Well I am glad to see that Kenneth and DWiley can speak for all of us and know what all of our motives are. And I am also glad to see they are done with this thread, so that actual facts may not change their minds, after all lets not let facts get in the way.
1- My motives are based on SECURITY, not data mining, even though that is an important aspect as well, but takes a second seat to the security issue.
2- Nothing is wrong with the digital signatures, if they are as secure as advertised, we should be moving in that direction. But I have always heard, there is no such thing as a tamper proof software, so which is it? I am the first to admit, I do not have the expertise to know.
3- But what is wrong with a national database vault, so that the true copy of each and every report can be accessed when needed. It would bring the needed transparency to the lending process that is needed. Yes, PDF's are not as secure, but with this transparency, any changes will be for the entire world to see, the transparency is what yields the secuirty, not the software itself.
4- As for lenders not liking it, and not using it, there are a zillion other laws and guidelines, they have to follow, this will just be another one. I have to ask, why would they not like this "transparency" of the process, what are they wishing to hide? Dwiley, you even stated you have six different conversion programs on your computer for all the different lenders, NO IT IS NOT JUST ABOUT AI, this is about ALL of them.
5- Yes, data mining is an issue, another writer would or artist who created something, would like to think they actual "own" that creation, and to have others taking control of it and reselling it, goes against common sense. It is like a record store taking the best songs off of each artist's cds, combining them on a new CD and reselling the new CD with no profits going back to the artist. The end result is the music store makes a bundle of cash, while the artist receives zilch, and because of these new bogus CD's, it also cuts into the number of original CD's sold cutting into the artist profits even more. Most people would consider that stealing.
Yes, many appraisers get very emotional over this issue, but when ones report gets changed from the original by the conversion program enough where it feels like it is no longer their own report, THAT IS A PROBLEM. Then when these conversion programs open up the security issue of wondering what changes the report sees after it leaves our computers, THAT IS THE MAIN ISSUE AT HAND. And it is all done in the dark, no transparency at all, the appraiser just has to TRUST the system that has no transparency because we can not even obtain copies of our own reports to see what has gone on with them. And finally, the politically correct term of "data mining" is an issue, but most people with any business sense would consider it stealing instead of just data mining.
The entire lending community needs greater transparency which will lead to better accountability from ALL parties involved. The national vault would be a giant step in that direction, IMO anyone against greater transparency has other aggenda's then serving the Public Trust and the Appraisal professional as a whole.
