Answering the call
"The call" was the individual, internal recognition that massive change is pending with or without appraiser input. It's a euphemism, folks. People who answer "the call" are acting on their own sense of urgency.
Posters on this thread are constantly crying out for leadership, always complaining that some entity or the other has failed to step up to the plate and begging for someone else to take action, write a letter, mount a lawsuit, or spoon feed the masses with an on line petition that is mindlessly easy to click on and sign.
These people in this thread who have answered their own internal call have not waited for someone else to make it easy for them. They took action. Who cares if they are self appointed? If I want to submit a proposal, I'm certainly not going to wait around for someone to appoint me. And I'm certainly not going to wait around for a herd of cats to reach a consensus on a public forum.
The urgency
Massive change is pending with or without appraiser input. And there are powerful people who do not have the best interests of appraisers or the public trust at heart that are, as we speak, bringing massive amounts of pressure on the people in power with their own proposals. The timing is urgent. Input needs to those in power has to happen fast.
The proposal in this thread had to be in Cuomo's hands quickly. Speed was a strategic necessity.
Membership?
Pam put out a question, "if there were an AMC that insured appraiser independence, would you be interested?" She made an electronic sign up sheet available and stressed that, for now, it was just a show of interest. That did not make anyone a "member" of anything except a member if a group that had expressed interest.
Furthermore, all of the posts in this forum have gone into the thinking process of this committee. After the settlement agreement was posted, Pam posted more than once (on our long threads) that "this is good stuff please keep the ideas comming." In this indirect way, we all had input.
Public input
Now that these self starters have answered the call and formulated their own proposal, which is an organizational outline, they are simply asking for your support. And they are asking now for your further input for ideas or pitfalls that may occur during the actual development stage.
It's great that people are questioning aspects of the proposal and offering ideas to make it more palatable to them. But the basic concept might not change. If one were to think that the basic concept were so off that no amount of tweaking would get them to support it, then they need to get busy with answering their own call to formulate a proposal. And they need to do it fast.
Because if this is the only proposal that Cuomo gets that actually protects appraiser independence, and all the other proposals he gets are nothing more than the usual plausible deniability loopholes for lenders, then it is imperitive that he (and the feds) see a show of support from appraisers. **Quickly**
The proposal
It is an outline of a plan that accomplishes two main goals; it works in conjunction with the already signed settlement agreement and it actually enhances (and does not diminish) appraiser independence. That's the basic starting point.
Appraiser independence, not just a good idea, it's the law
The economic meltdown has engendered new interest on the part of those in power in enforcing the existing banking laws regarding appraiser independence. Bank LOs, MBs, and AMCs should never have been allowed to be in a position to pressure appraisers, it's illegal. It may be painful for us, but we simply must remain of the side of begging for enforcement for those laws. Every single attitude of ethical appraisers must be filtered through that concept.
Just because one has a client pool that does not pressure, or that only pressure in a way that allows one to not cave in to it and remain ethical, does not change the fact that the law says those clients should never be in that position.
Frankly, any position espoused that does not make appraiser independence the primary focus is seen by me as a protectionist attitude that favors the status quo of leaving clients in a position to pressure appraisers.
Lamenting for the old days has it's place but accepting the reality of what we have to work with, now, is urgent if we are to have any say at all in what happens through the actions of those in power.
I'm endorsing. Now.
