Tagged: AIR

Opportunity to Work for Free is Not a Plan 73

‘Opportunity’ to Work for Free is Not a Plan

I gave this ‘opportunity’ further critical analysis in terms of time spent versus the fee income potential.  Appraisers, I’d like to disclose a personal ‘opportunity’ that was presented to me last fall, early winter. A company with AMC roots was, or is, recruiting people to become “property inspectors” with the resulting reports potentially fed to other appraisers who do HYBRID, or maybe even DESKTOP reports. The GSEs never intended the DESKTOP report to incorporate separate ‘property inspections’ from a hired third party, but that’s been the evolution because they just look the other way. Last fall, due to the slowdown...

Two Cheers for an 'Evolved' Beltway Entrepreneur... David Bunton 27

Two Cheers for an ‘Evolved’ Beltway Entrepreneur… David Bunton

We come not to bury David Bunton, the public figure, but to praise David Bunton, the evolved Beltway organism. Who is David Bunton? Bunton has made a small fortune and canvassed the world at the helm of a 16-employee Washington, D.C., nonprofit that publishes a copyrighted code of conduct. The code gives his tiny fiefdom a big say in how collateral in the nation’s $11 trillion mortgage market is valued. He is a figure with outsized power in an immense market. His day-to-day funding source? For 30 years, his nonprofit, known as the Appraisal Foundation, has sold copies of its...

The Real Cause of the Home Value Gap Is the Income Gap 77

The Real Cause of the Home Value Gap Is the Income Gap

Blaming appraisers for the income gap will never solve the real underlying problem… Blaming appraisers for the income gap is as ridiculous as blaming appraisers for gun violence and gas prices. I watched the January 24, 2023 ASC Appraisal Bias hearing. Comments were requested after the hearing. This letter is my comment. I’ve been a real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California for 40 years. I’ve been a licensed California Certified Residential Appraiser since licenses were first offered in 1993/1994. I’m a Latino woman who speaks English and Spanish. I appraise property in the diverse county of Los Angeles and...

FastApp AMC Alleged Violations of Appraiser Independence Requirements 52

Fastapp AMC Alleged Violations of AIR

The following court documents in the case Naftali Horowitz v. [xxx], Fastapp AMC founder v. Fastapp AMC president, confirm what appraisers have been saying all along, that if you want high-volume AMC work, you have to lower your fees to 1980’s level, have 24 hour turn times, and, above all, be a number hitter. Horowitz, Fastapp founder, filed a lawsuit in New York court on January 31, 2022 against defendant to, among other things, remove the defendant as an officer and director of the Company because, when he brought her on as shareholder in 2020, he claimed that she made...

Bringing More People Into a Dying Profession! 84

Bringing More People Into a Dying Profession!

Some people want to bring more people (primarily of color, which is great) into a dying profession. But the profession is being killed off by (mostly white!) people who think technology is the golden spoon to accurate valuations.  Appraisers, I’ve been studying, and writing about since 2006, all kind of issues surrounding our profession, and frankly some currently does not make sense. As many know, ‘we’ have been accused of not having “enough black people” in appraiser ranks. The claim is that blacks only represent 3% or so of the total population of appraisers. The people engaged in blaming appraisers...

All This Will Do is CREATE BIAS! 29

All This Will Do is CREATE BIAS!

All this will do is CREATE BIAS… How does one stay unbiased if they repeatedly get sued or raked over the coals every time they do an honest, true appraisal that does not meet the expectation of untrained members of the general public…  Does bias exist? Of course. Does it exist in appraising? Rarely, if ever. Not one of the publicly aired cases has shown any verifiable facts or data to prove their claims. Bias in appraising is rare and far less than in nearly all other vocations. Why? Because appraisers are and have been, for decades, already held to...

Hit Pieces & Diatribes Against Appraisers Based on Census Tracts 15

Diatribes Against Appraisers

What’s even more frustrating to me is none of the well-known appraiser organizations have offered any public rebuttal to any of these hit pieces, or explained how the appraisal process works as a way to defend appraisers… Census Tract data delineating RACE of the population is the only ammunition the people doing these hit pieces can use to attack appraisers. Appraisers, this is a long article but it’s important, as it reveals how you are being discredited in the work you do. Yet, ‘we’ must begin doing some introspection of what we are or have been doing, and make necessary...

Desktops are being done wrong 70

Desktops Are Being Done WRONG!

Appraisers, back in April, I was notified by someone “close to the action” of appraisal report submittals to the GSE’s, that many Desktops are being submitted back to lenders TOTALLY WRONG by the assigned appraisers! These reports are being captured and evaluated in the current Desktop observation and testing phase of the UCDP evaluations. Lenders use the UCDP as an initial report Quality Control check so that any problems can be identified, and sent back to the appraiser for correction, before the last submittal is used for the loan. The UCDP ‘sees’ every report for a particular property address, and keeps track...

Dystopian Future for Occupational Licensees; Appraisers Take Heed 72

Appraisers Take Heed

Her plight is an attack on occupational licensees everywhere. The nation’s long-suffering real estate appraisers, under attack by Congress in an election year, should pay close attention to what has happened in Nashville… Nurse’s Plight Signals Dystopian Future for Occupational Licensees; Appraisers Take Heed To err is human, but not if you’re a licensed nurse in the Regulatory Republic of Tennessee, where “dog eat dog” has become the state’s unofficial motto. In a first of its kind, a medical accident has resulted in both a license revocation and a criminal prosecution as a nurse was both stripped of her license...

Maxine Waters wants appraisers investigated 119

Maxine Waters Wants Appraisers Investigated

On February 22, 2022, Maxine Waters sent a letter to HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge, TAF, ASC and AI regarding ongoing appraisal bias and discrimination. She is calling on the federal regulators and AI to investigate appraisers’ misconduct and potential illegal discrimination. She will also be introducing legislation to address ongoing discrimination. Maxine Waters’ letter “highlights longstanding racial inequities plaguing America’s home valuation system”. The letter highlights longstanding racial inequities plaguing America’s home valuation system, particularly in Black-majority communities and other communities of color. To illuminate the severity of this issue, Chairwoman Waters references an email recently sent by an appraiser...

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