additional comments on
"DC Addresses Real Estate’s Greatest Challenge!"

1. Steve Grashof says:

   November 23, 2016 at 7:31 am

   I know long posts like this will be usually do not get read..but here goes anyway.

   I watched the Congressional video in full a few days ago. Saw a whole lot of talk about appraisers being done by other people..but no direct talk WITH any actual appraisers working day in and day out. Maybe because we are just too consumed with doing our job – which now includes non stop requests for revisions, status updates, turn time and fee quotes, and an ever changing increase in demands in an appraisal which don’t add up to anything of value. We are a tired bunch doing a ton of work that has nothing to do with producing a more credible report based on our expertise.

   I find it very odd that there is a Congressional inquiry into the appraisal industry, but there was not single working appraiser on the panel…instead they had the president of the “Home Builders Assoc” there?? an attorney from I think West Virginia who has worked with some homeowners who have lost their homes due to interest only loans for the first 5 years they took out and then could not afford the bump up after those 5 years..who then blamed it on inflated appraisals?? then there were the Presidents of the Appraisal Foundation and Appraisal Institute…who are nothing but Corp heads totally out of touch with reality of the working appraisers they represent…and the head of the ASC which also is not a working appraiser…and Joan Trice. Then you had the Congressional panel of Financial Services have some members who are not familiar with the current processes in place, asking questions??

   So lots of talk about how to fix something but not talking to the people who are engaged in that very business. I can guarantee if people really wanted to fix this industry (appraisals), and if they took out their self interest in the pursuit of that..they could put a panel of 5 appraisers together and you would get it solved in about 1 hour. We are a frustrated group who can pinpoint exactly what the problems are…but no one with any clout to make the changes asks us.

   Monday Nov 14th at 2:33pm I got a request for a fee and turn time on an appraisal from Cl*** Cap****, an AMC, I responded within an hour. On Friday afternoon, Nov 18th I finally received the actual order after they spent 4 days trying to save $25 in my fee quote. When they assigned the order to me, now it became a RUSH order with no extra fee. I told them they just wasted 4 days in a simple process of assigning an order and the RUSH is not going to fall on me.

   We appraisers already have rules to abide by (State and Federal). There are already severe consequences for out and out fraud, and even communicating a misleading report. We do not need more oversight, just enforce the rules/laws that are already there and have been for years before any Frank-Dodd act was enacted.

   Up to 2008, yes – there was great appreciation in the housing markets throughout the U.S., that did not happen because of fraudulent appraisals. Yes, there may have been some bad appraisers but if the processes already in place at that time were worked (underwriting at the lender level, review appraisals) as it should have been those bad apples would have been ferretted out. Banks and underwriters had a job, it was their job to verify our reports and approve loans based on data they accumulated in that process…but they had a backstop called Fannie/Freddie to bail them out if they erred…appraisers do not. When the bubble burst in 2008, 2009…the brunt of it was placed on the appraisers who just reported the market, we did not make it. As a knee jerk reaction, more red tape on the appraisers became the reasoning by the powers that be instead of looking at the main characters who allowed 100 – 120% loans to people who ultimately could not afford them. Reality is – not everyone deserves a home if they are not responsible in obtaining a home, and keeping it up. Why do we as a county just keep bending the rules and pushing the envelope, which usually just leads us to getting in new kinds of trouble?

   Last point…AVM’s..really?? Look at the last month of talk before the election about how there was no way Trump could win 270 electoral votes based on all the poles. The poles were pretty unanimous in their predictions and they all had an axe to grind. Appraisers are still the only entity that exists that do not have an axe to grind..just leave us alone and let us do our job. If we do not “hit” the sale price, that does not mean it is a faulty appraisal and we need to be coerced by a commissioned person to see it their way. With that said, appraisers should not let ego get in the way, and we should realize that our market value can be challenged at times…but it needs to be by people who understand the process we must endure and the rules we must abide by (USPAP, ANSI..etc).

2. Tara says:

   November 23, 2016 at 8:54 am

   Yes we love Caliber – too bad there weren’t more companies paying full fee, they might be able to get their orders placed. There really is no shortage of appraisers, just a “fee shortage” – we appraisers are getting sick of being low-balled and aren’t taking it any more.

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