Tagged: fraud

Wells Fargo Workers Went on Appraisal-Fraud Bender 14

Wells Fargo Workers Went on Appraisal-Fraud Bender

Loan officers at Wells Fargo altered values in the bank’s database, so loans would qualify for so-called appraisal waivers… It feels like Ground Hog Day all over again. Who can forget the Wells Fargo banker who, stressed from opening fraudulent accounts in the name of hapless depositors, had begun guzzling hand sanitizer? That was in 2016. New revelations from the nation’s second-largest mortgage lender will make the U.S. taxpayer want to take a good long pull on the nearest bottle of hand wash. Dozens of loan officers at Wells Fargo altered values in the bank’s database, so loans would qualify...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Automated Valuation Models / AVM / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac

Racial Targeting Under the Heading of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion 22

Racial Targeting Under the Heading of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

This time around, the racial targeting is masked as a virtue under the heading “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” or “DEI.” Valuation Jiu-Jitsu Will Lead to Future Addie Polks Addie Polk was a 91-year-old African-American widow who shot herself in the chest in 2008 during a Fannie Mae-initiated eviction in Akron, Ohio. It marked the low point in Fannie’s embrace of toxic mortgages. Fannie, now in federal conservatorship, bought or guaranteed subprime loans made to vulnerable borrowers in the years leading up to the 2007-2008 financial crisis. There are now signs of new abuses. Under the banner “equity and inclusion,” some...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac / Trending

Justice for Texas Appraiser? You Bet. Price Tag: $99,000 9

Justice for Texas Appraiser? You Bet. Price Tag: $99,000

The Texas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board is a hot mess, but one with a malicious and callous streak. That makes it dangerous to licensees. The Unclean Hands Doctrine is a legal defense. It helps prevent petitioners who are engaged in fraud, deceit or bad faith from recovering certain damages from others. If you’re a known cattle rustler yourself, the Unclean Hands defense may keep you from recovering damages if your own cattle go missing. It’s also sometimes called the “Clean Hands Doctrine” or the “Dirty Hands Doctrine.” Based on this doctrine, the feculent fingers of the Texas Appraiser Licensing...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / TALCB / Texas Appraiser Licensing & Certification Board

Catch-22 Fraud Facilitating Misleading GSE Products 16

Fraud Facilitating Misleading GSE Products

I can and will decline to do any of these Catch-22 Fraud facilitating misleading products promoted by a GSE… There are many legitimate times and reasons a desktop appraisal may be performed. In every single one of them, it is assignment specific based on the assignment specific needs of the client with a mutually agreed upon scope of work between the client and the appraiser. They also include a scope of work decided upon and explained in the appraiser’s own words. Any relevant extraordinary assumptions and limiting conditions dictated by the nature and use of the assignment are able to...

AGA / Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac

Removing the Definition of Personal Inspection 40

Removing the Definition of Personal Inspection

Why is the ASB proposing to remove the definition of Personal Inspection? Several days ago, an appraiser posted the following comment which we have decided to publish as a free-standing post because we believe it deserves attention: Amazingly, while these are horrible – everyone seems to miss the real issue that will hit us all in 2023. As of 2023, if the ASB gets its way in a few weeks, the word “inspection” or “personal inspection” will no longer be defined in USPAP. That means they don’t even have to play this game. “Desktop” appraisal is just a stopgap until...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / ASB / The Appraisal Foundation

Who’s REALLY completing bifurcated/hybrid Reports? 14

Who’s REALLY Completing Hybrids?

Who’s REALLY completing bifurcated/hybrid appraisal reports? This essay has been “rattlin’ around my cranium” for a few months from the time I acquired two ‘case study’ report examples in early 2020. I’ve recently received a third bifurcated report, which has similar appraiser data. So now is a prime time to spill the beans, so to speak. Especially since FHFA, the conservator of Fannie and Freddie, is currently on a mission to “modernize the appraisal process.” They are seeking input from appraisers and other stakeholders who use appraisals. But first, as the infomercials say, there’s more! One ‘more’ concerns appraiser obligations...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac

Our Job Is to Observe & Report... Not to Commit Mortgage Fraud 25

Our Job Is to Observe & Report

Our job is to observe and report. For an appraiser to arbitrarily go into another area to get “comps” merely because it would result in a higher value is an act of fraud… Dear President Biden, Sir, I welcome your incoming administration, and my sincerest hopes and well wishes are extended to you in terms of healing in this nation. Additionally, as an appraiser, I welcome the desire for equality in housing opportunity in the United States, and if there is any bias in my profession, I support efforts to correct this. However, in watching your party’s position on race...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac / Political Action / Trending

Gaming of the System - Not With My Money Fannie & Freddie! 8

Gaming of the System

…gaming of the system is happening not only with income, (yes automated income verification has returned) but now property valuations… Appraisers have some very strong opinions on computer driven appraisals. Others are noticing the dangers as well. It is more than just automated valuation models though. In an article written by Danielle DiMartino Booth, for Bloomberg, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are specifically called out on their appraisal waivers. The author compares the dangers of the automated income verification being done in the 2000’s and how the system was easily gamed to the appraisal waivers currently being done. The author...

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

7 Myths of the Great Financial Crisis & the Elite Fraud Schemes 4

7 Myths of the Great Financial Crisis

1. Fraud is a distraction Elite fraud and predation drove the Great Financial Crisis (GFC). By 2006, about 40% of all the mortgage loans made that year were “liar’s” loans – loans that did not verify the borrower’s income. The mortgage industry’s own anti-fraud experts (MARI) warned that the fraud incidence in these loans was 90%. In response, the industry rapidly increased its liar’s loans. In 2006, the industry made over one million fraudulent liar’s loans. Thomas Herndon’s 2017 study found those loans produced 70% of the mortgage losses. Liar’s loans hyper-inflated the bubble, increasing over 800% from 2003-2006. State...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News

Reconciling the Erosion Within My Profession... Preserving the Public Trust 12

Reconciling the Erosion Within My Profession

The continued reliance of unregulated aggregators and bifurcated products continues to erode the public trust at the expense of discarding the profession specifically intended to promote the public trust. How does this protect the public?… On June 14, 2005 Steve Jobs told a class of graduates, “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward” Around the same time, I was appointed as the sole residential member of the appraisal licensing board of my state. Little did I realize that this 2005 governor-appointed position would eventually lead me to sharing a stage in 2018 with...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News

xml sitemap