Sketch or Floor Plan?

Baggins says:

Where is the line? The specific request, or the request coming from an amc in the first place? It’s a locational consideration too. Many appraisers enjoy a limited client set by merits of volume in a metroplex area. We’re entertaining the notion of going far out there but in such a scenario I could no longer maintain a hardline position of do not work with amc’s and still rake an adequate assignment volume. Even if I was approved on every single direct assignment lenders panel, still would not be enough in a small town. As I’ve long since drawn the line and spent vastly more time and effort demanding amc’s stop contacting me then I ever spent working for them, that point is already settled for many appraisers.

To third party companies like amc’s, desktops are necessary for their volume fulfillment, as their predatory engagement polices basically exclude somewhere between half to 90% or more of the licensed appraiser workforce. And it’s always the biggest amc’s whom have the highest volume lender contracts. Back in the day the yearly appraiser fee schedule survey was often required to be filled out by appraisers, used as a tool for lenders to determine what the majority of appraisers would accept as a standard fee, and that’s what the lender charged consumers for APPRAISER services, (not APPRAISAL services). That was the basis of C&R customary and reasonable.

Not that way anymore, as amc’s have successfully lobbied to have gse policy altered to fit their needs for maximum fulfillment at discounted cost. These days those taking fee surveys miss the point entirely, asking what appraisers are actually getting under these restrained market conditions, rather than asking what the appraisers would ideally bill in an unrestrained free market competition scenario. And as amc’s have commandeered roughly 80% of all mortgage lending assignment volume, appraisers are no longer even capable of answering the question. The benchmarks to examine fair billing within the gse realm are skewed beyond the appraisers ability to impose reasonable estimates based on what would be fictitious purely hypothetical condition ‘as if amc’s were not the dominant influence for appraiser service fees’.

The ‘beginning of the end’ was like 15 years ago when the appraisers allowed and accepted profiteering interests of unnecessary third party companies (amc’s) to drive severely imbalanced operational assignment volume trends (lions share), appraisers fees (discounted), and an increasing amount of legislative influence. Now like clockwork whenever some bureaucrat wants info on ‘the appraisal industry’, they call non licensed amc corporations whom hire like one single appraiser yet are multi million dollar companies whose very existence is predicated solely on improperly co mingled consumer billing, raking a portion of the appraisal service fee rather than billing separately for the amc ‘management’ service.

Individual appraisers can not have fair representation when set in antagonistic positions against a consortium of multi billion dollar a year amc companies and their representative trade groups which now rakes more of the total appraisal service fees than licensed appraisers themselves actually take home. Soon there will be more people managing appraisers then there will be actually licensed appraisers, if we’re not there already. Nothing short of removing the perverse financial incentives for amc’s to drive consumer fees up and appraisers fees down will make a difference. Whatever line in the sand appraisers may perceive is subjective at best, not applicable to the group as a whole.

This may be related to Tom B’s comment about equivalent pay for a desktop, as that’s traditionally an illogical approach. But if the amc can charge more by way of somehow injecting themselves, or delivering less, regardless of the impact that has on appraisers or consumers, that’s just how it plays out. The very people doing the most harm to consumers are also tasked with ‘managing’ a vital aspect of the consumer protection process in gse lending, and now they are forming gse policy too (hybrids, desktops, ansi, outsourcing to realtors instead of appraisers, etc). Thankfully the amc’s have not made it out of the gse realm, yet. The appraisers whom think they’ve carved out a safe space by refusing mortgage lending work may want to think twice, as the amc industry continues to expand with increasing influence.

Tom B. says:

So appraisers can’t agree on how to measure a house but when lenders say their primary order will be a Desktop that may have to be converted to interior… then you think appraisers are going to suddenly agree on something to stand against.

I did two “desktops” during early Covid19 and both turned into a big PITA. Desktops should pay 25% to 50% more out of the gate.

The real estate industry has forever presented itself as being in the front of the IT realm but it’s really always been 10,20,30 years behind other technology. Seriously, compare an MLS system to say Photoshop. Compare appraisal software to say the recording industry. Don’t’ even think about real estate and the film industry. All rely on IT and we have always been at the bottom of the barrel.
Just go to Youtube and search NVIDIA Omniverse Jensen Huang BMW. that should get you in the ballpark.

The real estate industry has forever wanted everyone to believe that they play in that same sandbox. They don’t and never have. Not the basic buy a house, sell a house people that we deal with.
From what I have seen, there is nothing to boycott. As I have seen my entire career the real estate industry basically sells rudimentary form filling software and vaporware. People that care about their money will hire an appraiser or some other recognized real estate professional to help with their needs and life goes on.

Appraisers aren’t going to suddenly become of like mind and make a stand. Stand against what? The desktop framework doesn’t even exist.