All these companies will eventually come around to the reluctant understanding that the model of exploiting appraisers was no where near as sustainable as the discarded model of advocating on behalf of appraisers so everyone could win long term. These companies had superior positioning and instead of advocating for expansion of full service appraisal and full fees, they sought reduced participation by promoting pdc’s, hybrids, and even waiver processes. Thinking they’d earn more by subbing out appraisers for their own internal fulfillment mechanisms. Jokes on them, the frb and lending community double crossed, and wiped the need for valuation services out nearly completely instead. Same situation for appraisers whom thought promoting only their own self serving positions was the winning play. They’re wondering how to get the dead horse kicking again. We tried to help… On that note, corelogic just raised the Mercury fees. What do you want to bet Scope and Alamode comes next? The epic scale of mismanagement on all fronts is so tragic, comical in the end. We tried to help.

Appraisers are understandably fuming. They’re already paying tech fees per order, and now this? For what? Faster logins? A shinier “Submit” button? A monthly subscription to frustration? If anything, this fee just confirms what appraisers have suspected all along: we’re the golden goose, and they’re just seeing how many more eggs they can squeeze out before we revolt.

But the real kicker? The lenders, AMCs, and brokers are the ones choosing this platform—not the appraisers! It’s like being dragged to an overpriced restaurant and then being told you have to pay a cover charge just to sit at the table. So naturally, appraisers are saying, “Yeah, no thanks.”

The message is clear: appraisers aren’t ATMs, and they’re not about to just roll over and accept this nonsense. If ValueLink thinks it can strong-arm the people who actually do the work, they might want to rethink their business model. Because without appraisers, their fancy little portal is just an expensive loading screen.

https://youtube.com/shorts/j_SQu1GXXFk?si=hiId1kOlLrbqWNCs

Correction: You will be 4.5 to 5 feet under. Corporate disruptors have also left their greasy finger prints on the funeral industry.

The steady effort to circumvent original legislative intent to reduce the mandate to use appraisers whom served to protect consumers and the liquidity of the systems. One action at a time they eroded this vital check and balance.

Each individual action cut out a collective percentage from the pool of available work orders for appraisers. Each one contributed to a clandestine welfare program. The actual damage is only now being realized, per your figures stated. The real damage will not be measured in loss of appraisers licenses, but rather human suffering and financial destitution as these ‘modernized’ systems will no longer adequately protect American consumers from predatory interests.

Nice lid, too.

Well, there are rapidly declining numbers of appraisers here in the Golden State. We lost 62 licensees (net) in the past month alone. Over two per day. We’ll dip below the 8000 threshold in the next month or so, for the first time since the advent of licensure in the early 1990’s. Bear in mind there were over 22,000 at the peak. The remaining population is aging out, with no replacements in sight. Oh, I forgot. PAREA is going to fix it.

Every newly issued or renewed appraisers license should now also come with a suicide prevention hotline number.

The clarification on modeling type is simply not necessary. What helpful tools are these assignment platforms bringing to the table that nobody else is? There is absolutely nothing that makes any of them unique or better than the others.
Now we’re supposed to buy into a monthly subscription model so they can channel kickbacks to amc’s and stage a new system where all appraisers get at least one a month in order to keep a new billing revenue stream gravy train going? They might as well be a pay to list site now because if the appraiser does not agree to pay, they become invisible on the vendor list. This is not going to be a voluntary payment agreement. They will not be sending any bills. They will require appraisers agreement and payment information or the appraiser won’t even be able to use the system anymore. That’s their DEI initiatives in action. More for them, less for you.

The platform is ridiculous anyways. It’s overly complicated and never was anything similar to Mercury or Scope. Totally the opposite of what Mercury was first conceived for.

Comment edit; Is this related to this company? Value Link. Valuation Link. Who could keep up with this?
https://www.gjsco.com/schwartz-co-advises-valuation-link-in-its-sale-to-class-valuation

Well, I’ve been “part of the problem” for awhile (and it irks the Hell out of me), just to keep my head above water. But, I hardly ever bid on anything any longer now because I can’t even get in dollars what I was getting 20-30 years ago. Which means that even if I do get something close to my old fees, then I’m really maybe making 25% of what I used to make taking inflation into account. In short, it’s simply not worth it.

bogus subscriber fees…… I call then dumb subscriber fees.

They guy I used to work for would tell AMC’s “I don’t need a pimp”, then slam the phone down. I would LMAO! He’s deceased now. I miss those days.

It’s because appraisers are “special”. It makes me wonder if they put the “special” in the old term Special Education for appraisers.

> I realize you’re just trying to defend your product here

Appraisal Inbox is a different class of product – it’s order and office management software for appraisers, not lenders/banks/amcs. Appraisers are our customers – we’ actually the inverse of these other platforms. Appraisers use our product to keep up with the countless order sourcing and order management platforms that the banks subject them to.

Sorry, Chase, but you’re just wrong about this. I know this for a fact because I used to be the chief appraiser of a regional bank and we as a bank could choose to use any of these platforms. For example, we could choose to utilize Appraisal scope (or similar), which is used by many appraisal management companies. OR, we could choose to use mercury network. Both would’ve had a similar fee structure for us as a bank (no AMC involved in either case) and we could have used our own appraisal panel within even a system like Mercury (thus no “order sourcing” for appraisers not on our panel already). There is a per-transaction fee on either one of those systems and we could choose to pass that fee onto the appraiser and make it essentially free for the bank. I think you’ve been reading marketing hype a little too much about systems like mercury. They are not “order sourcing” platforms any more than any of the other software platforms that an appraisal management company or a bank can choose to use. I’m no longer with the bank and that was just a brief hiatus from my fee appraisal work over the decades so I’ve seen both sides of this situation very close. I know that most appraisers don’t see the lending side of how some of these platforms work, but I’ve seen the software contracts and the set up and exactly how it works because I set it up for our bank. I realize you’re just trying to defend your product here, but you’re not giving appraisers the true facts about these other systems. The absolute truth that cannot be disputed is that the fees for these systems are being passed through and hidden within the appraisal fee on closing statements (assuming appraisers raise their fee to compensate) so that lenders and Appraisal management companies do not have to show this extra cost as an operational/loan cost on the lender side, but they can hide it from borrowers as part of the “appraisal fee”. Borrowers have been paying millions and millions of dollars in these fees over the past decades, not understanding that this cost was not paying for an appraisal at all.

Again, on and on about the schematics of an ordering platform. My point in my original post, which wasn’t directed to you, was that it’s not an AMC. //Endthread

Thanks, JobsInAppraisal.com is something that I’ve wanted to put together for a long time. Trainee and internship type openings are free to post.

I’m glad to get any of those government appraisal jobs openings up on the site if the local jurisdictions are willing to pay (my wife tells me we need to keep our toddler fed).