We the people need to redirect the mortgage lending direction… The time for every appraiser and consumer to step up is now. This country was founded on the principle of “We the people”. Please sign this petition and share it everywhere. Appraisers have been the target for blame for everything gone wrong in the mortgage lending world. We were blamed for the Savings and Loan collapse, the financial crisis of 2008, and appraisal bias and racial discrimination. Appraisers have even been the target on loans gone bad after several years on payments. Yep, we have been the target and have...
Waiving appraisal requirements on residential homes could erode consumer protection, stall attempts to create diversity in the profession… The recent announcement from Fannie Mae that they will waive the requirement for residential home appraisals has caused quite a stir in the industry. Fannie Mae’s decision to waive appraisals during this time of soon to come recession and bank liquidity issues is both surprising and concerning, and could have serious implications for both consumers and financial institutions alike. With falling values across many markets combined with rising mortgage rates putting even more pressure on borrowers’ wallets, this decision could potentially put...
The phrase “take a look in the mirror” is a common idiom used to encourage self-reflection and introspection. It is a powerful statement that can evoke a range of emotions and reactions from individuals, from contemplation to defensiveness. At its core, the phrase is a call to examine oneself honestly and objectively. It asks us to step back from our assumptions, biases, and preconceptions and consider our behavior, choices, and beliefs in a critical light. When we take a look in the mirror, we are forced to confront our flaws and shortcomings, but also to recognize our strengths and achievements....
We come not to bury David Bunton, the public figure, but to praise David Bunton, the evolved Beltway organism. Who is David Bunton? Bunton has made a small fortune and canvassed the world at the helm of a 16-employee Washington, D.C., nonprofit that publishes a copyrighted code of conduct. The code gives his tiny fiefdom a big say in how collateral in the nation’s $11 trillion mortgage market is valued. He is a figure with outsized power in an immense market. His day-to-day funding source? For 30 years, his nonprofit, known as the Appraisal Foundation, has sold copies of its...
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...
Anytime the government gets involved in an issue, it tends to have more adverse effects than positive ones. It makes things worse when they only have their plan in mind and NOT the FACTS from the people they are about to hurt. This is especially true in the Real Estate Appraisal profession and the newly introduced H.R. Bill entitled: Fair Appraisal and Inequity Reform Act of 2022. It’s essential to bring some information that not one person in the government or the people they are getting information from is talking about. First let’s step into my time machine and go...
Several appraisers have informed us that they have received death threats simply because they have been outspoken online refuting the racial bias narrative and the allegations of racial discrimination in the appraisal profession that is being utilized to remove appraisers from the lending equation. Since we have no organized voice and no one to defend us, some among us have taken the task to educate the public about the appraisal process and what we do. And by doing so, they have been attacked, labeled as racist and their safety threatened. One appraiser wrote (we redacted any identifiable information): I already...
DETAILS… NO MATTER HOW SMALL OR BIG NEED TO BE PRESENTED. If not, you failed. ASC, today you failed us all. Over the past several days, the Real Estate Appraisal Industry has been the subject of scrutiny with the release of the PAVE Report that the Interagency Task Force developed on Property Appraisal And Valuation Equity set forth by the Biden Administration. On March 23, 2022, there was a public meeting to unveil the Pave Task Force report on Racial Bias in the Real Estate Appraisal Profession. You can watch the press conference below as well as read the entire...
Money may have been used to buy influence and promote the current anti-appraiser narrative being embraced by key public servants in the executive and legislative branches. TOOL MAY HELP APPRAISERS CONNECT DOTS TO UNRELENTING CHARACTER ATTACKS It’s reminiscent of a practice pioneered by Texas savings-and-loan kingpin Tom Gaubert in the 1980s. The idea was to have employees at his crumbling institution and those of his friends funnel a large number of small-dollar political donations to his buddy, Democratic House Speaker Jim Wright. The speaker, one of the most corrupt to hold the position (and that’s really saying something), spread the...
The study also shows the appraisal was the LOWEST scored item on the list of discriminatory practices… On February 23, 2022, NAR published the “2022 Snapshot of Race and Home Buying in America” report. The study examines homeownership trends and challenges by race and location to explain current racial disparities in the housing market. Using data from the 2021 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, the report looks at the characteristics of who purchases homes, why they purchase, what they purchase and the financial background for buyers based on race. The study noted that for those who said they witnessed...
