Really Rosie, thank you for your articulate discourse. One of my trainees got a job with the Montana state assessors office, lThe counties used to do the assessment appraisals, but took over because of too may complaints.

Is Oregon warmer?

Remember Montana is a non-disclosure state, Facts are what ever the author wants them to be.

Don’t know if this is the right place to bring this up, but heard from my local Rural Development office that USDA is looking for an AMC to assign out their appraisals.

Really killed my day hearing that. Working with them 10+ years and now to have this happen. There goes a great client. It STINKS!

The trick is convincing the lending institutions to STOP using AMCs. They could easily give us a raise and lower their clients cost in one fell swoop. About 8 financial institutions in my area. One orders for themselves. Wish we had an organization that brought us together that could address the lenders directly. One Appraiser telling them falls on deaf ears. One national organization with all of the state organizations as members. If anyone thinks AI I would like to pre-laugh.

Thank you!

The jurist is from Montana. After practicing as an independent appraiser for 35 years in So. Cal, I moved to Montana in 2013. I applied for my reciprocal license. At that time they had one person running the bureau of real estate appraisers and the board was full of MAIs that were from other states. The clerk who ran the appraisers bureau was an idiot. I told her in person that I was licensed in another state as a Certified General and I wanted to know the procedure for getting my Montana reciprocal license. She told me I needed to submit 10 reports of SFRs in the past six months and she would review them. I told her I was a commercial appraiser and didn’t do much lately because I was moving to Montana. She said she would “bend” the rules for me and allow me to go back one year for reports. I said I did an apartment building narrative and a form on an upscale residential area on Mulholland Drive and so I submitted those, plus she wanted my whole workfile. This was extensive, so I copied a suitcase of info and electronic files and Fed Ex sent it to her by her deadline. It sat on her desk a few days and when I called to see if she received it she said no. Then when she pretended to finally receive it she said I had multiple USPAP violations. I went before the board the exact day (September 24, 2013) the TAF was there auditing their office for compliance because they were always out of compliance. I had one frank MAI tell me Montana didn’t believe in reciprocity, like it was a religion! They said numerous appraisers in MT tried and failed to get their MT license so they went to Colorado or other adjacent state to get their license, then came in the “back door” to get the MT reciprocal license. Some residential appraisers I met while there said it took them 5 years and lots of reviews by this one woman to get their license. So it was a closed group. The current board of MAIs, volunteering controlled who got to work there as an appraiser and they got theirs, so like nimbys, they denied others the same, meaning more work for them. wasn’t going there to take over Montana, I just wanted some work.

The day I turned in my license application was June 3, 2013 and I finally got before the board on September 24th, 2013. They denied my application because this non-appraiser reviewing my CA appraisals was incompetent and just accused me of having violations, but there were none! he TAF was in the back of the room watching this like CA appraisers are generally inferior and can’t appraise in MT. It was pure discrimination and RESTRAINT OF TRADE!

That woman is not in charge anymore, and I testified that I thought the process was unfair. One of the backwoods residential guys was that woman’s friend and he tried to buddy up to me and tell her how to kill my app! It was so demeaning when I can appraise circles around these people because there isn’t any land or building in Montana that we don’t have thousands of in CA; I studied Urban Planning before I became an appraiser and I just do more to get to know a new location than most, so I can meet the standards of being geographically competent. That was a buzz word back then to keep people from outside their former market area out of their market; that way they can line their pockets with all the fees and kill people’s careers.

Needless to say I moved to Oregon and had to disclose the first black mark on my record in over 35 years, that MT didn’t approve my recip app, but Oregon already knew about that woman and the problems she made for appraisers, so I got my license here and I have stayed here. I still have my CA license but I don’t get much work there so I don’t know if I will continue to be licensed there or if I will get temporary licenses when I do.

By the way, that MT woman gave me temporary permits to appraise on a per job basis. I had to give her a copy of my contract, so she knew how much I was getting for the fee and who my client was. That was such bs, I get mad just thinking about that. Until I came to Oregon I’d never worked for an AMC but did so just to get started up here and I did form reports on houses while I got geographically competent, so I paid again for my newness, but I al OK about doing more work than the average appraiser because I do litigation appraisal work and I am meticulous about details and verify everything on every job; that way if they can find something wrong with it, let them try; most of my cases settle because my work speaks for itself.

I will never do a hybrid, and if the government allows FNMA to dictate what is on the form and how we do our work then they should be sued for back wages for anyone who slaved for the pimps called AMCs. There is nothing good about working for them, they degraded our profession and I wouldn’t trust that so-called jurist from MT because those people are pretty twisted there, especially if you have dark skin, are a Native American, or Black person; it is especially bad if you don’t go to the same church, they just don’t trust you! That is why there are only 1 million people in that state because they run you out of it if you are not just like them, it is just the white cowboy justice; they make their own rules and don’t care if they are in compliance with federal law because, hey, they live in the boonies and it is very pretty there.

https://financialservices.house.gov/

Contact her (or admin aides) through above. All congress members limit reg email contact to constituents via zip code confirmation. The link above has working contact information on the site under “contact us” tab.

Say yes and put your full report fee. Otherwise – say NO! Are you joining the race to the bottom? I’m rarely glad I’m old……..

I got that too..

I deleted it faster than I do their actual appraisal requests! LOL

The ONLY appraisers that have a right to complain are the ones that refuse to do low-fee work (like myself)

All I hear is griping about the AMC’s – from appraisers who have constantly have fifteen $350 AMC appraisals in their queue..

I don’t do AMC work, but they may not be so bad if their fees were actually ‘reasonable & customary’….

As long as appraisers continue to accept low-fee work, nothing is going to change

well said !!

Inspections only and no other work? Sounds like a gift of manna. They’ll just need to assure an equivalent rate, which for me would be $150+ per. I have always said, if I could only do inspections and never have to fill out the tedious forms, I could easily double or triple my income. As long as some appraiser out there is willing to rely on strangers, take on all the professional liability, and absolve me of all possible liability, yes, I would like to only complete field inspections. Being tied to the desk all day is absolutely awful. I’ll have to call my insurer and make sure it’s a covered activity first though. I’ll probably also want the amc to sign an additional page I furnish to them, absolving me of any and all potential liability under any and all circumstances. Anyone have a good ready to go disclaimer page for this activity? I’m not being sarcastic here. If I can get inspection only at 150+ per, guaranteed at least 2 a day on average, I would be game for that working activity and it would be a great break from gse form filling. For the form filling portion, relying on someone else’s inspection data, not now, not ever.

“Dear First Look Panel Member:

First Look is excited to announce that we’ve been selected to participate in the bifurcated valuation process starting this summer!

We’re reaching out to you, a member of our trusted panel, to let you know that we intend to work exclusively with our appraiser panel on all aspects of this new program.

In addition, we’re inviting you to participate in a brief survey. Your survey response will let us know if you’re interested in participating in the program.

As you may already know, the relatively new bifurcated valuation process requires a physical inspection of all eligible properties with the use of a mobile inspection application and in certain circumstances, a full desktop appraisal following delivery of the inspection data to the lender. The inspection portion and the desktop appraisal (if required) are considered distinct and separate assignments where you as the appraiser can participate in either or both at your election.

First Look will be working exclusively with our trusted panel of licensed appraisers (and trainees) for the inspection assignment portion of this process.

Knowing that licensed appraisers have the most experience with valuation centric inspections, we’re confident that our trusted panel (and only our trusted panel) should partner with us on this new process and product.

We’ll provide additional information as we approach the official launch date. In addition, our Chief Corporate Appraiser will be hosting webinars with further details and to answer your questions.

Thanks for taking the time to read this important message. We thank you in advance for your response to our brief survey.

Are you interested in performing property data collection assignments?

Yes

No”

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-114hhrg26005/pdf/CHRG-114hhrg26005.pdf

Post a list of lenders whom still offer in house carried mortgage loan products, describing exactly what consumers need to do in order to access those.

I’ll take a screenshot of the panelist speakers and replace their faces with their employers company logos for a better visual depiction of whom was represented and whom was not. All the familiar big corporate labels will be there. The politicians really should have to wear sponsor labels like nascar drivers… At best, we might hope for a flip flop.

It’s important to remember that as individuals, we don’t have to tow any line or status quo position. Personally, I vote the issues. Bought and paid for corporate news has everyone running around chanting red blue red blue. There is a better way.

If Mr Miller wants to make a difference, do not take no for an answer. Panel appointments are suggested by lead members and approved by the chair. It’s important to know exactly who denied the request, what their position and rank is within this committee, and go around and over them if necessary. Sometimes you’ve got to whip the whip, circumvent jr chair persons, and present your letter to read to the chair ahead of time to obtain any floor time. If you can’t make an appearance you can still mail a written letter to every panel member individually, and request someone use their minutes to read your letter in your regrettably forced absence. Floor time matters and submitted for the record commentary goes nowhere.

“I’m concerned the conclusions of this panel are already determined before this hearing begins. The possibly disastrous consequences of such influential changes is no small matter and it defies logic that this panel would not entertain an invitation to speak for one of the most successful and influential appraisal firms in this country.”

Go on to dismantle the credibility of the amc groups, the non experienced lobbyists, illustrate these groups financial incentives. Of course they won’t let an appraiser speak, you will be watching political theater.

As a member of the AI holding the MAI, I would add that we have inadequate and incompetent lobbyists that are being paid from our dues. The top guy who handles federal issues was a former lobbyist for a mattress company; the state lobbyists is a failed politician who ran for office in Baltimore and didn’t raise one penny! Of course he lost; neither of them are appraisers. Although they may work to get representation for appraisers they have done absolutely nothing productive while the banks and realtors who outnumber us are eliminating us from the profession that developed as a result of the Depression. That is where “protecting the public trust” came from. Now we are the ones who are not trusted in favor of artificial intelligence (algorithms) written, again by non appraiser nerds who got their programming job because they are good at playing computer games.

Just who is actually in our court? Nobody with any brains or ethics! Then we are supposed to watch every character typed into our reports when it is an art, not a science. Numbers don’t tell you everything; you have to get into the minds that met to make the deal and understand motivation, by verifying your data. None of the data used in these algorithms is verified, just public data or MLS which is a sales pitch. Our job is to figure out who is lying to us and how much they are lying, so with so much bs out there in the data, none of it is property and exact location specific, unless a trained, experienced and competent and honest appraiser as done their job, and properly, according to USPAP. Now TAF and the ASB are changing USPAP and we are just letting them take our profession away without fighting because we are all so “independent”. If you follow what fannie tells you do to do, you are not really independent, you are working for the idiots who crashed the housing market in 2008, then hired foreign computer nerds to “review” the original appraisals, but you couldn’t find the appraiser guilty of any USPAP violations! So they are there only to dictate to us and they don’t know much, except they get a stable, fat paycheck while we compete for peanuts because nobody wants an honest appraiser, even the borrowers! Hence, liar loans which I am sure still go on….