It’s such a simple sales rhythm and simple sales concept. We need reliable minimums and when every single order gets bid up, it’s time to raise the base minimums permanently. The fact they don’t is a consequence of national modeling and flat rates. Sad part is they probably just poached my fav reo from this other amc w/ 400 flat minimum. Even then, not enough and they lost the client with constant delays and bid ups. So the large scale amc steps in, runs the national model and ‘takes losses temporarily in one local to promise flat rate nationally’. Code words for permanent freezing of base fees. They’re sending the managers on the phones lately trying to source appraisers. I had a borrower scouting for an appraiser per guidance from the lender. Apparently their national amc has held them 2 months just waiting for the appraiser to be assigned via big box national amc. Yes, it really has gotten that far out of control that the mb’s are asking borrowers to scout for an appraiser on behalf of the third party amc. Perhaps if the amc and appraiser were not splitting a 600 base.

I had one the other day that runs the base before split at 400. “That’s an interesting number, but I think you forgot to include a fee for your amc side. $400 was the minimum 20 years ago.”

Hey Retired Appraiser; Ok…sorry for my previous rant! Really…I find myself in a bad mood at times and I think you can relate. I wish all of my fellow appraisers the very best. Sometimes I get so mad that I make statements that I should not. Do I think AMCs suck and are parasites on this occupation…Yes, I do! Do I have a problem with anyone attempting to earn their living by exploiting myself or my fellow appraisers? Yes I do! Why should any of us have to support an AMC that adds Nothing to the transaction?

I do not by nature want to be rude. However when one of these crap AMC companies call me I just cannot help but tell them that they are not needed in the transaction and do not call me again! There are many such as I that feel the same way…there are many that have zero work unless they bend over for an AMC. We are not only exploited by the AMCs but then the numerous appraisal organizations hop on to the cart for a fun ride! They are so damn silly as to promise that if you pay dues, earn a designation that you will be frolicking thru the tulips with all the increase in business. Those that have been around a renewal cycle know that this is JUST CRAP! There are so many things that need to be changed in this occupation! Damn, I am happy that my career is near the end. My sincere message is that some of you are being ridden like a rented mule and do not have the ability to see it! Stop, take the blinders off and really look at this occupation….may change your outlook and your life. This silly and simple message is offered to my younger friends…..folks trying to make a career are disappointed. and many just do not care….we have made our bed! We are the pawns of others and at this point have no choice. I hope that some of my peers…get a grip! LOL…I doubt that I will ever see any change!

To Retired Appraiser…

Why do you or I care if our fellow appraisers want to work for peanuts with an AMC? Heck, if we can keep them busy doing that crap they will not have time to take on the decent assignments. I am not trying to brag…but we do NO AMC work, NO mortgage broker work, NO Relocation work, NO FHA work…gee we sure are picky! With all of that we still turn down several requests each day. HOW many assignments could we be offered if we went after the general market? No way!  Really…I no longer care what my fellow appraisers do. If they want to work for chump change…I could care less. If they want to pay Thousands in dues, publications, etc. again…I do not care. One $500. residential fee will pay for me to take a seven day cruise. Two of those reports and I can pay for my lady friend to join me. For the same amount I can go on a deep sea fishing trip to Belize.  A Las Vegas trip is about 1/2 the fee of one residential assignment. Why do you want to pay dues to an organization that promotes designations that you do not have? Especially when the general public does not have a clue what that designation means? I will go fishing…you pay dues!

Gruel? GRUEL?!

Spoiled seamen (and appraisers) today think eating every day is some kind of a right!

Bah! Back in MY day all we got was hard tack once a day; salted pork bits on Sundays and weevils for protein the rest of the week.

Now this younger luxury generation thinks their entitled to gruel!

Whats next, bread? Fresh water?

Sorry…but I call it as I see it.  None of you are being paid fair fees ($800) by AMCs…that makes you all bottom feeders.  Boycott AMCs and shut them down…then you can truly can name your fee and obtain it.

Hi Baggins, the only way this can be achieved is to use the insert/edit link option in TinyMCE below. If you enter the URL, the picture of the article or the video (for YouTube url for example) will be embedded in the comment. I took care of your link above.

Got another one for you. The beat skips on.

CALIFORNIA SUSPENDS ‘BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS’ WITH WELLS FARGO

Sorry, admin, please swap that to an article web link. I just paste it in there, and it auto grabs the picture capture of the article link instead of the preferred auto assimilate to newslink line. Can you adjust preference for automatic to present as link instead of pic?

Sorry, I did not provide the links properly.  Let me just clean up the links here.  ty.

Elizabeth Warren to Wells Fargo CEO Stumpf: “you should be criminally investigated by both the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission”

http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/

link posted in next post.

Well, you don’t know what you don’t know….  Best to stay well informed.  Knowledge is power.  Dare to read that website…  There is a whole word inside the little box which is real estate appraisal.  Make no mistake, we are inside a little box.  Dare to expand, but do so very carefully.

The game is afoot, and has been for quite some time.  What I take away from the Stop Foreclosure Fraud website, continues to be the same.  Fines based on income would provide a lot of market corrections.  These guys get away with it, and they do so routinely.  Dare to look, but remember, once you look, you cannot unlearn what you have learned.  Mers, clouded title, RICO, fraud, robosigning, federal investigations, ceo pay and penalty risk vs reward, there is so much there, information begging to get out.

Funny how the relative pricing argument does not extend to the variable 2.5 to even 4 points some sales agents may demand. That point spread usually covers much more than a thousand dollars of variance. Amc’s have been price gouging customers for years.

Ralph you how do you pay a trainee on a fee split when the amc/lender only pay  $225. The answer  is that you don’t pay them and don’t take the appraisal request. The amc business model is no friend  of the appraiser. The amc were designed for and by lenders and it the closest thing to professional slavery.

Appraisers need emancipation.

I just read a national article that the appraiser shortage is gumming up sales across the country. One lender & AMC accused an appraiser of price gouging, since the lender needed a RUSH to close the sale. The AMC fee was $625, the appraiser charged a $1,375 rush fee, total paid by the borrower was $2,000, the lender accused the appraiser of price gouging. I would argue that the buyer did not lose the sale,  they had already moved out of their apartment) and the appraiser completed their job. Is this not the definition of a free market where supply & demand is paramount?

Me too. Could it be Coester?

It’s just an illusion you know. “Their fee”, aka, their target fee based on their target desired income. And if there is no limit to their rake there is no limit to their desire to drive the fee down. But when it comes down to it, just about every distributor out there regardless of type, will choose fulfilling lenders terms over forcing discounts for increased income. They’re ‘taking losses’ in places like CO, OR, TX; aka; are continuing to run with ineffective self defeating imbalanced business models.

There is a helpful empowering statement appraisers can make; “When they call you, they need you. Price accordingly.” Follow w/ refusal to bid and demand they tell you the maximum allowable fee payout first instead. These fee control systems only work if there are two willing parties, operating within very narrow confines. Jump out of that bowl. Appraisers need to unflush themselves and head for dry land. I tried to play nice, I really did. Those days are over. Feelings have nothing to do with it. It has never been and will never be the appraisers responsibility to save someone else a dollar or a day. They’re free to cut discounts on their end if cost of service is a concern, and that is my official rebuttal.

On a somewhat related note: Coumo and bribery. Geesh, does this scenario sound familiar?

Ex-Cuomo Aides Charged in Federal Corruption Inquiry

Mark the educational requirements were never lowered. Seriously. The unnecessarily increased educational degree requirements were scaled back to allow other pathways. Specifically for tenured experienced appraisers.

The elimination of experience requirements by alternative path is where the real problem is. We keep hearing that no college educated “professional” is going to ‘waste’ three or more years to start earning professional fees due to high student loans, etc..

Therefore we need practicum courses and other chicanery in lieu of experience to fast track them to certified levels in their first week or so in the business. No ‘reasonable’ person would expect the grad to wait three years to achieve significant earning potential.

I guess AQB never heard of medical school, doctors and interns. Sure glad my heart stint was put in by a greybeard rather than a peach fuzz doctor with only ‘practicum’ coursework.

Y E S !!!