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.
- The 24-Hour Appraisal Funded by Appraisers - October 23, 2025
- 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
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?
Travel isn’t the only way to push back. If appraisers collectively paused mortgage-related work, even for a week, it wouldn’t require trains, planes, or hotel rooms. No rallies, no travel, just a unified pause. That alone would shake the system.
For what it’s worth, I know David personally. A couple of years ago, he drove from Georgia to DC & spent several days meeting with both Republican & Democrat lawmakers, on his own dime, advocating for appraisers, warning how consumers were being harmed. He, along with three colleagues, Pat Turner among them, showed up when most didn’t. He’s done more for this profession than many who’ve stayed silent.
Amen to that, Desiree.
Nothing like advertising your ebook and insulting your buyers in the same paragraph.
Wrong. Many of fought back for years. When we learned that we were in the fight ALONE we said F it and walked away from 20 year businesses for greener pastures.
They?
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.
Pat, please contact me: grappraisal@gmail.com
I am talking with state representatives, senators, and federal representative about the issue for a while.
If anyone wants a bigger audience. We’re talking millions of followers among various groups.
https://www.reddit.com/r/appraisal/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Mortgages/
https://www.reddit.com/r/realtors/
https://www.reddit.com/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer/
Dave is no longer controlling the appraisal industry, HAL is.
It’s sad but it’s going to take another crash for Congress to realize the fox is running the hen house and that they need to reign them back in by limiting what they can AVW or waiver. The AMC model is a joke because they were made to separate the lender from the appraiser but now the lender owns the AMCs and the appraisers are right back where they started only with higher expenses to go along with the lesser fees for more complicated work. Sad, just plain sad.
Couldn’t say it any better! Exactly where we are right now.
SSDD – Same “Ship”, Different Day. Since 1999 I’ve been Certified. Since 1999 NOTHING has changed. Here in the U.S. this profession is literally is “Cut-Throat”. We cut each others throats as well as our own. There’s no cohesion. No unified front. Individuals and offices of individuals. Undervaluing our own worth. Appraisers did in Hawaii what S. Korea had done. Banded together and stopped working. The AMC’s got the message for that state but still pull the same crap they’ve been pulling for decades now. Pitting one office against another for the lowest fee and fastest turn time. Now we have HUD advertising on the radio if you feel you’ve been discriminated against to call them. Everyone seems to be painting a BIG TARGET on our backs. This profession has been a great blessing, but I’ve bowed out. Until you all get together, NOTHING WILL CHANGE: SSDD. Same “Ship” Different Day.
If you need a template and proof that STRIKES WORK, look no further than the recent US dock worker’s strike. They solved their little problem in less a week ding ding appraisers. Unfortunately strikes require brains…and guts.
Why do you think so many commercial, fintech, investment interests, flooded into the residential market space to hold properties there instead? For this article, coming far from overseas, a top commercial lender is the spokes person. It’s probably quite likely these activities affect residential holdings over there as well. They certainly do here in the US.
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https://kbglobal.kbstar.com/commonbiz/file/comFilefiledown?name=174579857784675613410000000&path=board%2F1745798577846756134&realname=FY2024%20KB%20Bank%20Consolidated%20Financial%20Statements.pdf
Kookmin financial statement / Probably a similar situation here in the states, a deflation and squeeze on commercial markets which led to aggressive restructuring so as to boost apparent income while minimizing the appearance of risk. Dangers of such activity; bubble popping, bottom falling out, recession, inflation, stagflation, eventual depression. They think they can beat the free market, the invisible hand, by ignoring honest independent advisement. When the corporate interests get their way, which they will, the end result will be massive inflation. ‘To save consumers money on appraisal service fees.’
The fact that for 16 years appraisers have refused to go on strike tells me one thing: The vast majority of appraisers in the US do not have a 3 month cash reserve set aside for emergency situations. (1 month would be more than adequate). Simply amazing!
it is not like anyone on 15th st will fight for the independent appraiser…waive them all
You know that a strike or boycott of lender appraisals would only bring out the scabs that would infest the market with $150 appraisals. If only we could get rid of them.