Tagged: Ethics Rule

UAD 3.6 and the Danger of Corporate Pragmatism 61

UAD 3.6 and the Danger of Corporate Pragmatism

The rollout of the new UAD 3.6 framework has triggered a major wave of compliance literature, and a perfect example is a recent article by Woody Fincham at Valuation Nation, titled “Certification 25: What’s the Real Risk to the Appraiser?”. In his piece, Woody sets aside the rhetoric and lists my AppraisersBlogs article regarding our legal defenses under this dataset as a citation reference at the end of his post. While he acknowledges the existence of this perspective, his broader argument claims that the legal risks of signing Certification 25 are low, the threat of regulatory discipline is minimal, and...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Automated Valuation Models / AVM / E&O

Our Metrics, Their Millions: Exposing the Backdoor Data Rush 15

Our Metrics, Their Millions: Exposing the Backdoor Data Rush

If you still think the corporate panic over structural data is just a theoretical debate about software licensing, a tech startup named Arloh just blew the entire script wide open. They have been running public marketing campaigns targeting small title, escrow, and appraisal firms with a staggering proposition: “Your old records could be worth millions.” One of their primary advertisements explicitly brags that a tiny 37-person title and escrow shop just received a ~$967,000 estimate simply for licensing their historical data archive for artificial intelligence training models. Let that dollar figure sink in for a second. Nearly one million dollars...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice / USPAP

Inspectors Blocked the Door, Appraisers Handed Over the Keys 39

Inspectors Blocked the Door, Appraisers Handed Over the Keys

A fellow appraiser dropped a direct message in my inbox with a link to home inspector Preston Kincaid’s Facebook video, and watching him warn the public sent a chill through me because his words mirrored the exact warnings I have been shouting about our own appraisal profession. To understand the shock, you first need to know what Spectora is and how home inspectors work. Spectora is the dominant cloud software platform used by roughly 7,000 independent home inspectors across the country to draft, format, and deliver digital property inspection reports. By law and standard contract, home inspectors operate under strict...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / Automated Valuation Models / AVM

UAD 3.6 Erases My Legal Defenses: Insurance Industry Agrees 38

UAD 3.6 Erases My Legal Defenses: Insurance Industry Agrees

The insurance industry just verified the erasure of my legal defenses under UAD 3.6. The corporate apologists and tech insiders have spent weeks trying to downplay the Certification 25 confidentiality crisis. They’ve lined up to tell independent appraisers that the new language is just a passive weather report, a routine disclosure, or an innocent acknowledgement of a reality that has existed for many years. But the ultimate reality check just arrived from the very people who calculate risk for a living, and it completely blows the corporate defense strategy out of the water. Isaac Peck, Publisher of Working RE Magazine...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / E&O / Errors & Omissions

Cert 25 Dilemma: TAF Abdicates Its Role as Ethics Arbiter 84

Cert 25 Dilemma: TAF Abdicates Its Role as Ethics Arbiter

We finally have a direct written response from The Appraisal Foundation regarding the Cert 25 confidentiality crisis and it is a masterclass in bureaucratic buck passing. A peer recently contacted TAF to ask how appraisers can remain compliant with the USPAP Ethics Rule while signing a form that opens the floodgates for data distribution. TAF basically hid under their desks. They claimed they cannot give legal advice and told us that questions about Cert 25 are best suited for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since they built the form. Then they dropped this standard canned line to try and brush...

ACI / Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisal Software / Appraisers News

Certification 25 and the Quiet Breach of Appraiser Confidentiality 67

Certification 25 and the Quiet Breach of Appraiser Confidentiality

Certification 25 made me realize that my refusal to participate in UAD 3.6 was justified long before I even knew what was buried in its certifications. A peer sent me Phil Crawford’s new podcast episode this morning, and I opened it without thinking much of it because I had assumed his retirement from the show meant he was done weighing in on industry developments. I have been following the news and the chatter around 3.6, but I haven’t been preparing for it. I have not taken any UAD 3.6 classes, have not attended any seminars, have not tested the form,...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / The Appraisal Foundation / Trending

When Protected Becomes Pressure: Object by July 27 7

When ‘Protected’ Becomes Pressure: You Have Until July 27 to Object

The new fair‑housing course weaponizes protected characteristics to pressure appraisers into outcome‑driven valuation, directly contradicting USPAP’s prohibition on advocacy. The Fair Housing Course Is Training You to Break USPAP. You Have Until July 27 to Say So. The Appraiser Qualifications Board’s Second Exposure Draft keeps a required course that pressures new appraisers to advocate an outcome based on protected characteristics. That is not fair housing. It is not lawful. And you can still stop it — but the comment window closes July 27. Let me say it plainly. We are being pushed — through licensing law and federal fair-housing regulation...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / AQB / The Appraisal Foundation

The Irreconcilable Conflict Between USPAP's Typical Buyer Standard and the Current Fair Housing Compliance Regime 33

USPAP’s Typical Buyer Standard in the Fair Housing Era

The Irreconcilable Conflict Between USPAP’s Typical Buyer Standard and the Current Fair Housing Compliance Regime. Retain this document as a reference should you face a complaint grounded in disparate impact theory alone. The three-safeguard framework from Inclusive Communities provides a robust defense for any appraiser whose methodology is USPAP-compliant, well-documented, and market-supported. Introduction I want to state plainly what the appraisal profession has been tiptoeing around since roughly 2019: an appraiser cannot simultaneously comply with: 1-  USPAP’s requirement to identify and analyze the most probable (typical) buyer of a property via market data AND… 2- comply with the current iteration...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending / Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice / USPAP

ChatGPT Appraisal Error Sparks Ethics Debate 40

ChatGPT Appraisal Error Sparks Ethics Debate

A recent post by an appraiser trainee on an online forum described a troubling situation involving the use of ChatGPT to generate content for an appraisal report. The trainee admitted to using ChatGPT to write a market summary section without properly reviewing it first. This resulted in factual inaccuracies making it into the final report delivered to the client. Upon discovering this, the client, a local bank, threatened to file a complaint against the trainee. The trainee is now considering falsely claiming to have personally written the problematic section in an attempt to avoid consequences. “Hey everyone, I recently used...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending / Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice / USPAP

The New & Improved Fannie Mae FRAUDULATOR 2.0 42

The New & Improved Fannie Mae “FRAUDULATOR 2.0”

Originally known as Fannie Mae’s Collateral Underwriter (CU), and subsequently Collateral Underwriter 2.0 (CU-2)i this always dubious product of Fannie Mae is increasingly being referred to by some, if not many American Appraisers as The Fraudulator / Underwriter 2.0 (FU-2). To be clear it is not limited to the Collateral Underwriter (CU & CU-2) software. The new Fraudulator (FU-2) combines the CU products with their numerous improper uses. The end result of which includes OUTRIGHT FRAUD being perpetrated against banks via the repurchase letters Fannie Mae now issues on a quota based system rather than because of legitimate appraisal defects....

AGA / AI / AMC / American Society of Appraisers / Appraisal / Appraisal Institute