…the intent is to caution all appraisers about the fundamental risks in doing these… Hybrids – As if another reason for not doing them was required! Regular AppraisersBlogs readers are well aware of the controversy associated with doing bifurcated hybrids. Extensive information as well as disinformation has been spread by the hucksters that promote them, and those few management or owner-appraisers of such firms that benefit from them. This article is not to debate whether they should be done, or even if they could theoretically be done in anything resembling a USPAP compliant manner. Instead, the intent is to caution...
Class Valuation sucker punches appraisers! Class Valuation has been celebrating completing 1,000,000 orders and sent a Tweet thanking their clients and staff. There is no mention of the boots on the ground licensed professional appraisers who actually completed those appraisals. Is this the true feelings of Class Valuation? Do they not realize not one order would have been completed without appraisers? Not one simple thank you… Meanwhile VaCAP has learned InHouse Solutions, the AMC division of Get Connexions, Inc. is ceasing all operations as of February 28th. Appraisers on their panel across the country have been getting this email: Jan...
Amrock recently sent their California fee panel appraisers an email informing them it will suspend the use of fee panel appraisers in California, in order to comply with AB5 law. Dear Valued Partner, New legislation has recently gone into effect that requires Amrock to suspend the use of fee panel appraisers in the State of California. As we take the difficult steps necessary to comply with this new law, we would like to thank you for all the contributions you have made towards making our partnership successful. We appreciate your dedicated service and we will continue to advocate aggressively for...
More than 375 California appraisers registered for the AB 5 webinar – I hope you didn’t miss it. I’ll be hosting my next free webinar for appraisers on January 31, 2020 – it’s the “California Legal Update just for Appraisers!” In this free video webinar, I’ll cover: New 2020 laws relevant to California appraisers and appraisal firms (other than AB 5), including the California Consumer Privacy Act, and The very most important thing that appraisers can do in 2020 in every appraisal report of every type (whether residential, commercial, lending or non-lending) to avoid liability. The webinar will last approximately 45...
Most independent appraisers are paid ‘by the job’ and are issued 1099’s for the payments made. Appraisers who are ‘staff appraisers’ for specific clients are considered EMPLOYEES, and are issued a W-2 for income paid to them. Independent appraisers should not create an EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP until and unless that is specifically what is desired… I’ve been having a respectful discussion with a California appraiser, who believes (as do others) that just because a particular client requests a certain kind of appraisal report be completed using an online web based report form, then that action constitutes establishing an EMPLOYEE relationship with that...
…everyone knows that iMortgage / Single Source is the “dollar bidding” company. They send out appraisal requests at $1.00 and ask everyone to provide their fee… The Louisiana Real Estate Appraiser Board has been hit with another legal battle. This time, iMortgage, operating under the name Single Source has filed suit against the Louisiana Real Estate Appraisal Board claiming a violation of antitrust laws. This suit mirrors that of the FTC, which is currently paused by the Fifth Circuit Court. In the suit, iMortgage claims rules created by the Louisiana Real Estate Board, which consists of market participants, set appraisal...
AMCs are legally required to do appraisal report reviews… Appraisers, an appraiser shared AMC appraisal report review documents with me, which the appraiser was given. I have not seen these before. See the PDF embedded below for an example. Per state laws in the various states, AMCs are legally required to do appraisal report reviews per provisions of their state AMC license on up to 5% of the reports they process. AMCs must keep the results of those appraisal report reviews on file for a specified time period, and of course, send the review document to the client lender pertaining to the...
Lately, I and other appraisers who are ‘members’ of Mercury Network have been getting emails with what ‘looks like’ individual “bid requests” to quote fee and turn time for residential properties. I say ‘looks like’ because the email only has the singular appraiser’s email address showing. What’s actually been happening is the client is sending multiple emails to individual appraisers via Mercury Network. These emails always have an acceptance window of several hours, which is acceptable (unless 4 hrs or less). But they are not honoring the time frame window to present a bid, and withdraw the potential assignment, after...
Only the lender’s Underwriter should be able to request changes to the report and the lender should be the one that pays the appraiser… An appraiser associate was having a discussion with one of the head review appraisers at HUD and the reviewer noticed that the Plat Map in the report did not correspond with the site size reported in the URAR form 1004. The appraiser stated that the public record and the Plat map did not agree with each other and that he chose the figure shown in public records. The reviewer questioned why he would choose the public...
See the announcement by the Veterans Administration basically telling lenders and appraisal management companies we are going to protect our Veterans with sound appraisal practice. …the person providing property information to the appraiser must have entered into an agreement with the appraiser to do so. …the person who provides to the VA fee panel appraiser information must sign the appraisal report in the “Appraiser” section of the left side of the appraisal report. Assisted Appraisal Processing Program (AAPP) This section authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Secretary to issue guidance explaining the conditions under which VA permits VA fee...
