Help Regulators Take Proper Aim, Appraisal Institute Tells Congress CHICAGO (July 14, 2011) Testifying before a Congressional subcommittee, the Appraisal Institute’s president-elect on Wednesday told lawmakers their intent was “right on target” and asked them to “guide the regulators’ aim” in implementing consumer-friendly real estate appraisal guidelines. Sara W. Stephens, MAI, told members of the House Financial Services’ Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity that the Dodd-Frank Act passed by Congress last year is not being properly implemented by federal regulators. Among other highlights, the Act calls on appraisal management companies (AMCs) to pay “customary and reasonable” fees to residential...
Proposed legislation in Illinois, Maryland, Missouri and Nevada seeking to prohibit use of foreclosures and short sales as comparables in developing opinions of residential real estate value appears to have failed. Two bills missed procedural deadlines, one has been amended and the other was withdrawn by its sponsor. Appraisal Institute chapters in all four states played key roles in defeating the bills, which would have resulted in each state’s legislative body dictating the real estate valuation process. The Nevada bill missed a procedural deadline for passage and is dead for this session. In testimony prepared for an April 1 hearing...
LandSafe Appraisal Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America, recently released its latest “Appraisal Services Agreement” to its panel appraisers. The agreement includes, among others, indemnifications of LandSafe against any liability, and loss of intellectual rights. If this goes through and appraisers agree to sign this new agreement, other AMCs will follow LandSafe’s lead and produce their own version of Appraisal Services Agreements. LIA Insurance has reviewed the new LandSafe Appraisal Services Agreement. The review is available to LIA’s insured appraisers and READI members but others can also view it by registering with code 201700. The whole idea of appraisers as...
…excluded from Reasonable and Customary fee surveys… The American Guild of Appraisers (AGA) / Guild 44 of the Office and Professional Employees International Union, AFL-CIO met with Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) on April 14 to discuss the Guild’s concerns with the Federal Reserve Board’s Interim Final Rule (Rule) regarding Appraiser Independence. With the implementation of the Rule issued April 1, 2011, the Federal Reserve has introduced faulty regulation that implicitly fails to capture Congressional intent to reform the appraisal process and Appraiser Independence and the necessity to promote the use of market driven, Reasonable & Customary (R&C) fees for various...
Appraisers online petition opposing use of AMC fees as Customary & Reasonable Please consider signing the online petition launched by appraisers and written by George Hatch, opposing the use of AMC fees as Customary & Reasonable: Federal Reserve Board to Clarify Customary and Reasonable Appraisal Fees On October 18, 2010, the Federal Reserve Board announced an interim final rule to Regulation Z of Title 12, also known as the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). One of the elements to Regulation Z is a binding requirement upon creditors and appraisal management companies to ensure that appraisers who are not employees of...
