Tagged: AMCs

"Valuable" Advice From an AMC - Valuation Connect 59

“Valuable” Advice From an AMC

The person who espouses this super valuable ‘advice’ does not have an appraiser’s license… Appraisers, if you think I’m serious about the message subject line, please reconsider! It’s time to actually call out an AMC who’s encouraging appraisers to ‘lower their fee’: Valuation Connect This outfit sent out a ‘newsletter’ to appraisers, part of which says this: “My advice would be to make adjustments based on the market. Some examples in a slow market would be adding a new county or zip code to your coverage area, lowering your fee for a product, or adding a new product to your...

FastApp AMC Alleged Violations of Appraiser Independence Requirements 57

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...

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...

AMCs Constant Bid Request... It's Theft of Services! 30

It’s Theft of Services!

It’s theft of services to constantly think it’s okay to drain appraisers time and resources as if we’re advocates of the AMC; all our time and energy constantly available to AMCs so they can shop us to infinity on a per diem assignment pattern forever to increase their own profits. They condition appraisers to become advocates of the AMC or you don’t get anything. That’s not how an ethical appraiser should operate. If they returned cost savings to consumers instead of using that as a financial incentive to select the lowest priced appraiser, it would be different. But as we...

Average AMC Appraisal Fee 2021 vs 2022 134

Average AMC Appraisal Fee to the Appraiser

Average AMC appraisal fee to the appraiser: AMCs are taking far more of the borrower-paid fee this year than they did last year.  Appraisers, I recently sent out a message asking appraisers to send me three data points comparing borrower-paid appraisal cost, and average AMC paid assignment fees in October, November 2021 and the same months in 2022 – for SFR assignments. My intent was to provide actual useful AMC-paid fee data compared to what the borrower pays for ‘the appraisal’, without revealing specific fees in any particular location. Replies to that message were much less than I expected, and only...

Smartphone Measuring Technology 15

Smartphone Measuring Technology

This new measuring technology claims the software to be ANSI compliant.  Appraisers, over the past couple of years, there have been lively discussions on forums, Facebook groups, at conferences, etc., about a ‘new’ technology which allows a ‘phone holder’ to measure a structure, with that technology providing a “Sketch” or “Floor Plan” of that structure. Some of you may have heard about one of the originating companies, Matterport, which some real estate agents/brokers use to generate virtual 3D interior diagrams and videos used in property marketing. Smartphone measuring technology evolved from that. Until recently, I and others did not understand...

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...

NAR Appraisal Survey... Impact of Appraisals on the Current Market 6

NAR Appraisal Survey

The results of the NAR appraisal survey show more than half of appraisers reported AMCs to be the greatest challenge in their business with 40% reporting not being compensated fairly. Only 3% of members witnessed or experienced discrimination in an appraisal… NAR Research conducted a survey of all 9,700 appraiser members and 50,000 randomly-selected non-appraiser members to determine the level of impact of appraisals on the current market and member business in terms of cost, turn-around times, and other challenges and to measure member experiences with bias and discrimination in the appraisal process. Highlights of the NAR Appraisal Survey The...

The Government Screwing Over an Entire Industry 16

The Government Screwing Over an Entire Industry

The government wants to move to a fully automated appraisal format, and the more that they can dirty the narrative in their favor, the quicker they get to their objective… This just in: In a recent memo, the CFPB wants you to know that if you are buying a home, that you can contest your appraisal. By the way, anyone at any time can contest an appraisal for any reason. This isn’t new. Not at all. In fact the CFPB doesn’t really give two craps about your opinion of value or the Appraiser’s opinion of value. This has nothing to...

Appraisal Management Companies Take a Sizable Cut of the Appraisal Fee 97

AMCs Take a Sizable Cut of the Appraisal Fee

It still proves my point: Appraisal Management Companies take a sizable Cut of the appraisal fee… It was March 28th, 2018 that I wrote my very first blog post entitled “What’s not in your wallet?” where I went into great detail about how Appraisal Management Companies or AMCs get paid and how the consumer is not aware of the fact that the AMC is taking much of the fee while finding the cheapest and fastest appraiser. In that blog post, I gave many examples of the abuse appraisers and consumers are absorbing by these Appraisal Management Companies. How one borrower...

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