Ralph you have to be certified to do FHA appraisals…not licensed. Its more than just a business decision.

Mike, Two things I can agree with.

Having said that-yesterday I read a “Reddit” post under a facebook blog I just joined (100% real estate appraisers) where an owner of a 100 year old commercial store conversion to residence was concerned that an appraiser would turn her in to the city (apparent or possible permit issues). Discussions related to this had one purported Quicken rep or appraiser stating that “…appraisers never require repairs on a house”.

I take serious issue with THAT statement only. While I don’t care if you fix your house or not, if it has health and safety issues or significant repair needs I’m calling those out (identifying them) and making my opinion of market value contingent upon them being repaired. If the appraisal order says “as is” that’s ok too. I’ll identify all the needed repairs and then make an adjustment that is reflective of market perceptions of negative impact on value if the repairs are NOT done. I will also give my professional opinion to my client (the lender) as to what the probable impact on marketability will be to the most probable buyers for that property in as is condition. If they want to make a loan on a deficient property with full knowledge of the deficiencies then that is THEIR business decision to make.

In regard to one of their licensed appraisers doing FHA, does one really need to be certified to turn on appliances and crawl through an attic? (I’m certified, but it’s funny seeing all these people getting their undies in twist over that, if someone wants to take that risk, that is their business decision and they have to live with the consequences.

Sorry Koma, valid and well informed consultation services are not recognized as legitimate appraisal services by most amc’s.  Even among senior staff, the senior employee appraiser is typically outnumbered at a minimum of 5 to 1 by non appraisers, company owners, and what basically equates to IT and programmer guys.  You can take your time to provide these consultative services for free, it still will not be recognized by most amc’s.  It’s always been that way since day one.  To them, appraisers are widgets, they need us to provide valuation service and review service.  We are expected to not provide any consultation service, especially pertaining to assignment process or what constitutes best engagement to achieve the highest measure of credible valuation results.  If you don’t accept terms tailored towards advocacy for the appraisal management companies interest first and foremost, they go shopping for someone cheaper, faster, and less focused on strict non advocacy.

Mike, we should get paid for teaching. Seems like that’s what I was doing every time I would talk to one of the AMC folks. Had to stick with just my 2 long time AMC’s and the direct lenders as clients to gain back my sanity..lol

Per Kathy Morton’s comment.
Hey Kathy, how many full appraisals do you complete in a day for TSI?

But perhaps this old copied portion of standard email will fit better.

When an order is received in your AppraisalPort queue, you have four business hours to accept or decline the order. We’ve received feedback that it is sometimes difficult for our appraisers to take action on orders in the four-hour timeframe due to the amount of time spent in the field. There are applications that AppraisalPort has created for smartphones that will allow you to accept and decline orders while on the road. (aka auto accept without giving the order a proper view, also known as the skippy method.)

Order Acceptance: All orders must be accepted within 4 hours of assignment.

Borrower Contact: The borrower must be contacted within 24 hours of order acceptance.

Order Scheduling: All inspections are to be scheduled within 3 business days of order acceptance. Inspection time/date must be updated (using the calendar function) in AppraisalPort including an indication of whose schedule dictated the inspection time (borrower/realtor/builder/appraiser).

Report Status: Appraisal status messages are to be updated twice daily (AM/PM) if there have been changes in the status of the appraisal assignment (i.e. Left Message for Borrower; Waiting on Survey; etc.)

Report Completion: Reports should be submitted for internal review via AppraisalPort within 48 hours of inspection.

Oh boy, and their grading and performance tier ranking system was a sham. But like many others, they did get top 100 and all these great grading points from company employee ratings sites and such. “Best new employer to work for.”  Well sure, they took what used to be a 450 standard, pocketed 150+ per order, and did nothing more than shuttle orders through automated tech processes and add an incredible amount of additional bureaucratic overlay. I fired them, or they fired me, probably both at the same time. And years later they’ve wiped all those supposedly permanent records on performance, they still try to ask me to join the panel.

My personal experience with Quicken Loans supports the claims of inexperienced and unknowledgeable employees at Quicken. They are trained to complete one task and one task only. When we attempted to refinance a few years ago, the “processor” did not understand the difference between a sole proprietorship and an LLC . After explaining it to her three times, we stopped the process and went with another lender.. It just was not worth the headache!

FHA, really, being licensed

In a recent New York Times article by Julie Creswell on 01/21/2017, former executives of Quicken Loans confirm “many employees come in with little or no background in financial services. One employee joined after delivering pizzas to the Quicken Loans Offices”. No need to say anymore, that statement speaks volumes.

Good Eye John!

It is not about Title Source or TSI Appraisal. It is about Quicken Loans. I don’t see how restating facts from sources like the New York Times, Business Week, the Better Business Bureau or restating allegations from active lawsuits against Quicken Loans is misleading. Did you click the links to read the other articles before posting? Have you ever dealt with Quicken Loans on a personal level?  Their employees are not at all knowledgeable. They are clueless on how the entire mortgage process comes together. Former employees confirmed to the New York Times many of their employees do not have experience and yes, one did deliver pizza.

I am curious about one thing though, If you are a Licensed Residential Appraiser as you state, how are you doing FHA appraisals? You must be certified for FHA. Seems a bit suspect you are quick to defend and accuse, when your own words raise suspicion of wrong doing.

i too was an appraiser for TSI/Quicken loans for a number of years. first, i have to agree with Kathy – i too “have never been asked to alter a value or been pressured to reach a certain value by anyone”.

HOWEVER, the comment “One employee joined after delivering pizzas to the Quicken Loans offices” makes total sense, and could explain the endless and absurd revision requests that used to drive me nuts, and wasted an insane amount of my time. My assumption that their reviewers had no idea what the he*l they were doing, has now been confirmed and now i know why. NOBODY, WHO KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT APPRAISALS, SHOULD EVER REVIEW AN APPRAISAL, AND/OR TELL AN APPRAISER HOW TO DO THEIR JOB. but it happened, and it happened all the time . ..  and not just with TSI/QL.

i am not surprised to hear about Mr Gilberts background either. QL paid fees that were far below customary and reasonable, and had been for a very long time.  QL sent me a lot of work, and yes, it was my mistake to end up doing almost of my work for them and putting all my eggs in that basket. but their low fees and my rising costs eventually ran me out of business. yes i could have planned that better, but i had to keep a roof over my families heads, and my kids had to eat, and once you are on that merry-go-round of always trying to financially catch-up.

i will never forget the day TSI/QL announced to their appraisers that they had assigned our accounts to regions or some nonsense like that. they were so proud of it and tried to sell us on how it was going to be some huge benefit to our businesses. it was a flipping joke. while they continued to bankrupt their appraisers, and instead of helping appraisers by raising appraiser fees, it was clear that they were wasting their time on nonsense like that. so sad.

i did my job and i can sleep comfortably at night, but i am not surprised to hear about any on this coming out, and it wouldnt surprise me at all if this story about TSI/QL got even uglier.

Kathy Morton Bunting Hey the article isn’t directed towards appraisers rather the staff that is hired with Quicken. From personal experience the staff with them is sub-par filled with people that have no experience or knowledge in this industry.