USPAP Appraisal Reviews in 15 Minutes?
$15 USPAP Appraisal Reviews in 15 minutes?
A VaCAP member shared with us something they read in an appraiser group on Facebook last week and expressed concern. We agree there is a reason to be concerned and want to alert our members to be cautious. We do not know if the source of this request is an amc or a lender, but either way, there is reason for concern. Here is what was shared:
“I have been diligently looking for appraisers to complete to do our NEW USPAP reviews. These pay $15 per report and are completed in 10-15 minutes. We utilize our own form and the reviewer answers 15 USPAP compliance (Yes or No) questions on the appraisal.
The 15 Questions are:
- Did the appraiser provide all necessary State disclosures (fee statement, AMC information, etc.)?
- Did the appraiser exhibit competency in performing the assignment with the specific property type, value amount, in compliance with applicable zoning and market influences?
- Was the appraiser’s scope of work reasonable and sufficient to deliver credible assignment results?
- Did the appraiser identify the client? Intended users? Intended use? And real property interest being appraised?
- Did the appraiser identify and employ the correct methods and techniques in this appraisal assignment?
- Did the appraiser analyze agreements of sale, previous listings and sales of the subject property within the past three (3) year period?
- Did the appraiser clearly state all extraordinary assumptions and hypothetical conditions employed within the appraisal?
- Did the appraiser develop an opinion of the highest and best use of the subject?
- If exposure is relevant, did the appraiser develop and report exposure?
- When the Sales comparison approach is necessary, did the appraiser analyze sales data available?
- When the Cost approach is necessary, did the appraiser develop the site value using an appropriate technique? Did the appraiser analyze cost data and correctly apply depreciation?
- When the Income approach is necessary, did the appraiser analyze rental data?
- Did the appraiser reconcile the applicability and relevance of the approaches to value?
- Did the appraiser address prior services within the past 36 months?
- Did the appraiser include a signed certification?”
As we stated, VaCAP does not know if the source is a lender or AMC. We do know that any review done by a licensed appraiser must comply with USPAP Standard 3 and the reporting of the review results must comply with USPAP Standard 4.
We are not sure how any appraiser could even possibly complete a review in compliance with USPAP Standards 3 and 4 in 15 minutes. Market research and your own analysis must be performed in order to determine if the original appraiser has complied with USPAP Standards 1 and 2.
Even greater concern is the amc or lender’s on-line form. This raises questions if the reporting format allows the reviewer to comply with USPAP Standard 4. Does the reviewer have the ability to add to or subtract verbiage that may or may not be appropriate? What about any comments that may be necessary to support your conclusions? Is checking a box sufficient for USPAP compliance?
Remember when you are doing reviews, you are making an opinion to the quality of another appraisers work. If you agree the original appraiser has complied with USPAP and his or her results are credible, you own that opinion and the value stated on the original appraisal. If you disagree, you own that opinion as well and better have the support to back it up.
We do not wish to get involved with any fee discussions as the fees each appraiser charges is their own personal or business decisions. But we do ask you seriously consider if the $15 fee being offered for these reviews is reasonable for the amount of work and liability you take when completing any review.
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There is NO chance you can perform these products and be compliant in 15 minutes.
Refuse and boycott signing w them.
You have got to laugh at their stupidity….does it ever end ???
no
This profession is going backwards.
Its been bastardized !!!
So sad, I hope nobody falls for this, and if they do, that they have good E & O insurance.
The EO guys will just pay it out and distribute the loss among other subscribers. If they have not taken action against amc’s by now, they probably never will.
I’m seeing dollar signs right now! I’ll just check yes down the line and PROFIT! I hope they have volume and are willing to assign all the work orders to me personally. This is going to be so easy, like record breaking through the roof exceeding profit expectations 10 fold easy.
How fast can you click 15 yes boxes? I’d bet I could whip those out in 3 minutes flat and nobody at the amc would blink an eye when I turned in 20 an hour. 20x $15 = $300 an hour. I knew amc’s would come through eventually.
What’s next – $10.00 and 10 minutes with 10 questions? Oh wait – then the $5.00 in 5 minutes with 5 questions!! How about 1 question in 1 minute – Do you like keeping your license?
This is being done specifically to determine the largest lifetime investment made by most people. I don’t understand the lack of public outcry.
People in general do not care. How often do buyers get upset when the Appraisal comes in low? Seriously – they should rejoice and re-negotiate! Instead they feel insulted.
You’d be better off going to work for McDonalds than let your hard earned license be used for $15.00. I just quoted a field review for $1300.
Just to add to this insanity, today I received this AMC email:
We are looking for an appraiser that can help us with a new pilot program in the area.
• The report is a three-page form, which includes the property data with no value provided or analysis required.
• Photo requirements are the same as a 1004 with added side view photos to capture all angles of the subject.
• Sketch requirements are the same as a Form 1004/70 appraisal assignment.
• These properties are currently eligible for an appraisal waiver; however, it is in the best interest of the client to validate the credit risk.
There is no value or comps on these as well.
THIS DOES REQUIRE AN INTERIOR INSPECTION
We are looking for appraisers that can commit to a 72 hour turn time
Sounds like the investors want an apprises to do an interior i inspection and then the lender wants to only pay another $100 for the value….LOL I am still cracking up !! Amazing how dumb they are !!
Raymond that sounds interesting. If that could go for 200-250 each, sounds like a better deal than having to push through a 1004 form. Sounds like a PIR, just add sketch and scheduling costs to that base 150 PIR/no value fee.
The 15 question list would be the same as a field or desk review, minimum traditional cost would be 250 desk, 400 field. Sounds like the request is for a rubber stamp program with those time frame allotments. $15 / $250 = 6%. What’s a 94% fee reduction among trusted valuation partners anyways. Where do I sign up!
You hit the nail right on the head !!!
Waivers keep coming about unexpectedly and scare everyone, sort of like ghosts. The previous incantations of them were known as PIR requests, drive by’s, and streamline refinances. Even back then lenders had sense to still use the appraisers services though. These days the haunting is real. Lenders will order thousands of appraisals daily which appraisers spend time on, then the order is suddenly cancelled and nobody gives the appraiser any explanation. It turns everyone from the clerk to the sales agents against the appraiser. I’ve never before seen so much unethical behavior from these people as when they try to cover up a suddenly removed order and vainly hope to keep the appraiser from knowing why.
So – Dear “Appraiser”, We would like you to go out and “NOT” appraise a property for us!!?? Please take a lot of photos – more than if you were actually appraising it because more photos make it look like we care. It is in the best interest of the client to have you “NOT” appraise the property, but for us to say we sent an Appraiser out there to “NOT” appraise it.
Man – I should have got in the Title business!! Why didn’t my Mom tell me to sell insurance? So mad at her right now!
It’s never to late Bryan. Just tell them you are Canadian, you’ll blend right in.
Canada is cold. I would never blend in anywhere cold!! I’m a tropical kind of guy.
That was a clever reference for all this disclosure recently where appraisers have learned that quite a few amc’s out there have parent title companies out of Canada. Pass me the beer eh?
This looks like an Amrock AMC program. The good news is they sent this to me a year ago. Looks like they’re having problems finding appraisers that want to do this!
There’s always the jokers at metro west lmfao
The reason there is even an attempt to do this is that their are now several licensed / certified appraisers out there that have been trained and only have experience with AMC’s or as staff appraisers. In most of these environments, USPAP is a third or fourth priority. The main priority is doing what you are told by the people who sign their paycheck. So it is not out of the norm for them to accept what a third party is willing to pay and determine how much time it should take. Then you have the “sell-out” veteran review appraisers that are employed by these companies who condone this activity, all for a paycheck every two weeks
Every 2 weeks? A steady paycheck? All I have to do is say yes? I may have been doing this wrong.
I had an an attorney as a regular client paying me off for the last one when she needed a new one, all SFRs.
She was a regular and the payment schedule worked for me, some times I testified, but mostly uncontested appraisals.
THEN one day I received a letter from the FEDERAL Courts, inviting me at a meeting for an order of relief from all dischargable debts.
WOW!!
Be careful in dealing with attorneys, Know who your client IS.
I had the invitation framed 38 years ago. Education Ain’t cheap.
A pay check in a wavering industry may no good either
When the appraiser coach is the band leader with a booth at the expo hustling and bustling with the big shots and proudly blogging about doing 4 to 8 appraisals a day with as little as 30 minutes reserved for a review, its no wonder our clients now want 10 to 15 minute USPAP reviews. Can’t wait for the positive spin blog/podcast/VHS tapes explaining how it will be okay but you need to work with A rated AMC clients only.
The road to ruin has been laid one brick at a time, and unfortunately those most often visible at the top, have the most bricks.
Seek the truth.
JUST SAY NO THANK YOU…..If appraisers would just consider unionizing we would be so much stronger.
There is a union..American Guild of Appraisers.
I’d have to say that any appraisers taking this work have little to no professional integrity. I’d sooner pick numbers out of a hat for the valuation process.
Already said “no.” You can’t possibly do a credible review on 15 min. They will not get my E & O to sue for shoddy products
All appraisers that are told a “Review determined there are concerns with your appraisal of such and such property”…must absolutely insist on a copy of the signed review. Anything less is character assassination and libel.
For those that address the specified ‘concerns’ without a copy of the appraisal review, you are putting your heads directly on the chopping block. Please stop committing professional suicide.
Takes me longer than 15 minutes to read a report. I like to read from back to front then front to back when doing a review. That normally takes longer than 15 minutes if there is any level of analysis discussed in the report. I call poppycock on this “product”
I spend more than 15 minutes per report verifying the ownership interest that exists in the appraisal I am being asked to complete. Since that’s what’s actually being appraised, I always considered it important enough to get right.
For the record AMCs, there is no such thing as a 1004 appraisal. There are fee, and leased fee interests in single-family residential property. Many, if not most of those fee or leased fee interests are further diminished by public utility easements. Some are diminished further by specific jurisdictional limitations or curtailment of rights such as rent control or statewide tenant-landlord laws aside from limitations imposed by rental agreements or leases.
Shared driveways or other easements for common ingress and egress among neighbors may be factors. I cant tell these in the first 30 seconds when the order is first placed & the AMCs business model requires instantaneous acceptance. There are literally dozens of other federal, state, local or neighborhood conditions that may affect that bundle of rights that I am being tasked to appraise.
I can determine the potential for some unusual conditions in my preliminary research, but I can’t determine all possibilities.
In part, that is what the site visit and professional analysis of site conditions is for. For example, that Encino California homeowner that only had a 10 feet deep backyard in 1995 when the property was originally appraised due to a steep upslope hillside in the back, but who had graded away 25 additional feet by removing the slope closest to his home…without permits 10 years later. Would it have been apparent to an appraiser that had not performed the earlier appraisal? Most likely. Since the hillside was already failing and sloughing off down into the back yard again.
Any impact on value, marketability and indeed improvement habitability? You betcha!
STANDARD RULE-3!!! End of Discussion.
Like drugs, JUST SAY NO! Lenders and AMC’s, you get what you pay for. This is true in both appraisals and reviews. No way is this compliant with Standard 3. All the client is wanting is a rubber stamp that contains your signature. Hell, I won’t even turn my computer on for $15; my license is worth more than that. For you bottom feeders out there that accept these assignments, I hope you have good E&O because you will need it. The first time you get a claim, your E&O carrier is going to drop you like a hot potato.