Tagged: AGA

Unintended Users Phony Low Value Claims Against Innocent Appraisers 6

Phony Low-Value Complaints

ALL unintended users are specifically excluded from any right of reliance on this appraisal report… Recently, Mr. Steve Kahane, Board Member of the Association of Texas Appraisers (ATA) wrote a great article in WorkingRE. It included several suggestions for Texas to deal with it’s excessive number (70%-75%) of unfounded complaints against appraisers. An American Guild of Appraisers member in New Jersey who has twice faced this exact kind of complaint abuse reminded me of the article and concurred with its suggestions for his state. Fortunately for our member, New Jersey is not one of those relatively few ‘charge and win...

North Dakota Bankers Seeking to Eliminate Consumer Protection Benefits 5

ND Banks Seeking to Kill Consumer Protection

…North Dakota bankers seeking to eliminate consumer protection benefits associated with appraisals… The real issue of concern to all appraisers is the attempted con job and subtle coercion by officials and State Senators in North Dakota over the ASC. In their letter to ASC regarding their appraisal waiver request, they cite only 170 ‘in area’ appraisers while excluding a hundred so-called out of the area (multiple state licenses). While North Dakota is about the 19th largest state in land area, it is the fourth lowest in overall population. The 2018 population was only 760,077! That makes it among the lowest...

Jan Bellas of AGA Breaches Solidifi's Intransigence. Thank You SOLIDIFI 8

Thank you SOLIDIFI

Jan Bellas breached their past wall of intransigence… Thank you SOLIDIFI Wow. That was more painful than I thought it would be. It’s no secret that I have been an extreme critic of Solidifi in the past. It’s also possible I will be so again in the future. I have not ‘sold out’ or traded my integrity or standards. What happened is that Jan Bellas of the American Guild of Appraisers, V.P. of Member Services has with great effort (and very little suggestion) breached their past wall of intransigence. With Solidifi’s Sr. Executives (Mr. “P” in particular) the very first...

Another Huckster Enters the Appraisal Arena 20

Another Huckster Enters the Appraisal Arena

Yet another third party huckster has entered into the real estate appraiser and appraisal arena. It’s that time again! Yet another third party huckster has entered into the real estate appraiser and appraisal arena. Apparently motivated by pure altruism. We identified a need in the marketplace to address a common problem that lenders are regularly challenged with in providing accurate appraisal quotes and then ensuring pricing on the Loan Estimate is consistent and compliant,” stated Vladimir Bien-Aime, president and CEO at Global DMS. (I LOVE this guy, he writes like me!) Global DMS Launches SnapVal to Provide Instant, Accurate, Guaranteed...

The Truth is Hybrid Hucksters Don't Hire Professionals! 8

The Truth is They Don’t Hire Professionals!

Hybrid hucksters always argue “Why can’t trained professionals like brokers or insurance inspectors” perform the appraiser’s field inspection. The answer is because ‘trained professionals’ like those noted don’t work for $25 an inspection; are unwilling to give up their day jobs for a chance at a single $25 inspection one or two days a week, AND if they are truly trained professionals, to begin with, they are unwilling to work for part-time income of $0 to $25 a day in vain hope of having a periodic 8 or 16 inspection day (assumes all 16 are side by side since there’d...

Appraisers Disappointed at Federal Banking Agencies - Appraisers Blogs 21

Appraisers Disappointed at Federal Agencies

I’ve read a number of posts where appraisers are disappointed at federal banking agencies declining to hold public hearings on the topic of raising the appraisal minimum threshold for residential real estate transactions from $250,000 to $400,000. The request for a public hearing on the issue was ‘worth a shot’ but was never a realistic expectation. We knew that when we joined with others in signing the letter. Federal rulemaking agencies already have policies and procedures in place for mandatory public input. It’s unrealistic to expect them to make special exceptions. Especially when existing lobbyists that promoted the short-sighted policy...

Feds Deny Public Hearing - Denial of a Public Hearing is Undemocratic 16

Feds Deny Public Hearing

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have denied  the request for a public hearing on raising the appraisal minimum threshold for residential real estate transactions from $250,000 to $400,000. See the “agencies” rejection letter here. …we do not believe that holding a public hearing would elicit relevant information that could be conveyed through the comment process described above. While the agencies are, therefore, declining your request for a public hearing, we will carefully consider your written comments… The American Society of Appraisers, The Appraisal...

Increased Regulatory Persecution of Real Estate Appraisers - USPAP 21

Increased Regulatory Persecution of Appraisers

The current and proposed revised version of USPAP also opens the door to increased regulatory persecution of licensed and certified real estate appraisers, while leaving all others that opine about values with no constraints, rules or limitations. I was recently asked to consider a proposed change to USPAP. As received in my email: “Also this, in the 3rd exposure draft 239 The appraiser is not required to title an appraisal report using specific terminology because 240 USPAP compliance is measured by the substantive content of a report, not by what the 241 report is called. The use of labels such as analysis,...

Who Is Really on Your Side? The AGA Fights for Appraisers & Our Industry 5

Who Is Really on Your Side?

The AGA wants to make that change. Do you? We have all seen the the commercials for Nationwide Insurance and that they are on your side. As real estate appraisers do we know who is really on our side? There are so many organizations that represent appraisers. Many claim to help appraisers, many do help appraisers, many are out there to fight for appraisers, many offer education and many just want us to join them in their own agenda journey made up of false narrative and false promises. I’m not here to force you to join anything. I support the...

AGA Objects De Minimis Increase Proposal - It is Time to Call out the Liars 40

AGA Objects De Minimis Increase Proposal

We object to the proposal to increase the de minimis threshold at which no appraisal is required… Sirs: The American Guild of Appraisers (AGA), of the Office Professional Employees International Union (#44 OPEIU) of the AFL-CIO represents the members and extended family and retirees, taxpayer and consumer real estate appraisal interests of nearly Twelve and a half million citizens and voters. We object to the proposal to increase the de minimis threshold at which no appraisal is required from $250,000 to $400,000. Respectfully, if anything is done with it at all, lowering it to a range not to exceed $100,000...

xml sitemap
blank