When Appraisers Rally: Korea Sends the U.S. a Wake-Up Call
In Seoul, appraisers didn’t write op-eds. They didn’t file quiet complaints. They rallied. And Korea took notice.
On September 29, the Korea Association of Property Appraisers (KAPA) staged a public protest outside KB Kookmin Bank’s headquarters, condemning the bank’s in-house collateral valuations as illegal under Korea’s Appraisal Act. The Ministry of Land had already ruled the practice unlawful, yet banks continued hiring internal appraisers to fast-track high-value loans. KAPA’s response? Signs, speeches, and a full-throated demand for accountability.
Meanwhile, in the United States, appraisers face a quieter, but no less existential, threat. Not just from the GSEs, but from banks and financial institutions that increasingly favor speed over scrutiny. Traditional appraisals are being replaced by automated valuation models, broker price opinions, and hybrid products, cheaper, faster, and often less reliable.
This isn’t modernization. It’s marginalization.
The irony? Korean appraisers are protesting banks for doing what U.S. institutions, public and private, are institutionalizing. In Korea, the government ruled in-house valuations illegal. In the U.S., they’re being rebranded as “appraisal modernization” and quietly embedded into underwriting algorithms.
And while Korea’s appraisers rallied, U.S. appraisers are watching their profession erode, one waiver, one AVM, one BPO at a time. The shift is accelerating, and without resistance, the damage may soon be irreversible.
John Russell, former ASA executive, aptly noted: “When you have appraisers in the streets protesting, you know something’s up.” He’s right. And what’s up is a global reckoning over who controls valuation, and who gets erased when independence becomes inconvenient.
If there’s a lesson in Seoul’s protest, it’s this: silence is not strategy. Appraisers are not just technicians. They’re gatekeepers of valuation integrity. And when that gate is being dismantled, the profession must do more than document the damage. It must demand change.
KAPA showed what that looks like. It’s time U.S. appraisers did too.
- When Appraisers Rally: Korea Sends the U.S. a Wake-Up Call - October 3, 2025
- NAR Calls Out Unregulated Middlemen: A Wake-Up Call for FHFA - October 2, 2025
- How Bureaucratic Overreach Turned Real Estate Appraisers into Scapegoats - September 25, 2025
American appraisers have never been cohesive enough to fight what’s happening. Sadly.
Too bad the appraisers in the US won’t do this. A BUNCH OF SPINELESS FOLKS. The moment they get slow they lower prices. The moment they get busy they bury their heads in the sand. Not a one has the guts to stand up to the establishment to push back. This is OUR profession! We must take it back and take control. This is the reason I wrote the book about the elimination of real estate appraisers. Mein Comp: The Last Appraiser is available in paperback or E-book. Get your copy today: https://a.co/d/cFIO7I4
Some are actually fighting back, but they are far and few between. They also are receiving the support of peers that they deserve.
Perhaps pull out a map and look at the size of Korea compared to the United States. You can take a high-speed train to nearly any part of that country in about two hours. Many appraisers couldn’t afford to go on vacation for a couple of days let alone travel to all be in one location like Washington DC. How many rallies have you proposed or invited people to?
Nothing like advertising your ebook and insulting your buyers in the same paragraph.
Sadly, this kind of unified action feels out of reach here. We’re too fragmented, always competing, undercutting, or second-guessing each other. There’s no real solidarity, and without it, change is nearly impossible. If appraisers collectively boycotted lending work, AMCs and fee suppression wouldn’t survive a week. But instead of pushing back, we keep playing defense, alone. Until we stop working against one another, we’ll keep getting worked over.
UNION
Good Point! Why we do not have them is puzzling to me.
I also, would love to see that we collect our own appraisal fees at the door as I did many years ago. The AMCs can get their fee upfront. It would eliminate accounts receivables for us and the risk of not receiving our fees. It will save the AMCs a lot of paperwork and accounts payable issues.
We need to formulate together how we do a public display of exposure and criticism. All of us are fairly close to federal reserve headquarters in our home districts. We can form a group of us with signs and planners and foghorns and everything else and get out in the public on the public streets stay there and picket.. We have got to get public.
Dave is no longer controlling the appraisal industry, HAL is.