Tagged: staff appraiser

House Measurement by Property Data Collector Gone Wrong 142

House Measurement by Property Data Collector Gone Wrong

The lender allowed an unlicensed property data collector give bad data to the appraiser… I work for this lender and they will not let my trainee inspect. The owners are now underwater by more than $100,000…  I’m sad and I’m mad! I recently took on a measure job for a client who was questioning the square footage of their home. The couple bought the house at the height of the market last year. They paid 12% over list price to get the house. They put an appraisal waiver in the contract which meant they could not walk away if the...

American National Standards Institute / ANSI / Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac

California AB 5 - Legal For Appraisers 1

California AB 5 – Legal For Appraisers

More than 375 California appraisers registered for the AB 5 webinar – I hope you didn’t miss it. I’ll be hosting my next free webinar for appraisers on January 31, 2020 – it’s the “California Legal Update just for Appraisers!” In this free video webinar, I’ll cover: New 2020 laws relevant to California appraisers and appraisal firms (other than AB 5), including the California Consumer Privacy Act, and The very most important thing that appraisers can do in 2020 in every appraisal report of every type (whether residential, commercial, lending or non-lending) to avoid liability. The webinar will last approximately 45...

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

Independent Appraisers or Employees & CA AB5 Law - Appraisers Blogs 8

AB5 – Employee or Independent Contractor?

Most independent appraisers are paid ‘by the job’ and are issued 1099’s for the payments made. Appraisers who are ‘staff appraisers’ for specific clients are considered EMPLOYEES, and are issued a W-2 for income paid to them. Independent appraisers should not create an EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP until and unless that is specifically what is desired… I’ve been having a respectful discussion with a California appraiser, who believes (as do others) that just because a particular client requests a certain kind of appraisal report be completed using an online web based report form, then that action constitutes establishing an EMPLOYEE relationship with that...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Political Action

Commercial Appraisers Against National Firm - Overtime Class Action 3

Appraiser Overtime Lawsuits Continue

Appraiser Overtime Lawsuits Continue to Hit Banks and AMCs – and Now Commercial Appraisers Against a National Commercial Appraisal Firm In May, I wrote a short piece (posted here) about the legal threat posed to AMCs, appraisal firms and other employers of appraisers in relation to classification of appraisers as exempt from overtime. I included a warning that the threat was spreading to commercial firms. It’s time for an update. In August, another bank – U.S. Bank – was sued for unpaid overtime by a potential class of appraisers. Also named as a defendant to the class action is U.S....

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / CoreLogic Valuation Services

Hybrid AMCs & Appraisal Firms: Employees vs Independent Contractors 5

Hybrid AMCs & Appraisal Firms

The monetary risk, however, may be much bigger for hybrid AMCs… company’s vendor panelists should be classified as employees, rather than contractors, plaintiff’s counsel offered evidence that the company “tells vendors where to go, when to go, what to do, when to get it done and how much and when they will be paid for their efforts…” Appraisal Firms and Hybrid AMCs: Beware of the Dynamex Decision and Its Impact on Classifying Appraisers as Independent Contractors in California Classifying “staff appraisers” as independent contractors, rather than as employees, is a very common business practice among real estate appraisal firms. It...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / E&O

Appraisal Management Companies AMCs Have Failed 63

AMCs Have Failed

…it will be the appraisal management companies that are going to be held to the fire, not the appraiser… In the spring of 2002 my wife and I bought our third house; an older cape cod in a great school system where our son would start kindergarten in the fall and his sister the year after. This house literally was 1970 inside. It had deep red shag carpet in the family room and sculptured avocado green carpet upstairs. Not to worry, it blended well with the sunshine yellow stove, bright orange counter top and turquoise and pink bathrooms. After 3...

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

Staff Appraiser Overtime Class Action Lawsuit Against Corelogic AMC 25

Class Action Against Corelogic

A residential staff appraiser has filed an overtime class action lawsuit against appraisal management company CoreLogic Valuation Solutions. The appraiser is a current employee and works as a staff appraiser in Southern California. On behalf of herself and a putative class of similar CoreLogic staff appraisers, she alleges that CoreLogic’s compensation practices violate the overtime pay requirements of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and California state labor laws. The case will be legally interesting to watch because CoreLogic allegedly pays its employee appraisers on a “piece work” per appraisal basis with additional compensation for based on production and other...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / CoreLogic Valuation Services

Professionals With No Appraisal Experience Cornering The Hybrid Market 6

New Hybrid Desktop Hucksters

What could lure these successful 'professionals' from their chosen careers? Fellow appraisers, I just received an advertisement for a company that wants to pay ‘me’ $50.00 an hour to do desktop appraisals. Actually, probably not me, because they prefer a degree. Now, my routine hourly rate for complex appraisal assignments is $150 ($500 for EW and something variable in between for pretty much everything else). So they are asking me to take a cut of 2/3… assuming I could meet their degree requirement “preference”. It got me thinking. I cannot always command my hourly rate for 8 hours a day,...

AGA / AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations

Influencing Appraisers & Controlling AMCs to Commit Fraud 14

Appraisal Fraud

You might want to read this article. Notice what it says about an AMC allegedly ‘influencing’ appraisers to report incorrect or high values in disregard to federal law about appraiser independence. This brings up a salient point: When AMCs hire and employ W-2 “staff appraisers“, is there a potential for AMCs to direct appraisal value outcomes based on how reports are reviewed and suggested ‘better’ comps provided as a requested correction to a submitted report? But to be fair, this can also happen with lender-based internal appraisal servicing departments, which my first-hand experience proves. It seems that no matter how...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Federal Housing Administration

Third Party Services Prohibited - Prohibition is Back! 24

Prohibition is Back!

AMC strictly prohibits the use of third party services. A recent review of an engagement letter from a large national appraisal management company revealed something pretty peculiar… “An appraiser is prohibited from using any third party services.“ Wait, What? No third party services? I am no attorney, and certainly do not know all the aspects of law, but it seems that the definition of third party services is pretty self-explanatory. To be sure I am not mistaken; I researched the definition of third party. FreeDictionary.com: “A person who is not a party to a contract or a transaction, but has...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending

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