What is it going to take for every appraiser to comment on Town Hall concerning the proposed Guidance Document on hybrid appraisals? Even if you have no intentions of ever completing a hybrid appraisal, it is important for you to place a comment on Town Hall concerning the document and these questionable products. If appraisers are not willing to step up and take a stand against actions that are contributing to the next housing crash, who will? If you have seen any of the samples floating around on the blogs and forums, you realize very quickly, these products are not credible...
VaCAP and 27 other State Appraisal Organizations reached out to the House Finance Services Committee concerning the upcoming Subcommittee meeting entitled “What’s Your Home Worth? A Review of the Appraisal Industry” on June 20th. The Network stresses the most qualified to testify on the appraisal profession is an appraiser. The letter also outlines some of the flaws, inconsistencies and realities of the effects of appraisal management companies and how the GSE’s current “appraisal modernization plan” is actually harmful to consumers, investors, lenders, the housing market and the economy as a whole. Fannie Mae’s own publications are being used as documentation. Hopefully the committee members ask the...
Before the ink was dry on FIRREA 1989, special interests were snipping away at it. Originally proposed field review requirements in FIRREA drafts for 1 in 10 appraisals would have made the Great Recession (TARP) impossible. Now those same interests are stripping away at the last vestiges of consumer and taxpayer property value protection. The formal appraisal. The MINIMUM level of protection that should be insisted upon. Dear Ms Kahng: My name is Mike Ford. I am Vice President – Special Projects; & Chairman of the American Guild of Appraisers National Appraiser Peer Review Committee; AGA#44, OPEIU, AFL-CIO. I am...
US House Financial Services Committee Hearing on Appraisals – The subcommittee on Housing, Community Development and Insurance is holding a hearing entitled “What’s Your Home Worth? A Review of the Appraisal Industry” on June 20, 2019 at 2:00 PM. The hearing is open to the public and can be lived streamed. To find out more about this hearing, go to the US House Financial Services Committee website. Contact the Representatives on this subcommittee. Make sure consumer protection is at the forefront at this hearing and not the profits of the GSE’s. Are the representatives aware the GSE’s are sending unlicensed,...
Back on April 19th, I wrote about the New York AMC law in my Housing Notes newsletter. After years of AMCs chipping away at the public trust, the New York AMC law was designed to protect the consumer. The bill summary was: Relates to the registration of real estate appraisal management companies or an individual or business entity that provides appraisal management services to creditors or to secondary mortgage market participants including affiliates by the department of state. Last week, AppraisersBlogs ran it as a standalone post and I got a lot of feedback. To be clear, the bill was...
VaCAP Launches Consumer Protection Campaign VaCAP is excited to launch a Consumer Protection Campaign! For months we prepped, we discussed, we negotiated, we wrote, we edited, wrote some more, edited some more… finally, we recorded. We have three 60 second consumer protection announcements airing on WRVA 1140 News Radio starting on Monday April 29th. The three consumer protection announcements will air randomly throughout the day for two weeks. WRVA 1140 News Radio live streams through Radio.com and iHeartRadio so anyone can tune in and listen. The consumer protection announcements will refer listeners to VaCAP’s website for more information where we have added a...
…North Dakota bankers seeking to eliminate consumer protection benefits associated with appraisals… The real issue of concern to all appraisers is the attempted con job and subtle coercion by officials and State Senators in North Dakota over the ASC. In their letter to ASC regarding their appraisal waiver request, they cite only 170 ‘in area’ appraisers while excluding a hundred so-called out of the area (multiple state licenses). While North Dakota is about the 19th largest state in land area, it is the fourth lowest in overall population. The 2018 population was only 760,077! That makes it among the lowest...
…forget the risky position foisted on the consumer by the loan officer… Well, here we go again. In my previous blog posts titled “Round and Round” and “Pressure My Story”, I spoke to examples of how lenders and/or AMCs have been pushing and pressuring appraisers to hit certain values on transactions. If an appraiser did not hit these numbers, or make changes to make the transaction work in the lender’s favor, the appraiser would be threatened with non-payment, removal from appraiser panels, and/or blacklisted. If you haven’t read those blog posts, feel free to go back and have a look....
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have denied the request for a public hearing on raising the appraisal minimum threshold for residential real estate transactions from $250,000 to $400,000. See the “agencies” rejection letter here. …we do not believe that holding a public hearing would elicit relevant information that could be conveyed through the comment process described above. While the agencies are, therefore, declining your request for a public hearing, we will carefully consider your written comments… The American Society of Appraisers, The Appraisal...
We object to the proposal to increase the de minimis threshold at which no appraisal is required… Sirs: The American Guild of Appraisers (AGA), of the Office Professional Employees International Union (#44 OPEIU) of the AFL-CIO represents the members and extended family and retirees, taxpayer and consumer real estate appraisal interests of nearly Twelve and a half million citizens and voters. We object to the proposal to increase the de minimis threshold at which no appraisal is required from $250,000 to $400,000. Respectfully, if anything is done with it at all, lowering it to a range not to exceed $100,000...
