Roger, I’m sincerely sorry they conned you and about your loss. I knew others that fell for it too. They did have a pretty slick presentation back then…right up until one realized they were flat out lying about USPAP compliance…then everything else about the fraud pretty much fell right into place.

Any of us can make a mistake, but you know what’s REALLY galling? That the Sausagemaker was given awards as man of the year and that ANYONE in government agencies didn’t send out widespread notices saying in effect “The Emperor’s not wearing any clothes!.”

Their scams, just like the hybrids were so blatantly in violation of every real ethical consideration of USPAP and just plain honest behavior that it’s hard for people to accept that such bold lies can be blindly accepted by the government regulators.

I would definitely steer clear of Clarocity as it’s probably not much different. ZAIO disappeared owing me over $10,000. I shot over 170,000 photos for them. They were protected by being based out of Canada and also having their headquarters in Arizona.  As if they knew what would happen.

STEER CLEAR

These are the same folks VaCAP warned about back on December 27th. Research showed they were in downward spiraling trouble back then. Appraisers Blogs had article back then.

These are the same folks that gave us ZAIO!!! Not their first rodeo taking advantage of appraisers.

Ralph,

You should not use a 2055 form for personal clients. The Fannie Mae forms are designed with Fannie Mae as an Intended User for the purposes of lending. If you are using a form that specifically states Fannie Mae as an intended user, and lending as an intended use, you could be in serious trouble by the licensing board as this is a direct violation of USPAP. Your appraisal software has forms for personal clients. You should be using those, and amend them for your limited scope of work if you choose to do an exterior only inspection. There might be a form for a personal exterior only report, but I’m not sure.

Respectfully,

Clint

Ralph, I hope you did not break a leg jumping so far with those conclusions.  Have you asked your EO insurance carrier what they think?  You’re posturing as an advocate of the lenders interests and have overlooked the question if this activity is even covered practice.

Appraiser’s need to get out of the mid set that a full 1004 needed for every order, especially when 95% of appraisals meet the sales price. It is just a matter of time before there are new forms and products where the appraiser may simply be in the office reconciling a report with photos already provided by an property inspector.

I hear you old school appraisers already screaming at me! “How can you do that if you  did not do the inspection” Again, it’s risk analysis and if you receive photos of every room, a sketch/floor plan etc. and you can check the comparables by Bing/Google aerial and street scent maps you should be able to derive a reasonable value range, maybe not as precise as if you did the actual inspection, but a range that allows the lender to make a risk assessment. Maybe FHA/VA/USDA will still require a full 1044, since it’s low to no down payment, but if a borrower is putting down 50% is a full 1004 really needed? You better bet that’s what the banks are asking and with the number of appraiser’s continuing to decline each year it is only a matter of time before we are seeing new forms or products.

HousingWire appraisal management company

Mark, there is an entire world behind that question. Marion Rhodes first brought this to my attention on the appraisers forum and I do not believe the question has ever been appropriately answered in a meaningful legal way. Pay special attention to the common law rules.

Independent Contractor (Self-Employed) or Employee?

Mike you are the man. One day when I catch up from this previous decade of deferred income (ha!), and finally manage to get through this 20k something bill for necessary home upkeep and maintenance services I’m regrettably dealing with, I hope to be able to pay your yearly dues and join. Thank you for your dedicated efforts.

This is my argument from the article immediately prior to this. They’re behaving like marketing companies not vendor management companies. They will put you on the approval list and roll the appraisers contact info and such right in without permission. Appraisalscope, mercury, various records checking companies, they all do it and share information while simultaneously not allowing the appraiser to maintain control of where their information goes and whom may and may not deal with them. I went on long term Mercury vacation, pumped Appraisal Port fees to 1k for every single product, and regret ever giving appraisalscope my contact info when they were a startup whom promoted direct assignment (bait and switch in the long term consideration). Funny thing is they all advertise like 40k or more national appraiser vendors available. They seem to have forgotten simple math and the need to divide the number of appraisers by the number of amc’s whom may work with them, also forgetting to cut out the base which refuses engagement with amc’s in the first place. The actual formula for amc’s appraisers servicing base would be; appraiser base populace count less hypothetical 2/3rds whom refuse service, divided by number of competing amc’s, then further parsed by the individual companies distribution volume. I assure you, that’s nowhere near close to 40k appraisers. This is looking more like professional harassment than anything else. And since the amc constantly brags about the panel size they typically use that in arguments with appraisers as a leverage point to force our engagement. But the response is so obvious; Well if your panel is that large, call the other guys what are you doing on the phone with me. “If they call you, they need you, price accordingly.” Your question if you are obligated to respond to the direct unsolicited orders begs an answer but I have none. I just constantly deal with time drain bucking off the unsolicited orders and bids.

In a single day last week I deleted over 70 unrequested individual order bid emails. I have a foot high stack of unanswered and answered solicitation panel requests over a few years. I’ve had to resort to threats of ethical complaints to the state agencies to get them to stop emailing and have had to buy a call blocker device to keep them from calling. As a group, amc’s have tanked most appraisers operational efficiency. Their client is the lender. Their customer is the appraiser.

Thank you !

But either way you slice it; bar tending or being the bpo appraiser, you’ll probably still be drinking on the job! Some of the glassdoor earnings reviews of those companies were pretty harsh 1 stars.

Here you go, it’s a massive company play. But same old story; They sold the product based on an expectation, not necessarily a reality. Taking me back to the argument of who’s responsibility it is to save a dollar and a day, and that’s certainly not the appraiser.

ValVets Appraisal Management, A Proposed Zaio Company, Awarded Nationwide Appraisal Contract with U.S. Federal Agency

If you wanted to dig, you are able to do so but why bother. Learning they are a traded company is enough for me to turn and run. Care to be more competitive to help the companies traded shares increase? And whom would the investment body (bodies) turn to if this went south? Take a wild guess. It’s true, they’ve commoditized the appraisal service. Just one problem, I’m a 1099 disinterested party whom does not share in company gains and does not produce widgets.  Would it be ethically allowable to own shares in the same company you provided this service for? If you provided the widget and owned shares would you have to disclose that? Food for thought but dang, I’m just a one man show and appreciate the simplicity of my low level simple working man status. Now I never deal with this level of business, but click the all button for the graph chart. Projections did not seem to line up with reality then, and probably won’t now. I’m thankful to not have to consider these things with regular every day individual appraisal services.

Clarocity Corp (CVE:CLY)

Chris, sadly possibly yes. It’s the pass the hot potato argument. When the bubble pops the typical move is to pass the buck. In technical terms this may be called offloading risk? If appraisers agree they’re taking on excess liability? I don’t know but those are the concepts which keep me personally away from that type of work. Not to mention I never was able to reconcile how I could claim independent unbiased non advocate positioning when I was directly following and single realtor whom functions as an advocate bpo as an integral part of my base analysis. An open market sale with contract and 2 advocate parties opposing is not the same as following up a single. Imagine being a buyer and the seller says we already did that appraisal for you, just have your agent line up the contract at this predetermined appraisal figure and that is your buyer position, sorry no negotiation room here, excluded by predetermined results. And then I’d bet the catch 22 is negative ‘performance grading’ if you fail to have strong correlation of your end value vs the bpo. Then icing on the cake, how does this relate in the state to state consideration where appraisers can run bpo in some areas but not others? It’s all so complicated just better to stay back from them. So I fall back on my old tag line; If anyone wants to save the borrower and/or client a dollar and a day they are free to do so from their side of the desk but that has never been and never will be the responsibility of the appraiser. Cheers.

Today these idiots sent me another email requesting a status on this assignment. I am just curious as to how long it will take them to figure out that I am not taking this assignment. They never asked if I was willing to accept it and of course I will not. I do not work for crap companies like this! You would think that they would catch on after a while. Am I under some type of obligation to respond or can I just ignore them and let them figure it out over time?

I do not consider companies such as this to be my client. I wish they would all go away. Why should I do anything to assist them in any way?

I talked to them, it was a joke, take pics of 10,000 properties. Take notes in their machine. The owner actually told me the beauty of it all is first they would order a 2055. I told him they were not doing 2055’s anymore. He said that is the beauty of it all. They will then order a full 1004. So double the money. I laughed right in his face. Why order a 2055. At $10,000 a district, if I remember right. I was told there were appraisers who bought 10 districts for $100 k. I laughed my ass off again and told him good luck. Appraisers are the smartest dumb people out there.

I agree with you Mike. But with all the buybacks, do you really think an inferior appraisal product is going to be allowed. Let me know, I am not as wise and informed as you. I am only 50. With an effective age of 70 doing this job for almost 25 years.