Tagged: TSI

Appraisal Institute CEO Firing - Cindy Chance Terminated 17

Cindy Chance Terminated

On September 13, 2024, the Appraisal Institute President, Sandra Adomatis, SRA, announced that Cindy Chance is no longer the CEO of the Appraisal Institute. “We are writing to inform you that as of today, September 13, Cindy Chance is no longer in her role as CEO of the Appraisal Institute.” In an interview published by HousingWire, Cindy Chance disclosed that the Board of Directors had terminated her. Rumors that this was pending have been circulating around AppraiserVille for several weeks. I’ve been reading comments on various forums asking “will we be told the real reason for this?” My answer: Nope....

AI / Appraisal / Appraisal Institute / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News

The Harassment Campaign Against Mom-and-Pop Appraisers 12

Stoked by HUD, Cottage Industry Shakes Down Mom-and-Pop Appraisers

The harassment campaign benefits a number of odd bedfellows: the housing lobby, which wants unfettered access to federal funds and taxpayer-backed mortgage guarantees through Freddie, Fannie and the FHA – they see appraisals as an unnecessary bottleneck. A firm called Mizrahi Kroub is the largest filer of so-called “digital Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuits.” The New York law firm files about a quarter of all such cases nationwide, according to a provider of web-accessibility services. The firm, which employs nine lawyers, has brought more than 1,100 web-accessibility cases against small businesses for missing alt-text, incorrectly formatting lists or providing unclear...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac / Federal Housing Administration / FHA

The Censorship Campaign - Housing Inflation Exposed 29

Objectionable Valuations Become Hate Speech, Inflating Home Prices

The censorship, scapegoating and sidelining of appraisers has done real damage to borrowers and the purchasers of bonds…  Attacks on free speech are on the rise in the English-speaking world. A bill introduced in Canada to thwart online “anarchy and lawlessness” would create a Canadian Ministry of Truth empowered to punish authors Ottawa politicians find problematic. In response to the worst rioting in Britain in years, about 4,000 people have reportedly been jailed for online thought crimes. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to prosecute anyone his government believes is whipping up people’s emotions on the Internet. There’s even...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac / Federal Housing Finance Agency / FHFA

Lack of Fee Transparency: Exposing the AMC Exploitation 71

Lack of Fee Transparency: Exposing the AMC Exploitation

By keeping the borrower in the dark about the true cost of the appraisal, the AMCs are able to charge exorbitant prices and pocket the difference (as shown in Figures 1 through 10), exploiting the consumer’s lack of knowledge.  Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Request for Information on Fees Imposed in Residential Mortgage Transactions. The growth of Appraisal Management Companies (AMCs) in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis was driven by a well-intentioned but ultimately misguided belief that they could help “ensure the integrity and independence” of property valuations. The reasoning...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / CFPB

72

Accurate Appraisal Underreporting

The HousingWire article highlighting that only 40% of homes sold include an “accurate” appraisal, as defined by the Corporate Settlement Solutions (CSS) report, is deeply problematic and indicative of a concerning lack of understanding around the appraisal process. The report cited from CSS, analyzed appraisal data across 10 states in the East Coast and Midwest, finding that only around 40% of home sales included an appraisal that was within $2,500 of the final sale price. This is being presented as evidence that the vast majority of home appraisals are inaccurate. Appraising a home’s value is an inherently complex endeavor, with...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending

Gov't-Indulged Middlemen Are Wrong RX for Battered Borrowers, The Infirm 14

Gov’t-Indulged Middlemen Are Wrong RX for Battered Borrowers, The Infirm

The U.S. government impoverishes homebuyers as it does the chronically ill – by promoting the use of middlemen who prey upon them. A cadre of such middlemen was created decades ago as a firewall between Big Pharma, the insurance companies and the pharmacy chains. Called “pharmacy benefit managers,” they were to negotiate drug prices, streamline distribution and manage lists of prescription drugs covered by insurance plans. But since the government has gone whole-hog into health care under the Affordable Care Act and into drug-price controls under the Inflation Reduction Act, things have gotten crazy at the slop trough. Today, according...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Institute / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations

Fannie, Freddie's Offshore Gambit Imperils Privacy of Millions 37

Fannie, Freddie’s Offshore Gambit Imperils Privacy of Millions

The offshore firm will data-mine millions of images showing the personal spaces of U.S. homeowners and tenants.  Fearing the Chinese government could access sensitive user data through the video app TikTok, House lawmakers passed a bill last month that would ban the app if it isn’t sold to new owners. But a greater peril looms. Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are reportedly “bench-testing” an arrangement with a foreign AI firm in which the offshore firm will data-mine millions of images showing the personal spaces of U.S. homeowners and tenants. If your home was appraised for a refinance or...

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

GSE Exec Boasts Scheme to Slash Appraiser Numbers 26

GSE Exec Boasts Scheme to Slash Appraiser Numbers

At a recent appraisal event, a GSE executive, after a few drinks, privately told his nearby colleagues that we suck as an industry. Last year, Phil Crawford and I reported on GSE efforts to send unsigned complaints to state boards at scale. Appraisers had no recourse but to defend themselves from the state boards without knowing who their accusers were. The public pressure became real, and the GSEs backed off from their anonymous letter-sending campaign (see Cosmic Cobra Guy’s reference). The exercise showed how little they think of us as professionals because it’s easier to generate AVMs by pressing a...

Snippets / Trending

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...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac / Federal Housing Finance Agency / FHFA

Ken Mullinix Has Become a Figure From a Kafka Novel 7

At Federal Agency, The Mayhem Is the Message

Mullinix has become a student of the “Title VIII Complaint Intake, Investigation, and Conciliation Handbook (8024.1).” The handbook is designed to protect citizens from overzealous federal workers. He found section after section had been violated in his own investigation by the HUD contractor.  Czech-German author Franz Kafka wrote “The Trial” in 1915. The novel is a reflection on bureaucracy, power and absurdity. Its protagonist, Josef, is arrested and prosecuted by a mysterious and inaccessible authority for a crime that is never revealed to him or the reader. It’s a man’s journey through an incomprehensible and dehumanizing landscape. Ken Mullinix has...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / HUD / The US Department of Housing and Urban Development

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