Proposed Rule to Eliminate C&R Fee Tabled
Yesterday morning, I attended the Georgia state appraisal board hearing on the proposed rule to eliminate the C&R fee law they have in place. You know, the one that is similar to the one in Dodd-Frank.
The Georgia appraisal board apparently is being investigated by the FTC for their law. They thought that the FTC vs the Louisiana case was a ruling in favor of the FTC when in fact it was not, and wanted to avoid any sort of notion that they were price fixing or of anti trust.
The board received letters from appraisers and others in the 30 day time frame, and yet, here I was at the board meeting the ONLY appraiser to show up and speak up about it.
The board president made a simple statement to start which altered my initial comment. He stated the state appraisal board was here to protect the public and not the appraisers. They are here to license and regulate appraisers. Very true.
So I processed to get my opportunity to speak and made it clear that removing this law completely, would do more damage to the public, but appraisers as well and the state. How so? Well, if AMCs have no state rule as far as C&R goes they would resort back to pre Dodd Frank days and be able to pay whatever they wanted, even lesser than they do now which would most likely result in appraisers to stop working with AMCs and create that false narrative of a shortage. It would harm the public as there may be less appraisers for lender work, faster and cheaper appraisers doing less quality work to make up for the lack of good fees thus leaving the public with more garbage valuations. It would harm the public because now we would be back to the narrative that we need more AVMS, hybrids, desktops and cheaper valuations to make up for the lack of appraisers willing to work for pennies on the dollar.
I stressed to them that they shouldn’t be bullied by the FTC, that they need to talk with other agencies, the Louisiana attorneys and many others, to understand what went on in the case before making such a radical decision, and seek alternatives. Maybe it’s a simple rewriting of the law. Maybe there is nothing wrong with it period.
I spoke about many other things as well, in the time allotted to me, such as bid requests, trainees, AMCs leaving appraisers unpaid, and how allowing AMCs to charge borrowers a certain amount and pay themselves more than the appraiser or seek out the cheapest is not protecting the public.
At the end, the board president stated that he was prepared to make a motion to adopt the rule change and drop the law. However, after hearing me speak, as a certified appraiser and the President of the American Guild of Appraisers (AGA), and thanks to some of the letters sent, they unanimously voted to table the proposed rule change and seek further advice and information, and do more research before proceeding any further.
While not a gigantic win, it’s a win nonetheless, and I applaud those who took to time to write letters. I just wish more appraisers would have come to the meeting to speak up in person.
- Look in the Mirror - February 27, 2023
- AMCs Take a Sizable Cut of the Appraisal Fee - October 5, 2022
- Proposed Rule to Eliminate C&R Fee Tabled - July 21, 2022
Well done good and faithful servant!!
Please keep up the good work and know you are representing thousands of people…..the public as well as appraisers.
Kudos Mark!
Great job Mark!! Hopefully they’ll come to their senses and keep the law.
I hope all appraisers understand the lengths you are going to, protecting their livelihood. Interesting to note is you were the only appraiser at the meeting. I’m an old dog in this industry (37 years) and am qualified to say there is definitely something about this profession that is troubling….always a lot of smoke (in the blogs) but never any fire within this brotherhood. Thank you for your actions on behalf of the profession and public.
Thank you Mark. Well done!
Mark maybe you not Phil? I know you two have history. No stepping on toes. I would pay you for your time to represent appraisers. As Noone else does. Why do i not see Ansi Problems being written about? Literally i have multiple reviewers from same lending institution telling me to disregard the other reviewer’s review stipulation message about ansi as they lending institutions where not ready for ansi. I was at house today being marketing and sold as a 2 bedroom home. Per ansi standard it doesn’t even have 1 bedroom. I asked agent if he know what ansi meant. And he did not. and he is an established reputable agent which is due diligent. And he doesn’t even know what ansi is? I’m in new jersey Mark. 24 counties. how many mls services in 24 counties. Bright mls sued to have their counties covered public data go dark. Verify data? how? wait. Now you need two paid services both owned by same parent company to verify parent company not wrong. Does uspap care or know this or they only care about verbiage standard such as this that and what and how. Do they understand public data appraisal resources are being darked out? by paid service providers. But uspap states verify data. From where. Wait pay for it. If one parent company owns all data providers therefore taking out other data sources to remove the ability to show their data is not correct. Well it leaves us in today’s appraisal world. Paid Fabrication. I pay Phil back via annual directory listing fee as all appraisers should for his loss at appraiser fest. I would do same for you. I’m guessing other appraisers which witnessed the last 20 years will do the same.
The C& R law should stay. But, lets be realistic, its not like it does anything to begin with. In my area, AMCs simply provide work to the lowest bidder and that is their definition of C&R. I left appraisal 2 months ago after 15 years. AMC model has decimated fees in an industry that only cares about fee, not quality.
Lenders don’t care what the property is worth. Period. Just like automobile loans, they only care if the borrower will pay them back. Once you accept this, everything makes sense. Most lenders only get appraisals because they are required to by regulation. The C&R regualtions are a joke, the major lenders just trot out their attorneys and define C&R to suit their needs. The current situation will never improve, and in fact will get worse for individual fee appraisers. Just like you, it took me a while to accept this, I fought it tooth and nail making many of the same arguments. Once I came to terms with reality, I left the business for Mass Appraisal work. My mental health has greatly improved.