Tagged: AMCs

Are Appraisal Management Companies Value-Adding? 29

Are AMCs Value-Adding?

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has released a working paper “Are Appraisal Management Companies Value-Adding? – Stylized Facts from AMC and Non-AMC Appraisals” We have not had a chance to review the report in great detail, however, a quick glance has some very interesting analysis. This is a must read for every appraiser! See the “Are AMCs Value-Adding?” paper here or below. Excerpt: Are Appraisal Management Companies Value-Adding? – Stylized Facts from AMC and Non-AMC Appraisals In this paper, we study whether there are any systematic quality differences between appraisals associated and unassociated with appraisal management companies (AMCs). We find...

AMC Email Blasts to Undisclosed-Recipients... Return to Sender 10

You Can Argue With Stupid, But You Will Never Win

Please introduce me to "undisclosed-recipients." I would like to pick his or her brain to find out how he or she is getting all these orders. Now I don’t consider myself to be the most intelligent person out there, but do consider myself a fairly intelligent individual. Periodically I receive an email with an order request from different AMCs. These are unsolicited emails from amcs I do not do business with. Why I am receiving these requests is a concern and a question for another day. The emails I receive are addressed to the person who sent the email, undisclosed-recipients;...

Stop Senate Bill 2155 in the Senate, Fake Claim of an Appraisers Shortage 49

Stop S.2155 in the Senate

Call to action to oppose Senate Bill 2155, also opposed by an overwhelming majority of Americans… Appraisers, We are placing an immediate nationwide call to action to oppose Senate Bill 2155 currently in the United States Senate. Senate Bill 2155 has a provision, (sec 103) which allows a bank to waive an appraisal in rural communities. This will be detrimental for homeowners and communities in rural areas. A loss of income will also occur for appraisers who cover rural counties. To see the text of S.2155, click here. The Independent Community Bank Association has been hard at work promoting this bill....

Appraisal Management Companies AMCs Have Failed 63

AMCs Have Failed

…it will be the appraisal management companies that are going to be held to the fire, not the appraiser… In the spring of 2002 my wife and I bought our third house; an older cape cod in a great school system where our son would start kindergarten in the fall and his sister the year after. This house literally was 1970 inside. It had deep red shag carpet in the family room and sculptured avocado green carpet upstairs. Not to worry, it blended well with the sunshine yellow stove, bright orange counter top and turquoise and pink bathrooms. After 3...

AMC Abuses? What's Your Story? 85

AMC Abuses? What’s Your Story?

Many of you have filed formal complaints against AMC abuses with State appraisal boards… The place was a small subdivision developed with coastal style homes on the Ocean side of route 12 in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The bank was Bank of America. The AMC was LandSafe and the time was just before Corelogic purchase of Landsafe for $122 million. I was asked by this AMC to appraise a home for a purchase transaction. My comparable sales consisted of one recent sale of the next door neighbor, one on the same street, and two closed sales in the...

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How Fast Can Your Head Spin?

Hopefully you have been busy and have not noticed VaCAP has been quiet over the past few weeks. Not by choice, but necessity. You see, there has been so much happening, we have been overwhelmed and our heads are spinning out of control. VaCAP needs more members to volunteer to help us help you. Let us know how you can help. Let’s start with the easy stuff: The Virginia Real Estate Appraiser Board Quarterly Meeting will take place on February 21, 2018. The meeting will begin at 10:00 AM and there will be a public comment period for anyone who wishes to address...

Staff Appraiser Overtime Class Action Lawsuit Against Corelogic AMC 25

Class Action Against Corelogic

A residential staff appraiser has filed an overtime class action lawsuit against appraisal management company CoreLogic Valuation Solutions. The appraiser is a current employee and works as a staff appraiser in Southern California. On behalf of herself and a putative class of similar CoreLogic staff appraisers, she alleges that CoreLogic’s compensation practices violate the overtime pay requirements of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and California state labor laws. The case will be legally interesting to watch because CoreLogic allegedly pays its employee appraisers on a “piece work” per appraisal basis with additional compensation for based on production and other...

Evaluation NOT required to Meet USPAP - AGA Views on Legislative Bills 17

The Devil is Always in The Details

An evaluation is NOT required to meet USPAP requirements… I went over the bills VaCAP requested action on (see VaCAP Legislative Call to Action) and wanted to share my views as it appears they were interested in individual views. HB 1453 Real estate appraisers; changes definition of evaluations. Introduced by: R. Lee Ware SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED: Real estate appraisers; evaluations. Changes the definition of "evaluation" from an analysis, opinion, or conclusion relating to the nature, quality, value, or utility of specified interests in, or aspects of, identified real property to an opinion of the market value of real property or real...

Bill Removes Consumer Protection and Legalizes Bad Behavior by AMCs 16

Legislative Call to Action

Bill removes consumer protection and legalizes bad behavior by AMCs. Now is the time to contact your legislators with comments. They want to hear from you! HB 1453 – Changing the definition of evaluations –  has passed the General Laws Committee and was read in the House of Delegates on February 1, 2018 for the first time. SB  655 – Capping fees of an AMC to 20% and disclosing the AMC fee to the consumer – is on the agenda for Monday February 5th in the General Laws and Technology Committee. Please contact your representatives and the committee members and...

Appraisers Classified as Independent Contractors Treated as Employees 13

Reclassifying Appraisers as Employees

Classifying Appraisers as Independent Contractors – an Issue for Appraisal Firms and Maybe AMCs Too A hot legal issue that is beginning to more often affect appraisal firms and similar businesses, such as inspection and field service management firms, is the classification of workers as independent contractors, rather than as employees. In some lawsuits, plaintiff workers argue that they were improperly classified by firms as independent contractors and then claim that, if they had been treated properly as employees, they would have been entitled to compensation for overtime, as well as reimbursement for expenses. In other situations, the issue is a...

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