Category: Snippets

AMCs Add Weeks to The Appraisal Process? 13

AMCs Add Weeks to The Appraisal Process?

By my math, this is a 18-day process… appraisal part only took 3 days as a rush… Despite being approached all the time to add our firm’s name to an appraisal management company, we decline. However, when wealth management companies were forced by their parent company, they made arrangements to help attract better firms like ourselves to consider working with them: Pay our fee Respect our turn time quote Not inundate us with clerical addenda requests Last fall we were approached by 4 different AMCs because their wealth management clients demanded they fix the problem of not attracting the better...

Data Grab from Appraisers, Core-Facebook-Logic Consumes Us a la mode 26

Data Grab From Appraisers

How can the a la mode purchase not be a data grab from appraisers? This has been a tumultuous couple of weeks for Facebook. I’ve never been a heavy user of it, mostly a lurker. They constantly change navigation paths making it nearly impossible to update your settings frequently – and when you do, do you really trust them? I’ve always seen them as the “dark side” much like Mac lovers see PCs and Appraisers see CoreLogic. We all know by now that when you use something that is free, then you are the product. This was never more apparent...

AppraiserFest 2018 Agenda 0

AppraiserFest Agenda

“Phil Crawford and Mark Skapinetz break down the Appraiserfest 2018 Agenda! This will be the cutting edge event that no appraiser will want to miss! Register today and we will see you in San Antonio on November 1st, 2nd, and 3rd!!!” Here is the core Appraiserfest schedule that I believe will be subject to additions. Think of signing up for the event as a “rush appraisal” – just clear the deck and get it done now. It will help Phil & co. with planning for the event immensely.    

Skapinetz versus Coester 8

Skapinetz versus Coester

BREAKING: David versus Goliath Redux: Skapinetz versus Coester VMS – Case Direction Favors Underdog Court Refuses to Dismiss Lawsuit That Coester and His AMC Hacked Appraiser Mark Skapinetz’s Emails My colleague and friend, Georgia appraiser Mark Skapinetz, sued COESTERVMS.COM, INC. and BRIAN COESTER in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland last year for hacking his email account. Here is the evidence submitted. Coester subsequently filed a motion to dismiss. On February 9th, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis Denied The Motion to Dismiss for 3 of the 5 claims and the lawsuit will move forward. I find this whole matter very compelling – especially...

Clear Capital Evaluations: The Expert Only Gets 10% of Fee 33

The Expert Only Gets 10% of Fee

In the Appraisal World, The Expertise Only Gets Ten Percent of Fee An Indiana state certified appraiser based in Indiana who is also certified in other states including Georgia did an evaluation of a number of properties in Georgia. The “appraisal fee” was $250 but the AMC (Clear Capital) got $225, and this appraiser got $25 for each evaluation. I’ve blocked out the specifics of one of the orders except for the fee – in this disclosure form required in Georgia. In other words, the administrative fees for Quality Assurance, Broker/CMA fee, Home Data Index Fee (whatever that is) and...

Standards Written in Weasel Words - Is it jUSt PAP? ~ copyright AppraisersBlogs 6

Is it jUSt PAP?

…standards written in weasel words… Appraisal is not rocket science, but it’s been around for about 300 years and it worked pretty well when the principles were kept simple and the consequences for ignoring them were disastrous. It would also have been nice if individual lending institutions still had to hold their own loans into perpetuity. The “Just Pap” is more unpopularly known as the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, which came into being after the last big residential mortgage greeding frenzy (the failure of S&Ls in a 17%-mortgage-rate environment during the late 1980s). Before your friendly author proceeds...

Just say NO to Superfluous AMC Addenda Requests 30

Appraiserville – Just say NO

…Multiple Wall Street and other large financial institutions have approached my firm this year after they neutered their AMC vendors, requiring that they use our firm for high-end work. We are to be paid our fee and allowed to provide our reasonable turn times. I was told many horror stories by those institutions who came to realize we are not robots, nor are we widgets. By taking this step, they invested in risk management. However, their initial stream of new business was met with 3-4 addendum requests per assignment that had nothing to do with any requirements, repeated prior requests...

Appraiserville – Fake Claim of An Appraisal Shortage 65

Appraiserville – Fake Claim of An Appraisal Shortage

Please provide feedback immediately to “two banking institutions have requested that the Appraisal Subcommittee temporarily waive the requirement for use of state licensed or certified appraisers” based on the fake claim of an appraisal shortage. I wrote about Tristar Bank in Appraiserville a few weeks ago. It is worth re-visiting since I translate the Tristar request into my interpretation of what they are really saying. It is recommended to send your responses ASAP to webmaster@asc.gov rather than to Jim Park directly although either way is fine. The Appraisal Foundation will be responding to this issue. Here is an email I just received on this issue:...

AMC management fees exceeding the appraiser’s fee more frequently 40

AMC Fees Exceeding Appraiser’s Fee

AMC management fees exceeding the appraiser’s fee more frequently Over the past year, the AMC industry growth model – taken from the backs of residential appraisers – has been broken by a growing number of residential appraisers that won’t accept fees below the custom & reasonable rate. So in order for AMCs to grow revenue, appraisers are seeing their fees surpassed by the AMCs themselves. In other words, hiring the valuation expert – the whole point of getting an appraisal to begin with – to make less than the company that manages them. We hear the GSEs and lending industry...

Coester - We Pay the Least & Get the Least Qualified Appraisers 20

We Pay the Least & Get the Least Qualified Appraisers

In 2013, Brian Coester of the Coester VMS AMC tweets “we pay the least and get the least qualified appraisers.” The graphic below was sent to me so I looked for it on twitter and the conversation is still there. A long dormant appraiser twitter account @insidevalues engaged in a conversation with AMC founder Brian Coester back in 2013. Brian responded 4 days after the question and then explained the “elite gold club” set up where appraisers would get more volume at a lower price point. I kept trying to apply sarcasm to Brian’s (he has blocked me even though I don’t recall ever engaging...

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