The Zach Simas Coercion Campaign
A double standard inside the appraisal industry has been exposed yet again. Fellow appraiser Zach Simas recently detailed a blatant attempt at corporate coercion by Class Valuation, commonly nicknamed “ClassLess” across our profession. While the national appraisal management company skates through multiple federal lawsuits and major compliance scandals, the independent appraiser who stood his ground on ethics is the one facing a state board investigation. This reality lays bare a deeply broken system where middlemen hold the power and the boots on the ground carry all the risk.
The trouble began when Zach completed an FHA report for Class Valuation on a single parcel property in Humboldt County. Months later, the AMC demanded he retroactively alter the report to include a second parcel that wasn’t even on the title as of his original effective date. Zach correctly identified this as a new scope of work and a brand new assignment. Class Valuation’s internal management initially confirmed Zach was entirely correct. On July 15, Chief Appraiser John Dingeman admitted in writing that the paperwork showed one parcel and agreed it was a new appraisal assignment. On August 13, Susan Erickson from QC Escalations apologized in writing and confirmed the lender had been told the same.
Then came the four day pivot. On August 17, the very same Susan Erickson completely reversed course. She claimed the omission materially affects the description and analysis and sent a chilling directive stating it may be in Zach’s best interest to correct and address the omission in that report rather than treating this as a new assignment. It’s a classic corporate high pressure tactic deployed against an appraiser refusing to break federal rules. When Zach stood his ground and reported the AMC to the California Bureau of Real Estate Appraisers and HUD, the system backfired. Instead of punishing the AMC for violating appraiser independence, BREA opened an investigation into Zach over the exact report Class Valuation had already cleared twice.
This coercive pressure isn’t an isolated incident; it’s standard operational behavior for an AMC facing legal threats from every direction. Class Valuation is currently a defendant in multiple major federal court actions that highlight a thoroughly broken corporate model. Golar v. Class Valuation is a federal collective action alleging massive overtime violations where former staff appraiser supervisor La Rica Golar exposed how the AMC skims massive portions of consumer fees before calculating employee production splits. Bernholtz v. CrossCountry Mortgage and Class Valuation is a consumer class action over hidden fee bundling where the lawsuit alleges borrowers pay premium appraisal fees up to $1,000 without ever being told the AMC keeps the largest slice for itself while paying the actual professional scraps.
Furthermore, past investigations show Class Valuation reviewers rubber stamping reports with massive factual errors, such as marking a property on a tight, non-compliant well and septic setup as having public utilities, which led directly to borrower foreclosure. In their rush to push appraisal modernization and eradicate licensed professionals, Class Valuation even hired Paschal Uchendu as a property data collector. Uchendu was a convicted felon awaiting sentencing for orchestrating a $1.2 million armed robbery of a courier van, showing a complete lack of regard for homeowner safety and data security.
It’s entirely backwards that a national AMC can face class actions for fee skimming, separate lawsuits for wage theft, and public exposure for sending felons into homes, yet regulators turn their guns on the independent professional who blew the whistle. State boards have remained structurally obsolete, focusing entirely on minor technical dings against individuals while lacking the authority or the appetite to police multi-million dollar corporate entities. When AMCs control the assignment portals, the tier rankings, the software access, and the compliance checklists, appraisal independence becomes an illusion. Middlemen shouldn’t be allowed to operate in the dark, bundle fees, coerce field professionals, and then weaponize state regulatory boards the moment an independent appraiser says no. Zach’s case proves exactly why we have to keep every email, refuse compliance pressure in writing, and continue exposing a corporate model that lives up to its ClassLess name every single day.
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So many stories. Still no accountability…
https://appraisersblogs.com/systemic-failures-in-fha-appraisal-n-loan-review/
And yet, Class is still out there harming consumers and appraisers daily.
When will they be taken down? What entity will have the fortitude to hold them accountable? We see the weakness in our governing systems, failure to enforce laws daily with this trash.
And yet, appraisers are still willing to work for such a harmful company-if you are one of them, wake up. Do better.
AMC’s have created more problems than anything. They have high jacked our profession and make their money off the appraisers backs
It’s called intimidation and retaliation. It’s all wrong and illegal. It’s a case of the people using us are the people who make the rules. There is no enforcement of customary and reasonable fees. That’s Feds.
I qouted a property Monday morning with a 1 week turn time. The order was sent to me the next day after hours with a due date of the following Monday. I rejected it bc I had received several other orders and there was no way I could deliver the report by the following Monday. She responded with several nasty emails stating she ordered the appraisal the same day as the quote – absolutely untrue. Her last email stated that I had promised them a report and was upset that she had to explain this to her lender. Is this my problem? Nope. That’s what happens when you bid-shop appraisers.
Zach
Please contact me
Never have and never will for for any AMC. I’ll just quit.
This exact same situation comes in many forms … after the report is delivered. Oh, they’re adding a pool. Oh, they’re adding/taking away land. Oh, they’re changing the price. Oh, they’re adding square footage, an addition, a second floor, an $80K sunroom. Oh, that barn is actually going to be a $200K barndominium ADU. Can’t you just change it without having to re-research market data? One of my favorites is: We need three separate values. We need the value whole property as is. We need the value of the whole property minus an acre. We need the value of only the removed acre. Can’t you just include all of that in one report and charge us what you usually charge for one report?
Multiple parcels are challenging, borrowers may have multiples, may make assumptions the lender understands this, or they don’t know how to describe these situations properly to the lender. They may assume they’re borrowing against their complete property set at once, rather than individually one at a time. They may not understand how the lending process works.
Amc’s bypass the concept that the scope of work is supposed to be solely in the appraisers control. Assignment conditions. Problem identification. Scope of work acceptability. Are the parcels seperable? Were credible assignment results achieved in providing a value opinion on only one of them? Did the borrower combine parcels while in the process of getting a mortgage loan, after he had the appraisal, then try and expect the appraiser would fit that in and adjust his value upward the day before closing? Where did the other parcel come from? When? How? Why? Another day in appraisal.
No AMC work for me. They keep trying, though. Sharp as a marble, baby.
Honestly, why are we still slaving away for the absolute worst of the worst AMCs? We all know the roster by heart. NVS, Corelogic, Clear Capital, Class Valuation, and Solidifi are known to be bottom of the barrel, yet people keep clicking “accept” on those trash portal offers. We sit around on the forums and Facebook groups screaming about how these AMCs are ruining our profession, skimming consumer fees, and weaponizing state boards against us, but the ugly truth is they only exist because appraisers keep feeding the beast. If everyone finally grew a backbone and spent just a month telling them where to shove their garbage fees and mob style coercion tactics, this whole predatory model would tank overnight, but instead, we stay our own worst enemy by fighting over their leftovers.
Sadly that will never happen. The amc model which incentivizes the behavior. Disproportionate assignment volume rewarding preferred appraiser organizations whom provide more appealing valuation results to lenders. This is what nullifies the checks and balances modeling the appraisal industry was previously based upon. Your absence will not be painful to them. It will be preferred.
Missing the IVPI Proposal yet?
https://www.workingre.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IVPI-Proposalfinal.pdf
If you knew what I know about some of the top people, you wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest. Some top people there have made careers from unethical behavior and state board complaints that were swept under the rug for this kind of thing. Not the first time, not even close, and won’t be the last.
What’s left of the long term residential appraiser community, and the general American public, needs an outside group to step in, audit everyone, and clean house. The list of material witnesses against this behavior and racketeering process may very well be fifty thousand people long, or more.