Me!

ya’ll have another couple of years to catch up.

🙂

But really,

infighting does not help anyone. 
Divide and conquer has always been an easy winning strategy against cats that won’t be herded.  The profession must come together, even if it means coming together in smaller groups, who then pool the talent.  There are a lot of talened people on this side of the fence.  They need our support and understanding.  We all recognize the not so nice things that have been happening to the general public in the past few years, laws that have not been enforced, equally with laws that have been over enforced and exaggerated.

A new election cycle just passed.  We missed an opportunity to make noise, because that’s when the noise will be most effective.

Let’s not miss another opportunity to let the people know they are being blind sided and no one they are thinking about electing, cares, as it’s not their issue – and that is not tied to one party or the other.  Both parites continue to not enforce the protection of the public, while spouting it as their platform.

Make bigger noise.

Hi Advocate,

When people (generally-not necessarily you) start telling me they listened with interest to comments  from a Wells Fargo’s spokes person about appraisal ‘independence’ then THOSE people’s judgement comes into question (for me).

Wells Fargo directly or through their AMC agents has been the MOST abusive I’ve seen in terms of violating appraiser independence and retaliation against appraisers that don’t play ball of ALL the major players in the US today. Their Congressional ‘experiences’ are not isolated instances of pointing out understandable “Oopses”. It is indicative of systemic corporate ‘short comings’ (being PC now).

If I am negative ‘all the time’ it is because I deal with the negative issues on a daily basis few on here are willing to engage in (and no, I am NOT talking about Mike S. or Pat T.-I may not always agree with them but I respect their efforts).

VaCAP got C&R fees in Virginia, and made significant headway in several other areas. Some there also strive to help other states. NC, LA, GA & IL also have or appear to have active coalitions.

So, out of 50 states and seven territories we have four active coalitions and maybe a handful more that are trying to be? Plus the NSAO which is able to speak for around 22-28 more. I sincerely wish each the best & will support their efforts, but question where the remainder are?

I don’t begrudge progress made, but neither do I take a pollyanna approach that we are achieving more than we are losing on a daily basis.

Example? We have all worked for C&R fees. Virginia achieved it generally. Louisiana attempted to achieve it and is heavily involved in that fight.

In the meantime our ‘regulators’ AMCs; banks and FNMA etc have all moved on to making us increasingly irrelevant. Initially hybrids; augmented by complete PIWs and then appraisal waivers for ‘good’ (2.5) CU scores.

I also have copies of credible court testimony citing one California regulator  committing perjury three times about abuse of due process; another engaged in a well documented retaliatory witch hunt; and strong evidence of a third shredding work files sent to them for review (a prior state auditor finding when the current head there was merely a senior investigator; and lastly a State Bureau Head that flat out elects to reject an Administrative Law Judges’ Proposed Order when it goes 100% against his agency in favor of respondents. ASC response?

Am I negative? You bet your ass I am…especially when that same regulator serves as a Director on the Advisory Committee to the ASC as well as to AARO.

In the meantime Maryland’s AG continues to persecute an appraiser that they beat up procedurally in admin law court when he was deprived of a reasonable chance to obtain a lawyer to represent him; and it now turns out their reviewer flat lied about property characteristics in question and made egregious errors.

Negative? Folks AGA is the ONLY appraisal organization (national OR state) directly challenging regulatory abuses against individual appraisers; and actively working to get appraisers wrongfully black listed reinstated.

A certain amount of negativity is inevitable.

I completely agree! We all know what the issues are and having people go off on ancient tangents does not benefit anyone.

Mike Ford: This is an article about positive change. Why are you so negative? I attended the meetings that are being discussed in the article. I like others who attended, left with a very positive feeling things were changing. Were you in attendance at any of these meetings? If not, should you even be commenting? The negativity you encourage is not helping anyone move in a positive direction and is actually counter productive to moving the profession forward.

Now that’s as clear as mud.

“There is a disconnect from the top down.”

Look, VaCAp has and is doing a fine job. Hopefully that continues, but adopting a Pollyanna attitude merely allows the bad actors to keep acting badly.

As appraisers we have been lied to; and stabbed in the back by lenders, AMCs, regulators, FNMA, and and a host of other participants.

Did ONE federal agency or other non appraisal group offer any words of encouragement for the Louisiana lawsuit; or suggest the FTC has far overstepped its bounds?

The sad truth about the state of affairs is the industry has moved back to requiring the appraiser to either kiss up or stop by with coffee, donuts and gifts for the assignment staff if they want to stay on top of the list. Assignment preference has yet again become a popularity game.

Good question. There is no crystal ball for a definitive answer. Some organizations have a different focus, some get funding from other organizations, and some organizations simply do not wish to participate. There may be other reasons, but these are some that we are aware of.

No one is disputing there are issues. The comments we stated are the overall attitude of the atmosphere at the meetings. The quotes cited in our article are truthful. If you disagree, that is your issue, not that of those that attended the meetings and heard them first hand. Coalitions are working hard to overcome the issues by working together to make positive change. We have made huge progress and we are seeing more respect from other participants and legislators. Like we said, there is a disconnect from the top down.

Why haven’t the others joined the Network?

Just what we need VaCAP – More respect for those that are actively engaged in suppressing appraisers, circumventing USPAP and have no intention of ever paying C&R fees.

Could not disagree with you more on this one. Citing Wells Fargo commenting on appraiser independence is an insult to every appraiser ever screwed by Rels or its successor CL at the behest of Wells Fargo.

We have ongoing cases right this minute where appraisers are being blacklisted solely because they stood up to CoreLogic on WF deals.

There is a huge difference between honest professional cooperation to resolve issues with sincere people; and just bending over and grabbing ones ankles and politely saying “carry on.”

Except for nearly every single order manager out there who’s all too willing to put the appraiser on the chopping block at the first hit of trouble.  Coalitions will not solve the obvious 10,000 lb gorilla in the room;  The persons in charge of distributing requests to whom is supposed to be the best independent appraiser panel member, are beholden to biased advocacy based interests of the clients.  I maintain my position that until order assignment persons are required to have appraisers licenses themselves, the record will continue to skip.  This is the major disconnect of understanding between pre hvcc and now.  Back in the day when mb’s assigned directly, they could be and eventually were held accountable w/ individual licenses themselves.  Pepsi challenge; tell me who’s performing daily order assignment doling who has an appraisers license themselves.  Not the single manager guy who does not actually do the job, I’m talking about the people who actually make the daily assignment decisions which makes or breaks appraisers businesses.

There are 28 coalitions that are part of the Network (NSAO) More state organizations do exists, but have not joined the Network. If you are in a state without a coalition and want to create one, please reach out to us. We have many who are happy to help you get set up.  If your state organization is not part of the Network, please consider joining. info@vacaponline.com

One question though.

“Penny Reid, (Wells Fargo) “Credit and appraisals must be independent” ”

You were just kidding right? This particular paragon of virtue and appraisal independence (WF) is STILL causing appraisers to be blacklisted by their ‘independent agent’ CoreLogic FOR FAILURE TO HIT THE NUMBERS!!!

Thanks VaCAP and the 27 other state organizations who are leading the way.