Tagged: AMC

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Who Has Been Suing the Most Appraisers?

Two Names You Know. Two Names You’ve Probably Never Heard. These are four of the parties who have been suing the most appraisers in 2011-12. I suspect most appraisers won’t recognize two of the names, unless the appraisers are defendants in one of their cases. The parties are in no particular order, but the last one does file the most lawsuits. LSF6 Mercury REO Investments This is an investment fund of a private equity company named Lone Star. LSF6 bought discounted mortgage debt from bankrupt CIT Group in 2008. In late 2011, LSF6 began suing appraisers in New York as...

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Black Cat Causes Fair Housing Issue with AMC

An appraiser was required by an AMC to edit/crop the photos in an appraisal report because of a black cat. The AMC claimed that the black cat violated fair housing act. This was the response of the AMC in regard to the cat: “Please be advised that the following issues were found: a cat appears in the rear open patio photo and the landscaping photo. Please edit or crop this photo accordingly, as this is a fair lending issue for the client.” Fast forward the video below to 1 minute:

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New Trade Association Announces Launch to Support Appraisal Industry

Announcing the Official Formation of the National Association of Appraisal Management Companies (NAAMC) Providence, RI (PRWEB) August 31, 2012 Filling a long missing void in the ever-changing Appraisal and Residential Home Mortgage sectors, a collection of Industry-leading Appraisal Management Companies joined forces to create a unique and extremely necessary organization exclusively committed to supporting all entities impacted in the Residential Appraisal and Valuation industries. Officially formed in late July 2012, several months’ pre-launch due diligence was completed by the sixteen Founding Members of the National Association of Appraisal Management Companies (NAAMC). This non-profit trade association is officially incorporated in Delaware and...

Collecting invoices from problematic clients 9

Collecting Invoices from Problematic Clients

Chasing unpaid invoices… Recently, I have been receiving numerous emails and phone calls from appraisers asking if they can factor appraisal orders from JVI Solutions with our company. Appraisers from Hawaii and California to Texas and New Jersey have grown tired of the runaround and are looking for ways to get paid on the work they have done. Unfortunately, because of non-payments and the unknown status of the Florida-based appraisal management company, whether a larger Fortune 500 company is acquiring it or going bankrupt, our company has currently placed a hold on factoring any JVI Solutions orders until we receive...

West Virginia Riskiest State for Appraisers 2

West Virginia Riskiest State for Appraisers

West Virginia has been among the riskiest states in which to be a residential appraiser for several years. It’s my educated guess that a residential appraiser is more likely to be sued in West Virginia than in any other state. A plaintiffs’ law firm has elevated that level of risk to a nightmare for one particular AMC and its panel appraisers in West Virginia who performed appraisals for certain loans by the AMC’s primary client.

At the end of June, the law firm filed an alleged class action on behalf of residential borrowers residing in West Virginia against Title Source, Inc., which operates TSI Appraisal; Quicken Loans, which is the AMC’s corporate affiliate and primary client; two of the AMC’s panel appraisers; and all other appraisers

Sanitizing appraisal images 1

Picture This! If You Dare!

Images of personal items and people must go! Crime and Punishment The appraiser who took the interior image below is currently serving a ten year sentence in the Fair Housing Maximum Security Prison outside of Atlanta. The charges ranged from willful imaging of stockings hung with care to wanton display of a nutcracker and malicious showcasing of Micky and Minnie without their written consent. Actually, the image below was taken by yours truly about a decade ago and somehow survived the underwriting process. The mythology of what constitutes a Fair Housing violation continues to vex this profession like some movie...

Should I Attach My E&O Declarations Page to My Appraisal Report? 4

Should I Attach my E&O?

Should I attach my E&O Declarations Page to My Appraisal Report? Because some AMCs still wrongheadedly insist that appraisers do it, we are asked this question a lot: “should I attach my E&O declarations page to my appraisal report?” The answer is always the same: it’s a bad idea. It’s bad for both the appraiser and the client/AMC. It is perfectly reasonable for a client or an AMC to ask for proof of E&O insurance and ask to receive updated insurance information each year. That’s common to many professions, but there is no good reason to require that the information...

REVAA FAIR appraisal fees 18

REVAA and FAIR Approach for Appraisal Fees

REVAA and FAIR Call for Market-Driven Approach for Appraisal Fees Washington, DC (PRWEB) July 14, 2011, Donald Kelly, executive director, Real Estate Valuation Advocacy Association (REVAA), appeared today before the House Financial Services Committee, Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing, and Community Opportunity to testify on behalf of REVAA and the Coalition to Facilitate Appraisal Integrity Reform (FAIR) on Mortgage Origination: The Impact of Recent Changes on Homeowners and Businesses. The testimony comes just prior to the Federal Reserve Board transitioning its rulemaking authority to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Members of REVAA and FAIR advocate that the Federal Reserve Board,...

Drive By Upgrade 0

Drive By Upgrade

How many times have you received a drive-by assignment only to come across a view from your car like the image below? This was my view back in the summer of 2004. I notified my client that they needed to upgrade to a full interior/exterior inspection appraisal. The loan officer had a fit. “The house is over 4,000 square feet. They just put $100,000 into a new addition and installed a massive new deck!” barked the loan officer. “Then I definitely need to get inside,” I said. She cancelled the order. When they took back the house in 2008, none of...

Appraisal Complaint Hotline to Open This Year 2

Appraisal Complaint Hotline to Open This Year

Appraisal Complaint Hotline The Appraisal Subcommittee, a federal monitor of state bodies responsible for governing valuations, will open an appraisal complaint hotline by the end of the year, HousingWire reported July 2. The appraisal complaint hotline, required by the Dodd-Frank Act, will allow homebuyers, real estate agents, lenders and others in the industry to file complaints about appraisers and appraisal management companies. “ASC member agencies are currently working to finalize the details for how they will handle the referral of a complaint from the hotline,” ASC Executive Director James Park noted in House testimony, HousingWire reported. Park reported that a...

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