Category: Trending

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

Appraisers Knew Fannie Mae Would Need Another Bailout 46

Kudos to Rep Hensarling!

Kudos to Congressman Member Jeb Hensarling! House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) is one of the few federal watchdogs that ‘gets it’ on Fannie Mae’s & all GSE’s operations. All appraisers that have watched Fannie Mae’s changes in policies over the past 3+ years knew it was only a matter of time before they would need another taxpayer bailout. What we didn’t know was that it would be this soon. Most of us assumed it would be after the next crash that their reckless policies trigger. Reading the recent press release from the House Financial Services Committee, my...

AGA / Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisal Subcommittee / Appraisers News

AMC Abuses? What's Your Story? 85

AMC Abuses? What’s Your Story?

Many of you have filed formal complaints against AMC abuses with State appraisal boards… The place was a small subdivision developed with coastal style homes on the Ocean side of route 12 in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The bank was Bank of America. The AMC was LandSafe and the time was just before Corelogic purchase of Landsafe for $122 million. I was asked by this AMC to appraise a home for a purchase transaction. My comparable sales consisted of one recent sale of the next door neighbor, one on the same street, and two closed sales in the...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / LandSafe

Rural Areas Appraisers at Risk by Dangerous Pending Bill in US Senate 22

Dangerous Pending Bill in US Senate

Appraisers, If you work in Rural Areas [that definition is referenced in (b)(1) below], your appraisal livelihood is threatened by this pending bill in Congress. This bill, if signed into law, will allow lenders to bypass appraisals for any property with a ‘transaction value’ of $400,000 or less (this is moving the de minimus goal post) if the lender was unable to find an available appraiser to complete an appraisal “within a reasonable amount of time”… that time frame apparently as determined by a regulator agency with jurisdiction over the lender. The bill shows ‘exceptions’ to this as per other laws. Appraisers...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Political Action / Trending

Clear Capital Evaluations: The Expert Only Gets 10% of Fee 33

The Expert Only Gets 10% of Fee

In the Appraisal World, The Expertise Only Gets Ten Percent of Fee An Indiana state certified appraiser based in Indiana who is also certified in other states including Georgia did an evaluation of a number of properties in Georgia. The “appraisal fee” was $250 but the AMC (Clear Capital) got $225, and this appraiser got $25 for each evaluation. I’ve blocked out the specifics of one of the orders except for the fee – in this disclosure form required in Georgia. In other words, the administrative fees for Quality Assurance, Broker/CMA fee, Home Data Index Fee (whatever that is) and...

Snippets / Trending

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

ClearVal Value IS So ClearCut - What IS a “ClearVal Appraisal” 162

What IS a “ClearVal Appraisal”?

Clear Capital ClearVal… Value Not So ClearCut… I’ve finally had an opportunity to read a hybrid ‘appraisal’ start to finish. All may read the unedited, non-redacted version in all its glory… or infamy, as the case may be. Please click here (report also embedded below) and read it first. I’ll wait right here. Finished? Great. One thing is clear. It is not an appraisal by any current accepted definition that I am familiar with. Ironically, there is also very little that is clear as far as support for the opined values is concerned. (I’m old fashioned and think it should...

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

BPO Outsourced to India Replacing Appraisals 27

BPOs ‘Made in India’

$10 a pop ‘Made in India’ BPO… When saying you’re 'sari' just won’t do. The Blackstone Group is nothing short of legendary. To say it is a 'Big Deal' is an understatement squared. A little background from their website. “Who We Are Our investments are designed to preserve and grow our limited partners’ capital, provide financial security for millions of retirees, sovereign wealth funds, and other institutional and individual investors, and contribute to overall economic growth.” An honorable & worthy objective by any measure. Helping retirees on fixed income, little old ladies, grandmothers and mothers, albeit wealthy ones I’d guess. Sovereign...

AGA / Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac

Reconsideration of Value Requests & Undue Influence on Appraisers 21

Reconsideration of Value Requests

Open invitation for spurious reconsideration requests… No thank you. I just checked your website and glanced at your “clients” tab, Reconsideration request form. It pretty well negates all the puffed up hyperbole in your email invitation. It is people like you that are the problem, not solutions. Do you think a one of two items drop down menu is an adequate reason for asking an appraiser to reconsider their value? Do you not see a need to request a full and thorough explanation as to why your clients might be asking for a reconsideration? At a minimum didn’t you feel...

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

Order Takers? AQB Advocating For All The New Garbage Products 24

Careless Order Takers?

Appraisers were simply order takers… A friend that refers a lot of commercial work to me forwarded the following communications from an AMC. He’s been telling to ‘go away’ for some time now. This time he played along to see exactly what it is they are hustling. I’ve redacted my friends name and eliminated excessive line spacing and repetitive email signatures. I also bold highlighted references to John Brenan & AQB communications. Otherwise it’s as copied from my email. We’ve all heard enough about hybrids so you can either read the copied emails or skip them. It’s the article from...

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

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