 2007/2008, the ideologue of, “Appraiser Independence” had become popular for the real estate market’s economic agents and the processes it relies on to function properly. The idea gained respect, due to the perseverance of Real Estate Appraisers carrying out their Independence, during the decade of 2000-2010. The Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) was introduced according to prevailing design and initiative: the advancement of a market in need for an inspired and renewed sense of...
