Valuations should be considered a profession???? Appraisers should be ??? What have we made of ourselves?

Nose around the various groups what are we being called? CAN we buy, publish, advertise, act as, dress as and be considered as something we may not practice?

TOO many question marks!

Agree.

Also re states, Louisiana is the hero of the FEDERALLY MANDATED C&R fee battle. Virginia did well setting a minimum but their record of enforcement is reportedly abysmal. New York and New Jersey are showing promise.

So too are Texas, New Mexico, and Georgia.

Well said Mike Ford! VaCAP has been one of the most active and vocal coalitions and honestly, is. It’s not afraid to speak the truth. The naysayers will always be around, but it is far time we start leading the profession and not let it be dictated to us.

The amc business model is a complete failure. The only thing accomplished was the fact that money was taken from local business and shipped out of state to the pockets of corporations. There is far more pressure on appraisers than there ever was with brokers and loan officers ordering the appraisals. The quality of report being submitted through amcs is far inferior to any other appraisal report.

The truly sad part of all this is states are unwilling to enforce their own laws when it comes to amcs. Their own citizens are not being protected. I have more respect for Louisiana, than any other state. They are doing the right thing.

We can quibble about defining a “professional.” That’s only part of the message. For me the bigger message is STANDING YOUR GROUND!

Far too many of us are still ‘going along just to get along’. Collectively we frequently fail to stand up for what we know is right, in the face of an AMCs loan officer driven pressure to make changes. Even when coercion is applied, we MUST stand up for ourselves.

A few state coalitions help appraisers do this. AGA helps all member appraisers to do this. Let’s take the message the way it was intended before we void its impact, and do the work of our opponents for them.

AMCs and REVAA, as well as others, love it when appraisers divide themselves. They like it, even more, when we kill off our own positive ideas for needed improvements in conditions affecting us all!

Amen Retired …….Dying ain’t much of a living.

Honestly think things are going to begin to improve as more AMCs fail.

Predicted HELOC volume hysteria is not panning out as projected.

AMC organic search traffic on Google is declining precipitously. Only a small handful of AMCs are getting a meaningful volume of searches. The ONLY thing keeping these idiots alive right now are low interest rates which have already bottomed and are now increasing.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

If individual people could reference me and request my services specifically for mortgage lending appraisal services I’d be able to drive substantially higher fees. Probably I’d see an instant doubling of service requests from people interested in the quality of service as opposed to merely demanding low fees and fast turn times, repeat business, etc. I should have been a realtor and am going to make that transition one of these days. Tired of people who know substantially less than me earning substantially more.

The appraisal profession is capable of supporting professional behavior. The improperly co mingled appraisal and amc fee provides consistent disincentive for many mortgage lending realm appraisers to care about ethics or professionalism. One ponders if non licensed telecom amc workers can claim professional status. Is it courteous or conscientious to conceal fees, drive down vendor fees for variable opportunistic profit without returning cost savings to consumers, non payment to vendors, promoting outsourced services, lying to the vendors they work with.

It’s important to maintain a positive attitude but I would not recommend an independent appraisal position to anyone at this current point in time. Until the financial incentive for amc’s to rip appraisers off at every turn is vanquished, this industry will never recover. Mortgage lending fees will remain frozen in time to infinity and will never again keep up with relative earnings of other similar industry professionals. Simple one off paperwork processing requests from various closing services now outweighs the appraisers laborious efforts that can take days or weeks to complete, without all the ce, licensing, or independent labor sacrifices. When mortgage lending falls, appraisers will go down like domino’s, it’s not if, but when.

Please advise when the fictitious cfpb interpretation of safe harbor rules pertaining to DF Reg Z on C&R fees will be rescinded, when the amc fee will be properly separated in entirety from the appraisers service fees.

Many of the jobs available to appraisers can be accomplished by technicians, some jobs require reputation and net worth. An insurance company can issue protection, reputation allows defense.

A lender can insure against fraud, can an appraiser?

Undeniable proof that a profession can exist while being occupied by amateurs and journeymen.