When you work with UWM Appraisal Direct… if a borrower pays $500 for an order, the entire fee goes to you. UWM doesn’t make $1 on the order. No appraisal management fees… This announcement just popped into my email, from HousingWire: UWM launches AMC-free appraisal program UWM to coordinate appraisals in-house United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) announced today that it will no longer require its brokers to use appraisal management companies to complete appraisals. The Pontiac, Michigan-based wholesale lender will instead coordinate appraisals in-house, contracting with appraisers directly, offering appraisers and brokers a way to bypass AMCs altogether, which UWM CEO...
…waiting for the platform to fall… because you know they hired the fastest and cheapest guy to build it! When Dodd Frank was implemented lenders started using appraisal management companies, eliminating appraisers relationships basically overnight. Appraisers embraced the change reluctantly and started accepting assignments from appraisal management companies. Over the years appraisal management companies showed their true colors and lowered fees, required appraisers to pay upload fees and forced many appraisers to pay for unnecessary back ground checks. Some have hired staff appraisers, completely disregarding the intent of Dodd Frank in an attempt to lower operating costs. Today, most AMC’s...
The FTC has cost the appraisal profession dearly in their pursuit of the State of Louisiana. This entire episode has been entirely misguided… The FTC’s time SHOULD have been spent investigating the AMC trade group known as REVAA to find TRULY non-competitive practices… The FTC is asking for public comments on the consent decree by the Louisiana Real Estate Appraisal Board. The time line to comment is short and ends on July 22, 2021. VaCAP asks each of you to take a few minutes and read the consent decree as well as the analysis provided by the FTC before commenting....
Relationships. It’s a lost art of business when it comes to the appraiser profession… I have been an appraiser since 2003, when I started my career path. Since then, the appraiser profession has gone through many changes, none more impactful than creating the Home Valuation Code of Conduct or HVCC law that was put into effect after the crash. HVCC created the new normal for the profession where Appraisal Management Companies (AMCs) were installed as the firewall or third party between the appraiser and the lender. Overnight on May 1st, 2009, appraisers all over the country lost every relationship they...
…the racial bias narrative will be what is utilized to remove appraisers from the lending equation… Removing us will finally put the FOX completely in charge of the HEN HOUSE…this entire narrative could very well end up costing us all, our way to make a living… Unfortunately, Professional Appraisers have no organized voice and I don’t see that we ever will. There is no one to defend us. And that has been used against us for years. After all that Appraisers have been through over the last 15 years, the racial bias narrative and the allegations of racial discrimination in...
…other states will also modify their appraisal license renewal CE class requirements to include some form of anti-bias training… Folks, I attended the ACTS Conference in Bay St. Louis, MS, sponsored by National Association of Appraisers, last week. While there, enjoying the interactions of ~150 attendees, a primary topic of conversations and presentations was the impending impact to appraisers regarding anti-bias training and bias attitudes. The onslaught of negative news articles, and legislation at state and federal venues was a direct result of the ‘hijacking’ of the Congressional Hearing in 2019 which was supposed to focus on “Appraisal Modernization.” Instead,...
What once was a ‘three year’ project to redesign and implement revised appraisal forms has morphed into one taking far longer. Actual implementation and use of ‘new forms’ are not scheduled to happen until (presumably) early in 2024, but could be extended even further. By 2024, the currently used ‘forms’ will be 19 years old, and the current UAD overlay entering ‘teenage hood’ at 13. For context, the current Planet Mars Perseverance Rover mission to successfully plan and land scientific instruments took only 9 years! Details for the ‘forms redesign extension’ are based on the announcement from Fannie Mae (and Freddie...
Dude, I Reserve the Right Not to Serve You Anymore! OK, let’s face it: real estate appraisers are in the service business. We provide a service – real estate appraisals. We provide those services to anybody willing to pay for them. That’s what service providers do. To which you say, “Dustin, you have a deep grasp of the obvious.” Well, let’s go a little deeper. Part of what I do is stay in touch with local real estate brokers and appraisers. Some of us have a local restaurant we frequent. At the front door is a sign letting all patrons...
How much vetting have you done on the appraisal management company? How involved are you as the lender in the day to day activities of the appraisal management company?… The world has changed and most everything in our lives involves technology. The technologies available to each of us are tools. They are not a more reliable means, merely more convenient. Human thought and analysis is still required in every aspect of life. When the Final Rules of the Dodd Frank Legislation went into effect, many lenders chose to use appraisal management companies with the false idea they had no liability for...
Intentional and unintentional racial bias by appraisers on refinance loans is uncommon and not systemic… On January 4, 2021, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) published a study titled “How Common Is Appraiser Racial Bias? An Analysis Using Big Data to Determine Whether It Is Common or Uncommon that an Appraiser’s Knowledge of an Applicant’s Race Results in Valuation Bias“. They concluded allegation that knowing the race of the applicant results in racial bias by appraisers on refinance loans is uncommon and not systemic. This same analysis supports the conclusion that unintentional bias based on race is also uncommon and not...
