Theft of Appraisers’ Data
…they charge appraisers an upload fee for the privilege of having their data stolen…
I would never allow my data to be used for or by a service that specifically uses to create, modify or enhance products designed to compete with my professional services to the detriment of my business and profession. THAT is something that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals identified when they found that CoreLogic’s subsidiary FNC STOLE appraisers data after promising them data security.
FNC stole data. We now know FNMA also stole data. Alamode is delving into individuals own personal databases in order to even offer (unsolicited) ‘the best’ (their words) comparable data available. Even competitors of CoreLogic’s REALAVM such as Clarocity (of ZAIO infamy) claim to have data bases with ‘millions of appraisers data’ including adjustments for certain items. Between Corelogic and First American virtually ALL MANDATORY upload systems for submitting loans to GSEs such as FNMA, or FHA and VA are owned by monopolies that cannot be sidestepped and which have the ability via XML or ENV formats to data mine appraisers confidential work products in order to steal data they have not paid for.
Worse, they charge appraisers an upload fee for the privilege of having their data stolen within these mandatory systems (Mercury and AppraisalPort).
Instead of wasting time with the State of Louisiana, FTC should be investigating Corelogic and First American!
I believe there is a potential $10 to $13+ billion class action suit here if one assesses a normal full fee for each report involuntarily stolen and used by CoreLogic / FNC, FNMA, First American and/or Mercury for the past seven plus years. Not long ago FHFA cited over 30 million appraisals in the FNMA database where less than half were unique or solo appraisals.
30 million x $450 each = $13.5 billion. It would be fun to be able to subpoena ALL the players upload statistics to get the true number of stolen appraisals.
Interested parties can start letting me know by filling the short form below. I will forward your contact information to Jan Bellas with AGA. Jan will maintain the list of interested parties. As soon as we have enough people for a meaningful class action suit the attorney(s) will be retained.
There are roughly 40,000 appraisers that do (or did) appraisal work for FNMA. It was likely higher when these thefts first started. That doesn’t even consider possible thefts of data from appraisals intended for HUD, VA or even Freddie Mac.
Additionally, the borrowers that paid fees for all those millions of appraisals intended ONLY for their own loan purposes, may also have claims. Some of those poor folks paid upwards of $750 for what they were TOLD were just appraisal ‘costs’.
This might be a good added topic for discussion at AppraisalFest, at the start of November.
Link to the sign-up form: https://goo.gl/forms/j3iUXJ0hv8uLprIy1
- The New & Improved Fannie Mae “FRAUDULATOR 2.0” - May 15, 2023
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- What Is My Incentive? - September 20, 2022
I’m in
Lashonda Hayes
Sign up people. There is a class action suit here. Did Corelogic ask for your permission to sell your data to others? I know I didn’t consent to this!
No they did not. The fact that it was snuck in with an update without any a acceptance by us says a lot. They knew what they were doing. I dont remember getting a new End User license agreement either.
I know corelogic mines my appraisals, I have a whole stack of solicitation letters to prove it.
Where is the sign up?
Read the article and submit your email and name
The box above that says Theft of Your Intellectual Appraisal Data has a place to put your name and email 🙂
I did read it, but the only field I saw was the comments section, didn’t seem like a petition to sign.
The box to sign up doesn’t show up on my mobile. Got in the computer and it worked that way.
Hi Adam, it is NOT a petition. It is a list of people that express interest in a possible class action suit. It is not a threat of a suit either. Only an attorney can tell us whether or not they think we have a legitimate legal case.
It is a list that when or if we go speak further to attorneys and they ask the obvious question “How many people are interested” we can give them reasonably accurate numbers.
My understanding is that there are already more people interested, than were involved in the actual (initial) suit against FNC. Interest is not a commitment to join a suit. It is not an appointment of a law firm. It may become a contact source for attorneys when it comes time to opt in or opt out.
Petition? What are you talking about?
Agree didn’t see the sign up form referred to in the article. Is there a way to post?
I don’t see it either.
Same here
For those of you not seeing the sign-up form, would you please let us know how you are accessing the blog (mobile or desktop) and what device (Iphone, Android, etc.) so that we can figure out what the issue is?
I could not access through my iPhone. Desktop worked
It appears that this is a known issue with Google Forms and Iphone users. Please try accessing the sign-up form from your desktop if you are an iphone user. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Val, here is the link to the sign-up form https://goo.gl/forms/j3iUXJ0hv8uLprIy1
Excellent article Mike! Very timely after reading a post last night of an email response on 100% where Dustin Moore with CL/Alamode penned a long winded song and dance on how they are NOT mining our data. Really? If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.
Thank you for taking the time and trying to DO something to stop the insanity. I hope appraisers across the country read this article and rally! It has to start somewhere. AppraiserFest has sparked an exciting and precedent setting momentum for us to come together as professionals for the greater good and I am stoked to be a part of it <3 There is strength in numbers and if there was ever a time to come together, it is NOW!
I don’t understand why appraisers don’t refuse to pay upload fees.
Please name one or more non amc companies whom are offering direct assignment whom do not use one of the popular portals which forces these fees upon appraisers…
That being said, if the order goes through an amc, the class action fee should perhaps be doubled for that individual order. Including the additional party whom also claimed use of the proprietary work product data.
These portal fees are relentless, unfair, and should be an expense for the lender not the appraiser. Yet another improperly co mingled fee for appraisal service which has nothing to do with developing appraisals. Email recognizes xml attachments as malicious and/or spam because among the entire array of businesses out there, very very few sensible industries chooses to send proprietary data in open source raw manipulatable xml long form.
SFREP is offering Appraise-It for free for six months, no strings attached. Just sayin’…
That’s got my interest! I had heard many good things about them before. Not to be disloyal to Homepeuter, but I never tried it yet even though it sits in my computer and I have great respect for its owner-admin-tech-guru. Freedom is also coming – though personally I won’t use a cloud based system or one with monthly service fees.
I have been trying to see where to start and who to go after!!! I’m in!
You’re a true STUD Mike, thanks!
i can’t see the sign up form. Reading the article from an iPhone.
You’ll have to behave like a real professional and accomplish the action from your personal or office computer. Real work happens at the desk. Jump out of the mobile kiddie pool.
I’m in !!!
I signed it. Thank you.
Just signed up, I’m in.
One of our earliest supporters. Diana, as always sincerest thanks! (All signers are also thanked)
Troll Alert: This comment/commenter was flagged as suspicious!
Dave Biggers
Keep an open mind, because you may eventually decide that wasting time manually typing comps is really just letting the AMCs and lenders win. They’d love to see you so tied up with daily drudgery that you have no time to position your business for downturns or shifts, and then they get to press you for lower fees when that happens. My hope is that you’ll avoid the act of unknowingly helping them with that agenda. The only one who gets penalized is you.
Meanwhile, just don’t sign up and you’ll be fine.
Dave
Is that threat ??? Sure as hell sounds like one !
When the Mercury Network reached 20,000 daily appraisal transactions back in 2012 (Press release / 03/06/2012), and with upload fees being at the time (8, 10, 12, 15$ ?), you’ve long ago turned your back to the appraisers cause. I’m still waiting for the 2nd release where you breakdown AMC derived appraisal fees, versus non AMC fees. Oh screw it, instead of helping the appraiser fight the machine, you became the machine, and sold out the appraiser.
In my opinion, your response here shows me your scared (do you still work with CoreLogic?), and only enforces my eagerness to sign.
Seeking the truth, count me in!
Yes Bill, the infamous Alamode median fee report. Feb 2010. Only published once and Alamode immediately folded to industry pressure thereafter.
At any point they could publish again but have long since chosen to prioritize their advocacy for amc’s instead. That’s where the money is at, if considering volume of forced upload charges and such. They all behave that way, we can no longer access portal companies whom do not advocate for amc’s as part of their standard operating process.
http://e-appraise.com/pdf/alamode_MedianFeeReport_0210.pdf
Mr. Biggers,
When you owned the company, we had faith in your intentions. This isn’t about appraisers vs. Dave Biggers’ Alamode. Corelogic is a whole different monopolist animal.
There are plenty of methods to load comp data, including our own personal (PRIVATE) comparables data bases. But we both know this and I do believe you are probably far more savvy at such software systems than most appraisers utilizing such services.
When you owned the company, we knew you wouldn’t access our vault data, weren’t mining the Mercury uploads and weren’t using your software to snoop, spy, and data mine.
I recognize you built a beautiful company and had every right to sell and retire. I hold no ill will and I’ll wager Corelogic paid a premium. It would be hard to turn such an offer down. I wish you well in your retirement and know that many of your customers dearly miss those days when we could trust the company.
Caterina Platt
Evergreen Appraisals & Realty
Los Lunas, NM
Dave Biggers, founder and chairman of a la mode, was as enthusiastic about the transaction as Miller.
(May 7, 2015 / Houseingwire) “We conceived, built, incubated, and eventually spun off Mercury Network entirely inside a la mode, with one clear purpose – to protect appraisers from the income-robbing effects of the HVCC and its aftermath, by providing lenders with a compelling alternative to the draconian and ultimately ineffective vendor management models in vogue at the time,” Biggers said. “We’re very excited about their future, and of course ours as well, as we’re now able to deploy new resources and focus even more specifically on the appraiser’s side of the lending transaction.”
“Protecting the appraiser from income robbing effects”, how’s that working out for us?
See the truth.
Hey Dave, that ‘daily drudgery’ as you call it is USPAP compliant real estate appraisal. Its a process in which highly skilled real estate appraisers DO THEIR OWN WORK! Appraisers that are NOT looking to side step their obligations for the profit of software hucksters or convenience of AMCs and lenders that don’t want us doing our own jobs.
You know the ones Im talking about Dave. Like the one you sold out to.
NOTE: at 12:29 PM PST I received a call from a polite but concerned gentleman identifying himself as Dave Biggers.
He reports that the post identified with his name Dave Biggers ” October 19, 2018 at 12:44 pm” is not him. He is asking that the comment be removed (not the article). I gave him AB blogs email address but also told him I didn’t know if she would remove the comment or simply publish a disclaimer below it that Mr. Biggers has denied making the comment OR providing his real email address tied to the comment. Perhaps eliminating the email link and posting a disclaimer below the post???
Mr. Biggers suggested that some form of email verification should be used prior to a post being put up. I told him the reason I like AB is the known integrity of the administrator and non censorship of posts.
The caller suggested hes easier to deal with than CoreLogic would be about a post tying his name to the article. Admittedly I laughed out loud at that one. I told Mr. Biggers that I am not the teeniest concerned that CoreLogic might be upset. (Now THAT would be some great PR for them, wouldn’t it?). Stealing our data AND attempting to suppress free speech?
Anyway folks, as a courtesy to someone that claims his ID is being spoofed, PLEASE DO NOT POST any emails concerning the false post to the linked email address at the above “Dave Biggers” posted email. It’s simply rude; though I dont understand why HE doesn’t simply block unwanted incoming email as WE have to do with alamode and other AMC and software spammers?
FYI the man that called and identified himself to me as Dave Biggers, reports he has a gag order (???) from Corelogic related to his sale. I suspect he meant a confidentiality agreement as a condition of sale. Gag orders come from courts. Unless of course there is some kind of new litigation none of us are aware of yet?
Until AB determines how to handle or address the reported impersonation, PLEASE take the high road and avoid spamming the guy, OK?
Hi Mike, Dave will no longer receive email notifications from this post. His email address has been removed and the comment has been marked as ‘troll”.
Folks, Dave Biggers did NOT post this comment. We just spoke to him.
To the troll who impersonated Dave Biggers: guest trolling is not tolerated. Anyone coming on here to spread misinformation, disrupt threads to further a personal agenda, attack others, start flame wars, or get their jollies by sockpuppeting, et cetera, will be banned!
I can’t find the link to sign up.
Lorma, here is the link to the sign-up form https://goo.gl/forms/j3iUXJ0hv8uLprIy1
Signed
Here is the exact problem… The article says roughly 40,000 appraisers at one time or another were/are affected yet, a WHOPPING 126 signed the petition… 39,874 appraisers did not bother to spend 1 minute to save their career
Retired appraiser had the same problem when he did the “Bank Rape” thing
What petition Paul? IF you are taking about indicating ‘interest’ in a post that has been up less than a day I think 126 (???) is GREAT! (I only counted 126 posts here but many folks that read here don’t actually post here.
As much as I dearly love AB, even I know they don’t likely have 40,000 readers in one day. My best guess is around 25%+- of that. Aside from which, most appraisers are out working at being appraisers. Blogging is a pastime for some and a lower priority info source for others. Check your count in about a week. (I’m still trying to figure out where your number of 126 came from). Go ahead and link to the article.
Okay, I got it wrong, it’s not a petition but a possible “interest” in doing something to save our careers… I would think you would have gotten the intent of my comments… we as appraisers do very little when asked to be part of a group for anything… or to take action for our cause… and in my eyes, 126 is not a large number. If you look at the link, in the blue box, it is now up to 141 signers… or 0.0141% of that 25 % you figured of the 40,000 mentioned.
Understood WP. My experience has been (generally on ALL issues);
1. Some will agree
2. Some will disagree
3. Many more don’t want to make waves
4. Some are interested but waiting for others to do something first.
I remember old City Council politicians citing that for every call they got, they assumed there were another hundred people that felt the same way. For every letter they assumed another 1,000. I dont know how true that is or how those ratios stack up with appraisers that put their names down and essentially say “call us” (email )
I’m very pleased with the 223 I see right now. My personal hope or wish is for over 500 BUT 223 is not so small it can be dismissed out of hand. The FNC lawsuit only had FOUR (4) plaintiffs if I recall correctly.
PS – thanks for pointing the counter out to me – I didn’t actually create the link or counter. I’m just appreciative of the kind soul that did.
Now 308.
Mike, you got 300+ appraisers to agree to one thing, that’s freaking record setting!
Email it to your friends.
Mr Paul. The links need shared for people to be able to participate and be aware. It takes time, it takes advocacy. You are hereby tasked to make sure the appraisers in your circle are made aware of this. Thank you. Remember this is an original publication, Mr Ford posts here first usually. Top down, wait and see.
Okay, I got it wrong, it’s not a petition but a possible “interest” in doing something to save our careers… I would think you would have gotten the intent of my comments… we as appraisers do very little when asked to be part of a group for anything… or to take action for our cause… and in my eyes, 126 is not a large number. If you look at the link, in the blue box, it is now up to 141 signers… or 0.0141% of that 25 % you figured of the 40,000 mentioned.
Perhaps with a few hundred appraisers William (Class Action), the lawyers will be able to knock on the door to see if anyone answers. The issue has been going on for years (7 ?) and if each appraiser (141) completes an appraisal a day, and a couple hundred a year, the numbers quickly balloon. With 141 appraisers, 200 assignments a year, spread over 7 years, and at a borrower billed $500, the combined appraisal fees are nearly 100 million ($98,700,000). We have underestimated ourselves for years, NO MORE.
Seek the truth.
*G* You guys are the best!
223 as of 5:37 PM PST-Let’s give it till right after Appraiserfest though I think they’d likely answer the door right now, knowing this many responded in just a day.
I believe the class action suit involving staff appraisers at Landsafe (tax classification/overtime) was less than 150 appraisers ($36,000,000 settlement). Surly with double the numbers in just a few days, our issue should peek the interest of a few lawyers. Considering a one time use (residential loan), is say $500, what is the value/penalty when the powers that be use that data to build a database where its relied upon hundreds of times? In working a single county with 3.1 million people (San Diego), and assuming 10 to 20% of volume is waived off via government sponsored appraisal waivers, could MY WORK (a single assignment) have been used (contributed) a thousand times to establish value in replace of a thousand non-ordered appraisals? The numbers are HUGE!
By volume, and depending where your work area is (Rural ?), the weight/importance of a single sale may be discounted, however the threat is real, and if it’s not a problem for you today, it could be tomorrow.
Seek the truth.
We have a solid firm in mind.
The numbers COULD be everything in FNMAs DB; CL’s; anything stripped in AppraisalPort, mercury, corelamode, clarocity or anyone else hustling AVMS that has ever advertised they have millions of appraisals in their databases. It really could be huge. That’s just from the appraisers side. I imagine this could even include some of the nations larger title companies.
That doesn’t take into account the borrowers that paid only for appraisals and then had commercial users take the product they paid for and use it for their own unauthorized alternative uses.
Could not access signature block on my iPhone; however, was able to find and sign on my desktop computer. I’m in!!
Dave Biggers’ statement uses completely flawed logic. Basically saying that the AMCs will be better able to pressure appraisers for lower fees when the down turn comes if they waste their time entering comps manually. That makes no sense at all. Mr. Biggers, you just pitted yourself!
Where’s Dustin Harris when you need him? Time to reach out to your friends (Joan Trice, AppraisalBuzz, Housingwire, Mortage News Daily, AMC’s, your merry band of all stars, etc.) to get the word out that we are looking for a fight. Pick the side of truth and morality Dustin (appraisers), don’t walk the line on this topic, and I dare you to have unwavering support for the grunts on the ground versus your typical support for your cooperate partnerships. What say you.
Seek the truth, or just ban someone from commenting when their local reality doesn’t match your own.
Appraisers – please share and get the word spread. AppraisersBlogs your posts are the only ones that flag me to new comments in this post.
Hi Carole, the comments from our Facebook page and the blog/ site are synced and when comments from the blog our synced on the page, they will appear as “Appraisersblogs [the name of commenter] commented on AppraisersBlogs”.
Many of the newer appraisers I’ve met work on assignments and renewing their license, that’s it. Most of these appraisers are staff, that were trained by supervisors who’s #1 priority is to get the assignment finished. Promoting critical thinking, adhering to USPAP guidelines are an afterthought. Participating in appraiser blogs or reading industry articles raises the question, “for what”? This may be another contributing factor as to why the number of registrants would not be higher. In 2016 I lasted two weeks as a staff appraiser – can you say “big bad bullies”! There was a staff of about 20 local appraisers and not one of them had heard of VaCAP or “Voice of Appraisers”. You should have seen the excitement on their faces when they would come back after having checked out these websites!
All valid observations.
Bank regulators propose expanding exemption for residential appraisals.pdf
Mike, this story which our friend, Mike from GA posted coincides with this situation.
Take care.
“Because only rich people deserve the protections of checks and balances systems.”
Posted on the Appraisers Forum – Linked to here.
Good article Mike.
Lender Obligations
CU does not provide “approvals” or “denials” of appraisals and/or the corresponding loan. It does not replace or alter lenders’ obligations as described in the Fannie Mae Selling Guide. Lenders remain responsible for assessment of the appraisal in accordance with the provisions of the Guide.
CU is intended to assist lenders in reviewing appraisals. Fannie Mae expects lenders to use the CU feedback in combination with human due diligence.Users should understand the limitations of automated analysis.
“And as for the technological side of things, Mayopoulos (departing FNMA CEO) predicts a smartphone-focused housing experience in the future, where a prospective buyer can take a picture of a house on their phone and instantly get the value of the house and mountains of information about it. Then, with a swipe, grant access to their financial information and have a mortgage offer for the house ready to go in “minutes, or hours.”
Fannie Mae CEO Tim Mayopoulos: Conservatorship has been very successful
Every appraiser should pass this web page on to every other appraiser they have an email address for.
Thanks for stepping up, everyone.
In case you missed it… FNMA CU patents and some commentary on that.
Some good commentary regarding the below link with more pointed commentary on the details, located in the Appraisers Blogs article titled “Help Wanted”, from April 26, 2018
http://www.patentbuddy.com/Company/Profile/Fannie-Mae/61740
Appraisal Adjustment Scoring System and Methods… Wait, is that a review?
Instant mortgages; “Slam dunked another one!”
There is ample general material and opinion on AVMs, covering such aspects as their increasing use, the types of models employed and their limitations.
However, there is little hard impartial evidence on the accuracy of AVMs in the public domain. European vendors are reluctant to release details.
AVM vendors emphasise that for AVMs to be effective, considerable volumes of up-to-date market data are necessary. This, in combination with a strict filtering of ‘outliers’, aims to ensure reliable estimates of market value.
http://appraisersblogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/The-Accuracy-of-Automated-Valuation-Models-George-Matysiak-2017.pdf
Stand in the way of the Treasury and Innovation?
Department of the Treasury
A Financial System That Creates Economic Opportunities Nonbank Financials, Fintech, and Innovation
https://home.treasury.gov/sites/default/files/2018-07/A-Financial-System-that-Creates-Economic-Opportunities—Nonbank-Financi….pdf
Some appraisers got over a hundred k !!!
Signed it. Forwarded to a few friends. Thank you.
Taking bets on Corelogics ‘proprietary sources’ of data. Any guesses?
Mike, if your referring to the Landsafe tax identification/overtime class action suit, then your 100% correct concerning payouts. One of my original trainers who went to the dark side to survive, cashed a check of over $130,000. That was a different issue, but is small potatoes (130 appraisers / one company), compared to the tens of thousands of appraisers and their tens of millions appraisals completed over the past 10 years.
Seek the truth.
Completely different issues involved. Attorneys will jump on labor law cases all day long.
Let’s get this done, and when we get our money, we can then train our replacements and provide this country with appraisers that know what they’re doing and don’t take any s*** from anybody.
Sure is nice to dream!!! Wouldn’t an attorney already have picked up on this if there is an actionable cause? I’m in if this goes anywhere…
William, No disrespect intended (seriously), but it is exactly that kind of negative and defeatist thinking that keeps appraisers from TRYING to get anything done. In answer to your question, “No,”
Most attorney are not experts in real estate law. Even fewer know anything about appraiser regulations. Then there is the issue of jurisdictions. We have 50 different states; plus D.C. plus 7 territories. Few attorneys can find enough appraisers in one state that agree to the same complaint (just look at how we appraisers all seem to disagree over everything nationally). Most law firms look for well established law-cases like labor laws / overtime and deep enough pockets to make it worth their while.
Solidifi was a target by one firm I know of more than two years ago – but that same firm wouldn’t touch Federal jurisdictional issues. (It requires separate approvals to practice before federal courts). So, most law firms look for the low hanging fruit.
The old FNC case based on The Lanham Act seemed to give us best support from what I read, BUT until very recently, courts ruled against appraisers on it. It was only last year (?) that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rendered a decision that so definitively addressed the issue of theft of data specifically being used to compete against those that the data was stolen from; and when it was stolen under a guise of trusted confidential services. There can also be an argument made that the (to be more fully determined) also devalued our professional work product and expertise by stealing data from us and then selling it piecemeal at ridiculously low rates ‘per comp’.
I think there are lot of additional issues to be thrown into the mix, but I am not an attorney or legal expert. What I DO know is that without fail, law firms ask how many people does this potentially affect and how many of those affected people are willing to sign on?
We know from the FHFA Working paper (recently) that FNMA has over 30 million appraisals since 2011. Many are dupes or second and possibly third appraisals. We know CL absorbed FNC and in various ads has advertised a database in excess of ‘millions’. Clarocity has also claimed to have millions of appraisal results in their databases (although that particular empty pocket won’t likely have any recoverable assets). These aren’t the only ones offering AVMs. Look at other lawsuits such as CL and House Canary. There is a tremendous amount of potentially damning information out there.
There are currently about 40,000 appraisers doing FNMA work. That may or may not be in addition to appraisers that used to do work for them. It doesn’t seem to include FreddieMac. Potentially it could include all licensed appraisers at any given point in an identifiable likely target period.
The potential calculations have so far NOT included all the home owners/buyers that paid for what they thought were just appraisals to determine collateral value – not for use in helping some (to them) unidentified data aggregator to take their personal and or property information (including income data that could be inferred by terms and conditions of a sale or sale amount). Potential numbers? An additional 30 million+.
There much more to it than outlined above, including some incredible research by people like Marion; Baggins and many others that have had their eyes open for a long time.
The final ingredient is the law firm to be selected. They have to have deep enough pockets to carry this through and a willingness to do so. They also have to be pretty big time attorneys. We’ve spoken to some. After Appraiserfest we will try to pin down what we think we can do and what we are told we can or can’t do.
If you are ‘in’, then please sign the interest list so we can add your name to the count. Waiting for others to ‘make this go somewhere’ doesn’t help. Join us, please.
If just 50% of the active appraisers chipped in $100 – that’s around $2,000,000. That should get Steve Cannons attention and his firm is already well aware of our plight fighting the FTC.
“The intended use of this appraisal report is for the lender/client to evaluate the property that is the subject of this appraisal for a mortgage finance transaction.”
Yup, the intended use was not to fill databases to be used in competition with appraisers.
Sign up!
The below is the officially recognized statement by fnma which all appraisers should be including as standard text language anyways.
Appraiser Certifications and Limiting Conditions
<> Fannie Mae will accept the following additional notice or statement when appraisers believe the lender client is the only intended user: “The intended user of this appraisal report is the lender/client. The intended use is to evaluate the property that is the subject of this appraisal for a mortgage finance transaction, subject to the stated scope of work, purpose of the appraisal, reporting requirements of this appraisal report form, and definition of market value. No additional intended users are identified by the appraiser.”
So that takes me down the rabbit hole of who is an intended user, how is data shared and aggregated, who are aggregators, etc. These are very illuminating documents I’ve never read before.
https://www.fanniemae.com/content/user_guide/ucdp-appraisal-sharing-user-guide.pdf
The above Appraisal sharing job aid faq for correspondents. You may have heard that your appraisals are shared with multitudes of different parties, there is the complete track history of all activity, etc. These reports get around…
In the below link, the master list of recognized tsp’s (technology solution providers) & amc’s providing the same. If you’ve ever wondered how some companies grew to be powerhouses overnight and captured so much work without resistance… It’s because they digi tooled for this proprietary mismo ucdp access, voila, majority market share for distribution. This is odd, every single company on this list has a financial incentive to drive my tech fees up or my appraisal fees down. This is what appraisers meant when they said; We’re no longer participating in a free market but rather are customers of technology providers now. We have no effective representation and this gatekeepers list proves it.
https://www.fanniemae.com/content/list/ucdp-vendor-list.pdf
And if you’d like perspective as if you’re on the other side of the desk, top off your light reading with the ucdp main page. It’s all there, lists and guides, etc. Search as I may, I was unable to find a list of approved ucdp data aggregators. They are possibly listed in the ‘vendors list section’, after you click the ‘technology integration’ link from the main page. Many individual websites to peruse but they all basically offer similar data integration data analysis products from proprietary access databases. Appraisal data and consumer data alike has likely been monetized far beyond our current understanding.
https://www.fanniemae.com/singlefamily/uniform-collateral-data-portal
More interesting research Baggs.
I see a potential for confusion between FNMAs definition of an aggregator (primary lender that accepts the loan from a correspondent lender) and that used by a self proclaimed ‘data aggregators’ such as the Giant Corporate information gatherer we all know and love without naming them specifically..
Now I wonder if that self described function by The Giant is intended to slip inferred appraisal access authorization into a system whereby they are accepted as an authorized ‘aggregator by FNMA? Just thinking out loud – not accusing.
The gem there is the ucdp vendor list. Hey, I’ve paid money to them, and them, and them… We’re all customers now.
Valuelinkams is the only one I ever enjoyed working with and never had a technology fee applied to my orders. aka spurams.
5/26/2017 Spotify has reached a settlement with a group of songwriters who had sued for copyright infringement, eliminating an potential complication to the public offering that the streaming service is planning later this year.
Spotify Settles Class Action Lawsuits Filed By David Lowery and Melissa Ferrick With $43.4 Million Fund
June 2017, Spotify’s $112.5 Million Class-Action Copyright Lawsuit Settlement Approved initially brought by songwriters David Lowery and Melissa Ferrick
U.S. District Court Judge Alison Nathan determining how many infringements occurred or defining the exact size of the class at this stage would undermine the benefit of the settlement in reducing litigation burden.
Interesting the dots that can be connected sometimes.
How can we bump and revisit this again later, keep the numbers growing? Sticky thread?
Is anyone at the Appraiser’s Fest championing this?
Caterina, I have been championing this all along. I was a speaker at the Fest but the presentations were intentionally focused on specific positive activities, rather than the negatives.
Having said that, the documentary film crew that interviewed several of us is absolutely interested in this and other appraiser abuses and gave us extensive time in interviews. Maureen Sweeney (my new heroine) known to many fighting for the profession was interviewed well over an hour I believe. Many others as well. Phil Crawford, Jonathan Miller, Woody Fincham (? I think) Not sure about Skap – he was pretty busy supporting the fest. Yours truly was interviewed for about half an hour and they may contact myself and others alter to flesh out the interviews.
Can’t say for sure…they ran the interviews for three days so a lot of people I didn’t see were also interviewed. One AGA member who is a former FNMA insider had an opportunity to give DEVASTATING information about the inner workings of FNMA.
I just got back this afternoon. There was so much positive activity and information from the Fest that I have to absorb it all before trying to write about it.
The BEST way is to join the AGA or at least follow our activities. Of course joining is NOT a requirement or expectation of the interested parties list.
We are now ready to start moving forward. Give us a few days to recover from jet lag and overall exhaustion from Appraiserfest, and to absorb all the information learned there. Y’all can keep adding to the list here or send an email to janbellas@appraisersguild.org. In subject line please put “Add me to Class Action interest list”. Give her your contact information name and email and preferably addresses and phone numbers for the attorneys down the road (SHORTLY).