Tagged: Freddie Mac

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...

Appraiser Bias Allegations Unmask Nonbank Lenders Debt Traps 10

Appraiser Bias Allegations Unmask Debt Traps

Claims of tainted appraisal unmask something else… the renewed “churning” of mortgages by nonbank lenders. Convinced racism torpedoed valuations in their home refinancings, the owners of three properties in the San Francisco Bay Area told their stories to Julian Glover, a reporter who covers the race, culture and social justice beat for ABC’s San Francisco affiliate. Similar claims of tainted appraisals have surfaced in Philadelphia, Chicago and, more recently, Maryland. A civil lawsuit was filed in one of the cases in a federal district court. A claim was dismissed Wednesday based on a flaw unrelated to the case’s core allegation...

Baltimore Racial Bias Lawsuit 12

Baltimore Racial Bias Lawsuit

When reading over the Baltimore document, it appears painfully clear (to me) that there is a competency issue exposed. Folks, below is the Baltimore court paperwork for the latest appraiser bias suit that recently ‘hit the fan.’ This document is fairly specific, in that it reveals quite a lot about the two appraisals performed, including the home locations for the ‘comps’ used. The attorneys representing the plaintiffs are from the same Washington, D.C. firm that The Appraisal Foundation hired to examine USPAP. That firm was the one which has provided new ‘discrimination avoidance’ verbiage being considered in the USPAP Third...

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...

Desktops are being done wrong 70

Desktops Are Being Done WRONG!

Appraisers, back in April, I was notified by someone “close to the action” of appraisal report submittals to the GSE’s, that many Desktops are being submitted back to lenders TOTALLY WRONG by the assigned appraisers! These reports are being captured and evaluated in the current Desktop observation and testing phase of the UCDP evaluations. Lenders use the UCDP as an initial report Quality Control check so that any problems can be identified, and sent back to the appraiser for correction, before the last submittal is used for the loan. The UCDP ‘sees’ every report for a particular property address, and keeps track...

Fannie's Equity Plan: The Drinking Game 32

Fannie’s ‘Equity’ Plan: The Drinking Game

What makes equity so invidious as a governing tenet is that it involves not just helping people of one racial or cultural group but it has the effect of knocking struggling members of disfavored groups out of the game. One type of parlor game relies on players’ ability to maintain their memory, logic and articulation – all while getting blotto. These alcohol-fueled “think and drink” games are highly challenging. Even Britain’s royal family engages in such diversions if Netflix’s “The Crown” is to be believed. The games have names like “Bizz Buzz,” “Ibble Dibble,” “Never Have I Ever” and “Roman...

Only Blacks Need Apply... in the Spirit of Equity 43

Only Blacks Need Apply… In the Spirit of Equity

Fannie makes its subsidies for blacks explicit, but they don’t appear to extend to other racial groups such as Hispanics and Asians. Low-income white borrowers are also excluded. Last week, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac announced actions that aim to make it easier to buy a home and close the racial homeownership gap. Their Equitable Housing Finance Plan for 2022-2024 outlines a range of pilot programs that remove barriers blacks face when buying or renting, and keeping homeowners and renters at home: Valuation Modernization aims to support an equitable appraisal process for Black households and communities of color Expand Appraiser...

Appraisers Can Do These Property Data Reports for Appraisal Waivers 32

Property Data Reports for Appraisal Waivers

These Property Data Reports have a higher level or different reporting requirements than ordinary traditional appraisals. Appraisers, on Tuesday 5/24/22, an AMC sent a message to their appraiser panel appraisers asking them if they’d like to ‘help their lender clients’ by doing Property Data Reports (PDR). Let’s decipher what this is all about. Freddie Mac has decided, that as of Sunday, July 17, 2022, they must have a PDR (Property Data Report) completed “by someone” in order for the loan applicant to qualify for an appraisal waiver in conjunction with a mortgage loan. In other words, actual qualified eyeballs must...

Biased Appraiser? Judging an Entire Profession by Anecdotal Evidence 28

Biased Appraisers? I Don’t Think So

To judge an entire profession by anecdotal evidence is equally both stupid and harmful… The entire emphasis was on “anecdotal evidence” which is not documented or supported. Story after story was told about how appraisers had produced a “biased” report. No documentation and no evidence to support their claims was presented. Folks, after discussing this topic with and learning more about the appraiser who wrote this following essay, I have decided to distribute the essay below as a way to further support what we appraisers do in our work, and to expose the fallacies that have been presented to date...

AEI Research Critique of Freddie Mac's Misleading Appraisal Gap Report 6

AEI Research Critique of Freddie Mac’s Misleading Appraisal Gap Report

More great research from AEI. This is an analysis of Freddie Mac’s misleading and basically defamatory paper on Appraisal Gap. When government related entities release misleading information like this they are attacking and defaming real estate appraisers. The hate real estate appraisers have received because of this paper and Andre Perry’s paper is relentless. Another problem with releasing misleading data and conclusions is that it actually hurts the people they are trying to help. Facts show that the real cause of the wealth gap between blacks, whites and Latinos is the income gap. It has nothing to do with appraisals...

xml sitemap
blank