Folks, the following letter was sent to FHFA by an appraiser I know. It was sent in response to the ‘first’ data dump FHFA made which uses CENSUS TRACT data to try to convince others that appraisers are biased by using ‘people demographics’ contained in Census Bureau info. You can find that ‘dump’ here. The writer of that first FHFA dump was identified by name, and included an email address. So the appraiser wrote a respectful email to Mr. Russell. It turns out, shortly after this FHFA document was released, Mr. Russell left FHFA. So this nice letter sent several...
Folks, the American Enterprise Institute Housing Center has been, to date, the only major voice in the wilderness I’ve seen publicly defending appraisers and the appraisal process. They have refuted most of the highly touted ‘studies’ promoted by Dr. Andre Perry and others, which the current administration has considered the gospels of appraiser intolerable performance. The Biden-created ‘black oriented’ 13 agency PAVE Taskforce, co-chaired by HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge, who is a black lady, issued another report recently. AEI’s response to that is in the PDF below. Please read it. Meanwhile, Ms. Fudge recently appeared at the 75th Annual...
In his 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language,” the late British novelist, essayist and critic George Orwell examined the connection between political orthodoxies and the debasement of the English language. In a truly Orwellian move, mortgage giant Freddie Mac recently announced its intent to censor an arbitrary collection of words such as “desirable,” “safe,” “well-kept,” “student” and “crime” when they appear, in any context, in the hundreds of thousands of appraisal reports it relies on in mortgage underwriting. It would be hard to make this up. One of the banned words – “desirable” – will be recognized by students...
Appraisers, on July 17, 2023, a document from Freddie Mac was circulated to numerous appraisers around the US which identified certain words and other info that can be considered to be ‘BIASED’ in appraisal reports. Here is the Link to the Bulletin. We need to step back for a moment and carefully analyze and consider why that was done, and what it means to appraisers. In many ways, appraisers forget the purpose of the appraisal assignment – which is to value real estate. In other words, the physical structures tied to the land. But too often, elements of personal or...
Has Fannie Mae gotten too big to control? That was one of the many questions asked to Senators & Congressman while in Washington DC. The agreement on whether Fannie Mae has gotten too big to control was unanimous. Most believe that the company is too large and complex to be effectively managed by the government. They argue that Fannie Mae is too big to fail, and that if it were to collapse, it would have a devastating impact on the housing market. Others believe that Fannie Mae is sorta manageable, and that the government has taken steps to reduce the...
By foregoing contingencies such as home inspections and appraisals altogether, mortgage lenders risk violating their fiduciary duty – which is supposed to prioritize the interests of the borrower above all else. It is no surprise that some loan officers are salivating over the prospect of not having to wait for a full appraisal or a home inspection. After all, who doesn’t want to close more deals in less time? While this may be beneficial from a broker’s perspective, it could result in borrowers making decisions without being fully informed about their investment. Kim Nichols, senior managing director of Pennymac TPO,...
NAR is conducting a survey and wants to know if you have any concerns regarding property data collectors, if the appraisal fees are higher since the involvement of data collectors, if borrowers are made aware of a fee for the appraisal and a separate AMC fee or were the fees bundled, if the property data collector gave the impression that they were the appraiser, whether you have any safety and privacy concerns with the data collection process, quality of data collected and whether they need to be licensed… In a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) regarding appraisal...
The idea of unlicensed individuals being hired off the streets and paid a pittance to video and photograph the interiors of borrowers’ homes, which would include the exact location of valuables and children’s bedrooms, has been unsettling to some. An astute real estate broker recognized the name of a Michigan man awaiting sentencing in an armored-car robbery. The latter had been engaged by one of six companies authorized by mortgage giant Fannie Mae to dispatch so-called “data collectors” to borrowers’ homes. The broker alerted the bank and the National Association of Realtors. New, progressive laws designed to conceal felony convictions...
Originally known as Fannie Mae’s Collateral Underwriter (CU), and subsequently Collateral Underwriter 2.0 (CU-2)i this always dubious product of Fannie Mae is increasingly being referred to by some, if not many American Appraisers as The Fraudulator / Underwriter 2.0 (FU-2). To be clear it is not limited to the Collateral Underwriter (CU & CU-2) software. The new Fraudulator (FU-2) combines the CU products with their numerous improper uses. The end result of which includes OUTRIGHT FRAUD being perpetrated against banks via the repurchase letters Fannie Mae now issues on a quota based system rather than because of legitimate appraisal defects....
More and more appraisers are retiring every day. Aside from that more and more are changing to lower liability careers. Eventually, the opportunists who have been promoting the scam of racial discrimination by appraisers such as career politicians, and ‘anti-discrimination’ software hucksters like Black Knight will be shown to be what they truly are. Recently, a highly respected appraiser who is also a senior designated member of a well-known national professional peer association, wrote an article about a new proposed law in New York ostensibly targeting New York appraisers. Mr. Bagott’s article had an unusual amount of hyperbole within it...
