Tagged: staff appraiser

Community Banks Appraisal Waivers Deja Vu - If I Could Turn Back Time 61

If I Could Turn Back Time

Community Banks want to bypass appraisals in rural area… Evaluations are the answer, right? There have been lots of discussions lately concerning property inspection waivers, waivers of appraisals in rural areas, and allowing appraisers to complete Evaluations outside of USPAP standards. Doesn’t this all sound familiar? It should, we have already lived it 30 some years ago, prior to FIRREA. Back then Savings and Loans had staff appraisers to complete appraisals. The appraisal was not completed by a licensed appraiser, because licensing to protect the public did not exist. Today Community Banks want to bypass appraisals in rural area. Their...

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

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

Who doesn't like a good BRAWL 4

Who doesn’t like a good BRAWL?

So who doesn’t like a good BRAWL? Brokers Rallying Against Whole-Tail Lenders (BRAWL) is a network of independent mortgage brokers who have joined together against unethical practices by wholesale lenders. The group has created the term “Whole-tail”, a combination of wholesale and retail for those lenders who close both wholesale and retail mortgages. The group claims that some bad wholesale lenders are using the brokers to obtain client information to solicit clients directly through the lenders own retail divisions and affiliates. “Mortgage brokers are beyond tired of various wholesale lenders acting like they’re on our team, when they’re actually just...

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

Reviewer Following AMC Instructions May Be Violating State Laws 42

Knowledge is Everything

Conversation with an AMC Reviewer The following was sent to VaCAP from a member. We thought it was important to share as it demonstrates how important it is for each appraiser to be knowledgeable of the statutes and regulations we all must follow. It may help make your interactions go a little more smoothly. “I completed an appraisal for a purchase transaction in a rural area and the opinion of value was below the contract price. The report included five comparable sales, three of which were within 2 miles and had equivalent gross living area. The other two sales were...

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

Metro-West Solicitation Blast & Appraiser's Response 48

Appraiser’s Response to Metro-West

Metro-West Appraisal, thank you for your bulk email solicitation… I will consider accepting work from you on the following basis: My minimum fee for non complex FNMA guideline compliant SFRs is $550 (net). There are no exceptions. Any upload fees or other forms of service charges  or ‘convenience’ fees will be added to that fee. I do not accept or authorize discounting of the fee for any reason. The premium or surcharge for property with a transaction amount or other characteristic that requires completion by a certified appraiser, is a minimum of $250. However the final bid will depend on...

AGA / AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News

Staff Appraisers, Monopolies, Labor Shortages 6

Staff Appraisers, Monopolies, Labor Shortages…

The issue of staff appraisers at AMCs and more…. Kilts, Labor Shortages, High Performance Homes, Monopolies, Politics, Surveys and a new direction for VaCAP… all within the last 24 hours! Yesterday was the 2017 Virginia Coalition of Appraiser Professionals (VaCAP) Annual Conference, while we discussed our mission, accomplishments and goals, we voted unanimously to change our by-laws to allow our continued growth. Moving forward our processes will be streamlined and we will be offering educational opportunities for our members. We discussed current issues in Louisiana with the FTC and how the outcome will impact the industry throughout the country, monopolistic...

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

xml sitemap
blank