UWM Underwriters Subsidized by Appraisers
United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) began an aggressive campaign in September 2021 to recruit appraisers for their new Appraisal Direct system, which aimed to cut out appraisal management companies as middlemen. Through repeated emails, they urged appraisers – both current and former, alive or deceased – to partner directly with UWM through ANOW. Despite claims that this system would benefit appraisers by providing higher fees and faster payments, the reality did not match the hype. Fees offered by UWM through ANOW were well below market rate for most regions. This led to low appraiser interest in signing up for the platform.
Last week, UWM made a startling announcement in an email to their panel of appraisers, stating that starting April 15, a $29 “Lender QC Fee” would be added to all new appraisal orders. The company claimed this was to cover their internal quality control process – essentially making the appraisers cover UWM’s own costs of doing business. However, appraisers pointed out that lender quality control is a standard requirement and the lender’s responsibility, not something that should be pushed onto appraisers through fees. The $29 fee also happens to nearly match the average hourly base salary of $29 for UWM underwriters. This has led to accusations that UWM is forcing appraisers to directly pay the salary of the UWM employees responsible for reviewing the appraisals. Essentially, UWM plans to use this deducted $29 per appraisal to pay the salary of underwriters doing the lender’s own legally required quality control reviews, rather than fairly compensating appraisers for the work.
The announcement of this new $29 fee comes across as a desperate attempt by UWM to squeeze more revenue out of appraisers. It breaks the trust that UWM claimed they were trying to build with appraisers through Appraisal Direct. Broad outrage and backlash have ensued from the appraiser community, who see this as an unethical and audacious move by one of the largest lenders to take advantage of appraisers and offload their own costs of doing business. UWM risks further alienating appraisers and faces serious reputational damage from this short-sighted decision.
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It’s way worse than that in the market. These portal fees are shared with the lenders. Let’s say ABC Portal charges $15 but the lender also wants $15 for each order. So they charge us $30 and place 1/2 the money into a straw bank account. I was told this directly from one of the portals we all use. Blows my mind! They do not see any wrong in it. It’s a small amount that adds up to a nice CEO slush fund. Yeah, I was told that they just deposit the money in the CEO’s special account. I would assume they would not have this client without this arrangement but there everywhere. Really bad in Appraisalport also, they do the same thing but I do not think it goes to a CEO slush fund. They juice the fees there to help pay underwriting costs. One problem I have is it is an undisclosed fee charged to the borrower, or am I wrong on that?
As I’ve noted several times my primary city of practice is San Diego CA which happens to be the most expensive place to live in the U.S https://realestate.usnews.com/places/rankings/most-expensive-places-to-live . A standard 1004 pays $505 minus a platform fee of $16.40, a processing fee of $14.95, and now a bogus fee of $29 (Net of $444.65). Of note, the processing fee is a forced fee relating to getting paid electronically as its not an option to get a check. Crooks, all of them.
Seek the truth.
Should be noting this in our reports as a thing of compensation in order to procure the assignment?
Good Point If you are willing to accept the conditions…
I stopped working for AMCs about 5 yrs ago. However, for the time that I did work for AMCs I’d let them know that if they added any fees for any reason, it was not coming out of my fee. The ones that barked and said they would not add it to my fee, I bid good-by. The others I did business with for years until I decided to no longer work for AMCs.
This is the same UWM being sued for steering. There’s also another class action against them for discrimination and mortgage denials. There’s probably some merit to the first lawsuit. I don’t know if the second one is just a shake down lawsuit. We all know that underwriters don’t know race of borrowers. Loans are denied for many factors but race is not one of them. There is a correlation between race and income. Whites make more money, have more money, have better credit and are more likely to be approved for a loan. https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/mortgage-lender-united-wholesale-sued-by-consumers-alleging-billions-excess-fees-2024-04-03/
Technology fee. Platform fee. Upload fee. Processing fee. Portal fee. Fee. Fee. Fee.
When it started, appraisers brushed it off, saying “add it to the cost that you bid”. I said way back then, that is the wrong thing to do.
AMC’s started adding more fee’s for the appraiser to pay, all the while offering less income for each appraisal report. As an economist, It was easy to see where that was headed.
The AMC model is out of control.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of appraisers allowed this to happen. It was a race to the bottom.
Unless something drastic happens, (and I have no clue what that could be) nothing will change.
Yeah,….. this is gonna be a NO for me. Not only is the AMC taking part of my fee I am now being asked to pay for a critique of my work?? This is gonna be a “NO” for me…
So to the appraisers out there … “What are you prepared to do?”
Be Well… Be Informed… Be Blessed
Keep asking for more. Once they that this is just another additional fee that will get dumped on to the borrower for higher fees, they will just order with higher fees to start.
UWM claims its Appraisal Direct service is NOT an AMC, and they are not licensed as an AMC as far as I can tell. So how are they retaining income from appraisals? Isn’t that operating as an AMC without appropriate license?
Nothing shocking here. The amount of work has slowed and the parasites don’t want their bottom lines to drop. I can almost here those clowns saying, “Let’s just pass along our costs to the appraiser… again.”
Just say no. Easy-peasy
Ya’all control your destiny. You can keep them in business screwing you over or bring them to their senses. But as long as we have weak, selfish individuals that will never happen.
This is clearly an underwriting fee. It is a closing cost concession that is being paid by the appraiser for the benefit of the borrower. It should be disclosed on the front of the 1004 under financing concessions, and in the closing statement (old HUD-1).
Where is the CFPB when you need them
Carving out an agenda that does not include protecting consumers in the mortgage space. I’m not sure they are really even protecting the “protected” classes. They are like the wind, blow this way and that, always changing.
If we look at this from an underwriting fee. That means the appraiser is paying fees for the purchaser or borrower to secure the loan. That’s a no go for me. I’ll pass on this work.
This sucks!!! More money they are sucking out of our fees
Appraisers get what we deserve. If you don’t like this type of treatment, vote with your feet and move on.
The appraisal, real estate and mortgage business is going to be horrible for some time. 89% of borrowers have an interest rate below 6%, 78% of borrowers have a rate below 5% while 59.5% have a rate below 4%. 22.6% of borrowers have a rate below 3%. Now rates are above 7% and are going to stay there for a while. Add this to the shortage of a real estate on the market. The business that was so good to me for 30 years is gone, and I did VA. I am old enough to take SS and have a good retirement account. Hello from Puerto Vallarta!
It’s odd that is all that you see. You still have people moving from place to place constantly and only seems to be growing in spite of the present economy and looming recession (if we are not already in one). The market’s have just picked up for seasonal growth in the PNW and I suspect this will be norm across the country until the market tank unexpectantly. If the market activity has just started increasing with the knowledge of no Fed rate cuts, it’s highly possible people are done waiting for lower rates and dealing with the reality of the present situation have getting off the bench because of need and not wishful thinking. I think is a great market, but the seasonal effects are stronger. Hopefully this will the case this summer. People will move with great consideration to geopolitical rifts motivate move people.
I don’t know what market you are in. I was in Chicago. Appraisers who I still talk with tell me business is dead. Those on the VA panel get maybe 2 orders a week. During the pandemic, I was doing 8-10, at $550 a pop, that was a good living. The AMC work is being bid down to $300 by desperate appraisers. The real estate business is going to be in the toilet for some time.
https://fortune.com/2024/04/17/housing-market-economy-booming-housing-recession-redfin-ceo/
Yes VA work is down. I’m luck if I get 3 a month. I’m presently work on several orders and not taking anything less that $750 with my lower client(s) and everything else $800 and above (VA is $850 in WA). That being said, I cover 17 counties with 3 MLS’s. I have to drive excessively to get this work, but I have work at my fee’s and I will have one hell of a write off for the driving that I do – more than enough to cover all my car payments. This is going to be the market for sometime, of which I do agree with you. Expand and find new clients. Do work that other appraiser’s are not willing to do because they want to cherry pick work that are located in a single county that they live in and don’t have to drive more then 20 minutes for the subject and comps.
Some interesting comments. Supply and demand is a wonderful thing. Lot of talk about lower appraisal fees. Those thinking this way are shooting themselves in the foot and the industry. If there was some reasonable degree of cohesiveness and not jump to undercut their fellow appraisers throats and prices will increase. One just needs to be patient and let economics do its job.
Yes, there are appraiser’s that do crappy work for crappy fees. Eventually they will not have any work because they really don’t know what they are doing and for whatever reasons, they are not trying to learn how to do their jobs better. I lost almost all of my work to someone that uses click forms. This software picks the comparable, writes the comments it deem necessary to use. This appraiser does not know how to select comparables, nor how to complete a proper inspection. They got their license during the pandemic when there was no one in the office to double check all of the work and log’s because WA mandated vaccines for government workers. I can not wait for them to be squeezed out of the market for crappy work at 350. I know they have been talked to about charging reasonable and customary fees, but they won’t listen. They think they can only get what they get. There is a better way through additional education and training. You lead a horse to water, but you can’t force them to drink.
I am not aware of any such feature in Clickforms. Where do I find this?
I wouldn’t know, I don’t use such form filling software.
My comment to UWM – They can pound sand!
Dear UWM,
Not that you send me work anyway, but… I believe the newly added fee brings your total “upfront” cost to somewhere in the neighborhood of $68. Seeing as how you typically want to pay near nothing, what I call 2002 fees, of say $350; that leaves me with about $282.
I don’t know if you’re aware, but the price of everything appraisers require to complete appraisals in 2024 have significantly increased. Thus, a net fee of $282 pays for my overhead, but leaves me with near NOTHING to pay myself.
I supply high quality appraisal reports that take significant time to prepare. I do not ship my work off to those foreign appraisal mills for mass production, resulting in crappy, often questionable appraisal reports. A GOOD report takes time and time is money, of which I expect to be properly compensated for.
So… what you’re doing to appraisers is bu!! $hit! I have been around for a long time and remember a day when the appraiser stated a fee to the lender and that is what the appraiser was paid. I believe it is criminal that appraisers are being charged upload fees, delivery fees, and fees for whatever AMC’s and lenders like yourself can dream up. There costs of doing business. Appraisers paying for your costs is just wrong!
That said, I will NOT pay the ridiculous fees UWM has conjured up, which are the highest out there to date. Thus, I welcome you to REMOVE me from your appraisal panel as soon as possible.
Update; Just read this new fee is actually about what they pay an UW per hour. So… Now the appraiser is paying UW’s UW salaries??? It’s just Bu!! $hit
Robert,
Maybe I’m the odd-ball with UWM, but they typically send work to me at $850.00 and up. This would cover my base fee and a few bucks more before this additional $29.00 they are charging. This now would leave me with less than the $800 I would desire, therefore I would be asking fee increases on every order due to the ever increasing business costs. If they accept it, great. If not, then good luck.
I truly appreciate the time and effort you put into writing this. That said, it just goes in the circular file at their end as there are those within your brother appraisers that find that acceptable and who will accept their terms and maybe even less because they don’t have the wherewithal to actually determine their breakeven point. Kind of makes one wonder how someone of that mindset passed the licensing exam. If they can’t do the math of survival how can they possibly appraise a property?
I REALLY don’t have a clue. Even someone that I know actively chooses to take a lower fee because the assume that is all they can get with their skill-set and leave money on the table, when it is fully explained – defends the same answer. I guess some people are not business people and can not, or willfully won’t look at themselves as the “one” that does not do a good job, or not deserving of a reasonable and customary fee for said area. They choose to live on an island with blinders on. Eventually it will catch up to them and they will loose more of their clients, so the loose at the volume game too. I would rather charge more, have less work and still make more than they are with time to rest and be with family.
Just to clarify; I do not do 1004’s for $350. My base fee is significantly higher. I used that as an example because I had read somewhere there was an appraiser that received less than $300 for and Appraisal from UWM.
The point is they are robbing the appraiser of about $68 now and charging the borrower the full fee.
If it is true that the new fee is covering the review underwriter’s salary, there’s got to be something illegal about that.
I’m sorry I didn’t mean to suggest that you were doing that. I have the person in mind and don’t want to say their name here. Yes I’m aware they are robbing people and honestly I don’t think that they actually provide a service. Now we are paying to have our own work underwritten. I’m going to disclose that in the report, specifically the engagement letter and long hand write the value they are charging for this service.
https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/40002C5HSGH.PDF
Research keywords: HUD “underwriting fee” disclosure requirements
This appears to be a RESPA requirement type issue. FYI. I only put two minutes into this. Perhaps other researchers can dig out more information if wanted. Thank you.
an AUS is an automated underwriting fee.. taken from the repsa doc
AUS Fee. When the lender uses an AUS that is not the lender’s own
system or a system directly/indirectly owned by the lender, the lender may
collect from the borrower the underwriting fee charged to the lender by the
AUS. The lender can collect only one AUS underwriting fee from the
borrower.
Per the article: ‘a $29 “Lender QC Fee” would be added to all new appraisal orders.’
The ‘lender QC fee’ falls where in consumer fee disclosure requirements?
The amc pass all operational costs back to the appraiser billing model is spreading beyond the amc industry itself.
They don’t give a shot
Idiots are standing in line to do their work
at 850-1250 a shot, yep I’m still lining up. I’ll admit that.
This ANOW site… Micro transaction fees. A third party Stripe payment service which unless an appraiser subscribes to, it appears the appraiser can never even be visible to the lender as an active user. Thirty dollars a month subscription cost just to be available to receive orders. Then a payment processing percentage based fee. An order acceptance fee. A reviewer fee. What happened to the free one year trial? They even have bots to complete data entry and write up reports for appraisers. Lenders can simply use Mercury or Scope and make this a lot simpler and more straight forward for appraisers, and themselves. Well, that was disappointing.
https://anow.com/pricing/
https://anow.com/anow-marketplace-waitlist/
https://anow.com/blog/heres-how-you-can-stop-wasting-your-time-on-manual-processes-data-entry/
So far I have yet to pay any monthly fee for them. If I did, I think I would draw the line there. The other fees are very much there and is another write-off for work, but up until now, it was not impacting my bottom line on each order. I don’t recall the effective date of the changes, but will have to monitor each and every order that come in and do the math on it to see what I’m making or not making. The crappy part of it all is it is getting passed down to the borrower. Just more and more junk fees.
“This ANOW site… Micro transaction fees. A third party Stripe payment service… Thirty dollars a month subscription cost just to be available to receive orders. ”
I saw this fee and did not pay it I called ANOW and told them that the fee was not on me. They gave me a link to receive the funds without the Stripe stuff. Never asked to be on their panel.