Tagged: liability

Government-Sponsored Mortgage Giant Fannie Flouts Law 17

Fannie Wants to Script Conclusions of Outside Analyst – Believes It Is Above the Law

Government-sponsored mortgage giant Fannie Mae is essentially forcing banks to repurchase any loan it wants if [the appraiser] refuses to use the comparables Fannie has selected.  [The corporation] was created by the government, is controlled by the government, and operates for the government’s benefit,” wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy in a unanimous Supreme Court ruling in 2015. He was describing passenger rail hegemon Amtrak, but he could easily have been describing government-sponsored mortgage giant Fannie Mae. The Roberts Court held the National Railroad Passenger Corporation – known more commonly as Amtrak – was a government entity for the purposes of the...

Limitations for Damages Against Appraisers 0

Limitations for Damages Against Appraisers

Why would any damages against an appraiser be more than the actual fee paid to the appraiser?  House Bill 53 has been introduced into the 2024 Virginia General Assembly, directly impacting Virginia Real Estate Appraisers. The legislation introduced by R. Lee Ware places a statute of limitations for damages against appraisers and appraisal management companies at 5 years. SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED: Actions against real estate appraisers or appraisal management companies; statute of limitations. Provides that no action for damages or other relief alleging that a certified general real estate appraiser, a certified residential real estate appraiser, a licensed residential real...

Appraisers Destroying Goliath's Messaging 35

Appraisers Destroying Goliath’s Messaging

Goliath’s strength is in his messaging. It is appraisers who are destroying the message.  The seeming destruction of the appraisal profession by the federal government, GSEs and lending stakeholders is a collective action problem. Appraisers are responding to new GSE and lending dictates with reactions based on our own personal well-being. Not enough people speak up or stand up to change the trajectory of the narrative. Or so it seems. Appraisal waivers, hybrid appraisals, automated valuation models, all based on the last 13 years of data collection by an entity I will call Goliath has created a paradoxical inversion of...

Foregoing Contingencies! But What About Fiduciary Duty? 14

Foregoing Contingencies! But What About Fiduciary Duty?

By foregoing contingencies such as home inspections and appraisals altogether, mortgage lenders risk violating their fiduciary duty – which is supposed to prioritize the interests of the borrower above all else. It is no surprise that some loan officers are salivating over the prospect of not having to wait for a full appraisal or a home inspection. After all, who doesn’t want to close more deals in less time? While this may be beneficial from a broker’s perspective, it could result in borrowers making decisions without being fully informed about their investment. Kim Nichols, senior managing director of Pennymac TPO,...

NAR Concerns and Survey on Property Data Collectors 12

NAR Concerns & Survey on Property Data Collectors

NAR is conducting a survey and wants to know if you have any concerns regarding property data collectors, if the appraisal fees are higher since the involvement of data collectors, if borrowers are made aware of a fee for the appraisal and a separate AMC fee or were the fees bundled, if the property data collector gave the impression that they were the appraiser, whether you have any safety and privacy concerns with the data collection process, quality of data collected and whether they need to be licensed…  In a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) regarding appraisal...

The Scam of Racial Discrimination by Appraisers 35

The Scam of Racial Discrimination by Appraisers

More and more appraisers are retiring every day. Aside from that more and more are changing to lower liability careers. Eventually, the opportunists who have been promoting the scam of racial discrimination by appraisers such as career politicians, and ‘anti-discrimination’ software hucksters like Black Knight will be shown to be what they truly are.  Recently, a highly respected appraiser who is also a senior designated member of a well-known national professional peer association, wrote an article about a new proposed law in New York ostensibly targeting New York appraisers. Mr. Bagott’s article had an unusual amount of hyperbole within it...

AMC Hires a Convicted Felon as Property Data Collector 63

AMC Hires a Convicted Felon as Property Data Collector

The recent case of Paschal Uchendu, a convicted felon awaiting sentencing for orchestrating a $1.2 million armed robbery of a courier van, which he was entrusted to secure, is cause for alarm when it comes to the use of unlicensed property data collectors. One of the largest appraisal management companies, Class Valuation, had hired Mr. Uchendu as one such property data collector despite his criminal background and pending legal issues – clearly demonstrating their lackadaisical attitude towards vetting employees who are tasked with collecting sensitive information about properties and homeowners. Class Valuation is among the six vendors approved by Fannie...

The Real Cause of the Home Value Gap Is the Income Gap 77

The Real Cause of the Home Value Gap Is the Income Gap

Blaming appraisers for the income gap will never solve the real underlying problem… Blaming appraisers for the income gap is as ridiculous as blaming appraisers for gun violence and gas prices. I watched the January 24, 2023 ASC Appraisal Bias hearing. Comments were requested after the hearing. This letter is my comment. I’ve been a real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California for 40 years. I’ve been a licensed California Certified Residential Appraiser since licenses were first offered in 1993/1994. I’m a Latino woman who speaks English and Spanish. I appraise property in the diverse county of Los Angeles and...

Vote With Your Wallet. We Can’t Boycott the AMC Industry Twice 18

Vote With Your Wallet. We Can’t Boycott the AMC Industry Twice

Vote with your wallet. Vote with your feet. Vote with your time. Vote with your patronage. Vote with your clicks. Sorry to inform those who are seeking someone else to bail them out of this continued blatant abuse of power and ongoing racketeering enterprise known as Appraisal Management Companies (AMCs). We can’t boycott the AMC industry twice. It’s your turn now. And that’s the rub, it’s our industry, not some other groups industry. Without appraisers, there is no valuation services industry. The appraisal management groups presence is irrelevant unless appraisers choose to make the AMCs relevant with patronage. Each appraisers...

Lender Liability for a Negligent Appraisal? 12

Lender Liability for a Negligent Appraisal?

Does a mortgage lender have liability to the borrower for a negligent appraisal?  As residential property prices plateau or decline in various markets and as borrowers have financial problems with fewer financing options, there are more legal claims being filed by borrowers against appraisers and lenders in relation to appraisals for loans made in recent years. Essentially, the cases are situations of “buyer-borrower remorse.” Leaving aside the appraiser’s potential liability, does a mortgage lender have liability to the borrower for a negligent appraisal? An Ohio appellate court recently said “no.” It ruled that the lender did not owe the borrower...

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