What about the every day American consumer of mortgage lending services? I’ve actually turned down such requests. Who would stand in direct opposition as a 1099 without being able to afford representation, and insurers whom settle regardless of merit of claim, against international lending corporations to directly challenge them on behalf of a complete stranger, accept all the risk? Appraisal modernization, the appraisal waiver program, is not functional.

Vince in the example given Im sure it relates to the reverse mortgage aspect. RMs have routinely had cuts of up to 50% by the MANDATORY specific review firm reviews for years. Its why I stopped doing them over ten years ago.

All we get are the final numbers without being told the details. Did you know that on old VA appraisals for refinances, they NEVER appraised at MV if MV exceeded teh guarantee amount? They appraised at no more than the amount being requested. (My very first experience testifying (as an agent) arose from one of those cases).

The SCANDAL is that after 30+ years, the “Public Trust” is non existent despite all the manipulation to USPAP by TAF and “stakeholders”.

Ken look up appraisers in the civil service General Service (GS) classification guidelines. They hire in at hte GS11 to GS 12 level (for VA Special Adaptive Housing Appraisers), plus local COLA depending on where they are located.

Do NOT think typical resume guidelines when filling out the KSAs. You can write a book if you need to. Follow the Guideline requirements for each pay grade. You find the jobs and applications at USAjobs.gov

Do NOT try to submit an application without carefully gearing your resume to the Classification Guidelines for that category and pay grade. Dont limit yourself to California. ALL you need to do is get your foot in the door for more than a year. Then you can apply at other agencies.

Two years experience = 1 year of college.

Appraisers should form our own independent non profit enterprise, to better educate the American public? Tap into some of this grant money to create additional employment positions. On the importance of independent checks and balances, the real value of the appraisers participation in the lending process to protect consumers, smart strategies for citizen engagement with lenders, etc. The issues are framed differently with alternative narratives. However the issues remain essentially the same; The appraisal communities dedicated motivation to protect American consumers. This is the primary reason appraisers have been required in the lending process this entire time, a safeguard against debt traps. This is supposed to be what so much lending regulation was created for in the first place. Back to the basics.

Back when this happened there were very few bias claims. Now that Chase told everyone they can get at least $50,000 just for going through the complaint motions they opened Pandoras box.

Im glad they had the integrity to NOT throw the appraiser completely under the bus.

True.

We are still viable in litigation work, estate planning, divorce appraisals, easements, pre listings, partitions and a host of private work including purchase appraisals where interested parties procure waivers and buyers want to know if they are paying MV or not; but MISMO stated a goal of eliminating us over 10 years ago. (Read all about here in AB).

Time to get out of FRT-lender work completely.

Funny how AI passes over the Abeena Horton Florida case so easily.
1. Former Staff attorney for Black Knight
2. Never did file any follow up after the initial publicity push
3. Black Knight was on verge of announcing new AVM software which among other things ‘would’ eliminate bias in appraising (though still based on demographic weighting which is the verry definition of bias).
4. Black Knight is among the first of 6 vendors selected, for the GSEs Value Acceptance fraud facilitation program.

The Tate-Austin v Miller case was settled by the E&O providers…NOT because Mrs Miller did anything wrong. Deaths of family members during the case put an additional huge burden on her to settle. Mary Cummings has a lot of background on this particular case.

BINGO!!!

There is very big money in being a non profit advocacy group where mitigation funds can be coerced from large railways ( http://www.mfford.blogspot.com CFASE), or developers; or professions where E&O insurance is common.

Fighting homelessness? No problem. Have a hundred million per year and do nothing! Fighting drugs? Gangs? Seeking “Affordable Housing”? Same thing. Set up a non profit. Get big grants. Donate to your favorite Act Blue recipient, and you too can become wealthy.

As Ken has shared more of the detailed background with me I can confirm there is neither an iota of bias apparent in the work in question, nor any significant defect in the appraisal itself.

The FACT that the United States Veterans Administration has investigated the complaint and cleared him is indicative and telling.

HUDs normal process in every one of these cases is to ask or suggest appraisers may want to settle the cases based on no more than their initial notification statement. Essentially they look for coerced settlements, so they can go back to Maxine Waters and say “Gee, you are right! There WAS bias afterall…as evidenced by the appraiser refunding the fees in settlement.”

Under former HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge, anti appraiser bias and pro “People of Color” bias was evident in their daily operations. This can be seen in carefully reading former Secretary Fudge’s “Strategic Plan” in which she specifically states a benefit being sought would be beneficially “particularly for People of Color”.

Try using THAT phrase in a real estate appraisal and see what happens!

People in government need to understand that the oft cited Brookings Institute Study is neither objective, nor capable of withstanding scrutiny. It’s author, Dr. Andre Perry himself seems very biased based upon reading his own book.

The learned doctor is to be admired for his life’s achievements in spite of the obstacles, however his experiences had left him with an undeniable prejudice agaisnt White People. Read his book. Particularly the story of how he originally lived with his Aunt in her old, run down house and then later how it was lost in a tax lien sale because of ‘systemic racism’ (as opposed to being run down and unable to be sold or refinanced to avoid the lien sale).

MANY of the complainants today are either “.edu” social justice educators or advocates, or actual friends of Dr. Perry. No wonder there are so many unsupported and spurious claims!.

Award Winning Activist Reporter Julian Glover who has hyped several dubious (false) bias claims is another source of the claimed bias flames being fanned.

Organizations such as AI should have been in the forefront of investigating and refuting the bias claims. Sadly they saw other opportunity associated with the bias claim frenzy.

Only recently has their new President, CIndy Chance indicated a desire to start looking into the issues disproportionately affecting residential appraisers for GSE FRTs.

Data reporting correction. Sorry, my numbers have been incorrect regarding total licensees count. I remember reading appraisal specific articles about how many jobs have been reduced in this industry. Perhaps that was license relinquishment and ancillary help, must have been. Total appraiser head count figures for many years back. Pg 46-48. It’s not that as many appraisers quit, it’s how so many appraisers quit mortgage lending due to amc’s.

https://appraisalfoundation.sharefile.com/share/view/sf13f260546f149ab82622a87a8c94d23

Great news; Updated licensing proposals include having to retest to keep your license, or deal with licensing downgrades. And specific collegiate classes if appraisers fail certain exam topics. There is a survey all appraisers are supposed to take about this. Links in the Picasso article next article.

Now HUD got that same complaint from the same homeowner (double jeopardy), it has taken almost 2 years now, the investigator who reviewed the appraisal and interrogated my on the phone with 6 1/2 hours of deposition, asked for 10 appraisals in white communities looking for racism of a different appraisal for white people, then said it was OK that I contact the homeowner when I told her that I might sue them, she encouraged the contact then wrote me up for harassment and coercion and informed the DOJ. HUD is after you, whereas the VA just wanted the truth and was respectful. Beware!!!!! I contacted the Inspector General’s Office of HUD and filed a complaint against the HUD investigator 4 month ago. Stay tuned.

Did you look up the GS-9 (starting) salary? Not the best unless you are in supervisory position GS-13+. VA has not stated their support for any of their appraisers in discrimination actions that I have heard of. They might confirm that a review, tidewater, or appeal was made; but I would not expect any more from them.
You are not alone in HUD problem. They have guidelines that they continually exceed without impunity. They tell you to respond in a certain time frame and let you know what timeframes they are operating on but continually exceed them and have the nerve to still use COVID as an excuse. Maybe they can blame Daylight Savings Time next.

The influence of the appraisal management industry having siphoned billions of dollars away from the general appraisal community which would otherwise have gone to career and skill development. Because of they way the amc industry and associated technical utilities involved with ‘grading appraisers performance’ which their future work load are based upon having created a new standard which rewards faulty appraisers simply because the appraiser charges less and finishes faster. The industry has experienced ongoing brain drain and professional skills reduction because of the pay to play systems, incompetent management programs, continuing education systems which rarely actually teach anything new, and lack of real world qualification testing to become an appraiser in the first place. A classic case of top heavy bureaucratic management where the managers are not actually qualified to do the work themselves. Stakeholder input…

You’re creating a straw man argument as if each individual appraiser is supposed to posses equivalent skills based on certain fixed characteristics of the industry as a whole. That does not fly when the best appraisers out there are consistently passed over for the cheapest and fastest. There is no review process per se, only after the fact accountability as originators approve literally anything to get their commissions, and the GSE’s refuse to use their own systems tools to correct faulty work products most of which are generated from the amc realms. This is due to the lack of reliable work flow patterns aka preferential appraisal assignment. From an appraisers point of view if you don’t play ball even one time the lenders click you off, the amc’s automatef systems prefer the cheapest and fastest appraisers. So it’s no surprise when real challenge work comes through the form fillers miss the mark. This is the fault of the lenders and unnecessary middle management companies, the deleterious effect they’ve imposed on appraisal product quality based on the ongoing temptation to drive appraisers fees down, drive consumers fess up, and pocket the difference without transparent billing disclosure.

Which is why the new standard is three out of four appraisers refuse to work with amc’s, despite the vast majority of all available work flow going through amc’s. Ethical knowledgeable appraisers would rather shut their own businesses down and suffer tremendous losses rather than work with such unethical unqualified companies and people. Where do all these stories of alleged racism keep coming from? You guessed it; The mortgage lending realm. That means there is always an 80% or greater chance the work product and oversight is negatively effected by the appraisal management industry, who controls over 80% of all mortgage lending assignments, yet sends them to a minuscule proportion of the total appraisal community. Of the twenty five percent of remaining appraisers whom still work mortgage lending, rougly half also still refuse amc engagements.

Incompetence as with any other profession or, equally bad, undue influence. I don’t believe race played any roll but racism comes with a pay day.

Quick how to life hack to get a refinance loan which is more than you could actually sell the property for in the real world; Accuse the appraiser of being racist.

Lender wins on both sides of the play; Higher commissions on the origination, larger write offs during the eventual liquidation or write down of asset phase. The consumer becomes captured in a debt trap, the gift which keeps on giving, servicing fees never end. Why bother with a repo when you can blow the market value sky high and retain the customer for life. ‘Appraisal modernization!’

Of course the GSE can’t get in the way of this and settle anything. Intimidating appraisers is back in style, imposed by imperial decree. The movement is driven by fear of the consequences and accountability for the federal reserve and the lending community having artificially propped up markets to the point where entire generations can no longer afford what used to be standard expectations, like housing, insurance, transportation, and food.

Simple cost analysis. What is cheaper? Pay her off or got to court and risk poor PR. Deal with it right away, take a small stock hit and give 50K away. Then they will figure out a better means to thwart complaints from appraisal by denying them the application in the first place.

JP Morgan cares nothing about Appraisers and only themselves. Pay the Black homeowner $50,000 to shut her up. This action makes it LOOK like there WAS bias, no matter what they said in their letter. Settling means they are GUILTY! They cannot stand firm and pursue this to the end, to prove no bias and end the lawsuit because that means they have to spend more money. Hate JP MORGAN, always have.

Reviewer positions pop up every now and then on jobs boards. At least a few times every year. If they’re accessible or worthwhile positions is another story. Just get used to sorting away amc’s, as they constantly advertise to pick up staff appraisers and other menial low pay positions. Review jobs are going away too, because there is a substantial reduction in appraisal requests due to the mandate of FHFA to eliminate human appraisers from the lending process. For what is left much of that is moving to PDC hybrid so appraisers whom do stay will complete ten times the volume for even less pay, while personally shouldering the liability and scrutiny which would otherwise have been distributed among entire teams. Appraisal modernization is a code word for eliminating somewhere around 40,000 independent appraisers small businesses, possibly more.

Excellent. Having nullified the appraisal pressure hotline, instead there is a hotline for borrowers to call to apply value pressure to the appraiser for the specific purpose of forcing the appraiser to comply and hit the number.

Most lenders work with multiple amc’s, even though they have direct assignment elite appraiser panels they could turn to instead. Assignment platforms allow for selective or total appraiser blacklisting at the press of a button. Behind the scenes of automation are advanced tools that if an appraiser gets blacklisted anywhere, they are deranked and de prioritized in a variety of ways through the use of technical tools and sorting systems.

The people at the very top; HUD, TAF, Fannie, FHFA, have failed to understand what the real world situation is for every day working appraisers. Their apparent inability to recognize the devastating effects separation from loan production caused on small businesses, the billions of dollars of cumulative lost income and resources to the amc companies, the continued exodus of licensed workers whom will not be replaced. An average of 23 licensed appraisers has quit this industry every single day for the past 15 years (130k licenses relinquished / 15 years). The industry managers and policy setters exist under this illusionary concept that somewhere in the ever dwindling numbers of appraisers are a sub set whom will always play ball and make their deals work, if only they could thin out the lists a little bit more, starve the appraisers out for another round. There is no such thing as appraiser racism but there is definitely an over abundance of incompetent management, predatory lending practices, and deceptive junk fee billing schemes.

AIR FAQ. This document is officially worthless. Nearly every single tenet and guidance is violated on a daily basis as a routine industry standard.

https://singlefamily.fanniemae.com/media/21986/display