Category: Trending

NY AMC Law Sends Shockwaves Through AMCs - Appraisers Blogs 21

NY AMC Law Sends Shockwaves

Back on April 19th, I wrote about the New York AMC law in my Housing Notes newsletter. After years of AMCs chipping away at the public trust, the New York AMC law was designed to protect the consumer. The bill summary was: Relates to the registration of real estate appraisal management companies or an individual or business entity that provides appraisal management services to creditors or to secondary mortgage market participants including affiliates by the department of state. Last week, AppraisersBlogs ran it as a standalone post and I got a lot of feedback. To be clear, the bill was...

Let's Come Together, and Take Control of the Appraisal Process 32

Take Control of the Appraisal Process

If the appraisers want to take back their industry they need to come together… This new law in NY has aroused a lot of comments from appraisers but let’s be honest. Appraiser have been complaining about AMCs for the last 10 years and waiting for the government, regulators and other to solve the problem with the whole AMC disaster. I have written about this before, the appraisers have no one to blame except themselves. If you wait for someone else to solve the AMC problem you are looking in the wrong place. We all know of the problems with AMCs...

REVAA Doesn't Like New NY AMC Law 50

REVAA No Fan of the New NY AMC Law

The NY State Coalition of Appraisers wants you to to know that there is a new AMC law coming into effect at the end of the month and REVAA doesn’t like it. Last December New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo signed Senate Bill S9080 into law, effective at the end of this month. REVAA‘s biggest concern is that it requires all valuations to be performed by appraisers AND invoices must be attached to the report so the consumer knows what the appraiser was paid. This is groundbreaking for our industry. Let’s hope that the word spreads and the consumer is...

Beware of Appraisers Point Solicitations 65

Beware of Appraisers Point Solicitations

Appraisers, a new ‘company’ with “Appraisers Point” in their name has been marketing their services via emails across the fruited plain lately, encouraging appraisers to sign up on their web site and pay an annual fee so that ‘you’ can get on a list to be presented to, or accessed by, unnamed lenders, who might, or might not, want your service. They have a very slick looking web site that makes them look legit. Appraisers Point has no location shown on their website, so in reality, it could be anywhere in the world. The email messages show a location in...

We the Owners Are the Only Ones that Can Fix Low Appraisal Fees 59

Customary and Reasonable Fees?

…appraisal firm owners roll up your sleeves & hold the line on fees… I have been the owner of HF Appraisal Ltd since 1993 and I have sat on the sidelines in regards to Customary and Reasonable appraisal fees. I can no longer stand by and read nor hear about this issue. It is amazing to me that over the past five to ten years our fees have remained the same and in some cases are lower than they were 10 years ago. The more that I read about this and talk to appraisers across the country in classes and...

What Will Happen to Clarocity Valuation Services? Clarocity Soap Opera 34

Clarocity Soap Opera

…so what will happen to Clarocity Valuation Services? VaCAP has been following the Clarocity Corporation Soap Opera since one of our members had trouble getting paid from them back in November of 2017. After doing a bit more research on them, we issued a warning to our members in December 2017 to pay attention as Clarocity was in financial trouble. We kept watching and alerted our members that many of the AppraiserLoft Executives were now at Clarocity. We shared Clarocity was borrowing money at a bought down rate of 24% and repaying in stock shares in lieu of cash; all...

Should We Real Estate Appraisers Stop Making Adjustments? 43

Should Adjustments Actually Be Done?

How much credit should we give ourselves when it comes to making adjustments? Making adjustments is controversial. USPAP says nothing about adjustments – it does not require us to make them. They are a GSE construct. So, should we real estate appraisers stop making adjustments? Clients pay us for opinions of value, so our adjustments are really opinions based on what the market tells us (or that’s what we should base them on), but they are still opinions we form; they are not facts we find. So, maybe, should we stop making adjustments? We derive our adjustments from sources such...

Let's Get Those Pesky Appraisers Out of the Way! Hybrid Appraisals Part 5 22

Robust & Precise Inspections – Hybrids V

No more pesky appraisers blowing up sales commissions & bonuses & salaries… A “hybrid” appraisal is a new name for where the property inspection is separated from the analysis and appraiser’s certification. It is faster and cheaper and… This is Part 5 of a (soon to be, so far) six part discussion of Hybrid Appraisals. Part One, Two, Three, and Four are behind these links. Many years ago, I had several trainees, and as each gained experience and competence going out with me, I first let them inspect homogeneous neighborhoods, with me driving by on the outside to check on locational and optimal use issues. In time, they did...

Loan Officer' Letter Instructing Borrower to Push Appraiser for Value 38

A Little Push Can’t Hurt Right? Wrong!!

…forget the risky position foisted on the consumer by the loan officer… Well, here we go again. In my previous blog posts titled “Round and Round” and “Pressure My Story”, I spoke to examples of how lenders and/or AMCs have been pushing and pressuring appraisers to hit certain values on transactions. If an appraiser did not hit these numbers, or make changes to make the transaction work in the lender’s favor, the appraiser would be threatened with non-payment, removal from appraiser panels, and/or blacklisted. If you haven’t read those blog posts, feel free to go back and have a look....

Another Huckster Enters the Appraisal Arena 20

Another Huckster Enters the Appraisal Arena

Yet another third party huckster has entered into the real estate appraiser and appraisal arena. It’s that time again! Yet another third party huckster has entered into the real estate appraiser and appraisal arena. Apparently motivated by pure altruism. We identified a need in the marketplace to address a common problem that lenders are regularly challenged with in providing accurate appraisal quotes and then ensuring pricing on the Loan Estimate is consistent and compliant,” stated Vladimir Bien-Aime, president and CEO at Global DMS. (I LOVE this guy, he writes like me!) Global DMS Launches SnapVal to Provide Instant, Accurate, Guaranteed...

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