Appraisalport poll on national appraiser's union

[Eli]

Here is a prime example of where a house cannot be divided. Look at this link on appraisal fees disclosure. This is bad law. Realtors ask me all the time why appraisal fees have gone up so much. I believe the realtor and borrower are seeing an appraisal fee on the HUD-1 which is what is reasonable for the appraisal performed, but the appraiser is getting a fraction of that fee. Of course the appraiser can't discuss appraisal fees paid by AMC's with realtors or anybody else. Quoting the AI in the link below: "The rule also states that lenders have the option to — but are not required to — disclose the appraisal management fee separate from the appraisal fee on the Closing Disclosure. " This is bad news for independents. If the fees were required to be separated on the HUD-1, it would help independents and be more accurate and truthful to all parties involved. I can see a borrower or realtor reading the HUD-1 and saying "how can the appraisal managment fee be more than the appraisal fee?" Wouldn't work, would it? But how can AI lobby for the right thing when some of their best members are executives in AMC's? A house cannot be divided....

[URL="http://www.appraisalinstitute.org/ano/current.aspx?volume=14&numbr=23/24"][url]http://www.appraisalinstitute.org/ano/current.aspx?volume=14&numbr=23/24[/URL][/URL]

 

[peturner]

a very interesting topic....one that surfaces about every 18 months or so.
The truth that I have lived is that this is a state by state battle MOSTLY.
Tomorrow, the Appraiser Coalitions of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia are meeting. The desire and goal is to unite, share good and bad policies of each state, and take the ideas home to our appraiser boards and legislatures. Stay tuned.

 

[factsandtruth]

That is a great idea, let everybody know how everything went with a new thread. Unions are the answer, individuals with nothing to gain in the appraisal profession. At the hospital I work at, the union representatives flew to Atlanta gave a couple meetings and signed up workers who wanted to join and we pay dues of $2-4 every pay period. I never was a union member but we received raises after 4months of meetings and members voting. I've been working at the hospital for about 8months and my co-workers informed me they hadn't received raises in 2years working in the lab. For the appraisal profession its about having a voice from the $2-4 union member fee! We need some ladies to step forward and help organize my fellow head strong appaisers.

 

[George Hatch]

You're an employee of a company that operates a physical facility that functions as your worksite. Fee appraisers are not employees and they don't work at the client's facility.

If your union votes to strike they can erect a picket line and require their members not cross that line to work, and to discourage the other vendors and customers not cross that line to do business. That picket line is their primary mode of enforcing solidarity on their members because without it they have no way of even knowing who crosses.

Unless your union functions as the clients' sole AMC to control the workflow they won't be able to enforce a picket line and their members will retain the ability to cut the side deal and keep the income flowing.

That's assuming you could legally force any of these lenders to close their accept lists to only do business with your union members and not do business with any non-union members.

 

[Eli]

You're an employee of a company that operates a physical facility that functions as your worksite. Fee appraisers are not employees and they don't work at the client's facility.

If your union votes to strike they can erect a picket line and require their members not cross that line to work, and to discourage the other vendors and customers not cross that line to do business. That picket line is their primary mode of enforcing solidarity on their members because without it they have no way of even knowing who crosses.

Unless your union functions as the clients' sole AMC to control the workflow they won't be able to enforce a picket line and their members will retain the ability to cut the side deal and keep the income flowing.

That's assuming you could legally force any of these lenders to close their accept lists to only do business with your union members and not do business with any non-union members.

Good questions that would have to be answered by whoever or whatever seeks to unite independents and earn their dues. Maybe their are other avenues? I still think small laws can be the difference, like changing that disclosure law on fee disclosure. I think that changing that law would be detrimental to many AMC's and beneficial to every independent appraiser even if they don't do AMC work. I don't know if States could override Federal on that or not. I took some classes many years ago from one of the founders of appraisalport. Talk about Phi Beta Kappa in real estate. He is one of the most intelligent people I have ever heard on real estate appraisal. I wonder if he(they) have a motive or plan other than a poll? I've learned one thing the older I get. Money talks in Washington. Without it, well...you get where independents doing mortgage work are today. Appraisalport has the money?

 

[George Hatch]

At any rate, the aspects I was mentioning relate primarily to establishing fees...er....hourly wages. There are other reasons to organize and other types of orgs that do it.

 

[sandpiperapp]

Forget the union thing. Way to many biases to make it work. some reasonable, some not so reasonable.

I think that a unified voice would help every appraiser.

The present organizations have not brought appraisers together as a profession. It seems , reading many posts, that just the opposite is true and they have fractionalized our profession.

Forget about fees. The market, if given the opportunity, will self correct to a true reasonable fee.

We need to level the playing field so that a FREE market place for our services exists

AMCs, lender owned or not, control and dictate the market for mortgage related appraisal services. If the consumer benefited, that would be one thing. But the consumer is not benefiting, we are not benefitting, and Fannie and Freddie are not benefitting. Just the lenders are. If it was thier money, then I guess they could do what they want, but it is not thier money. It is Fannie and Freddies money. Why have they let the fox guard the henhouse?

AMCs have lobbyists to promote thier agenda.

We need someone who can be heard, promoting the agenda of the independent appraiser.

I think everyone can agree that if the independent appraiser was truly allowed to be independent and practice our profession without any influence from the parties that stand to benefit from the outcome of a transaction, the entire economy would benefit in the long run.

 

[Deleted member 128537]

The only reason I would be in favor of a union in this case is because of the government regulations that started the HVCC and later this AMC fiasco. I lost hundreds of good clients. It cut my income dramatically. When you think about it I am barely getting more for appraisals now than in 2000. The scope has increased dramatically. Our costs have gone up significantly. If Cuomo had not forced this system upon us we could have easily increased our fees to keep up with inflation and scope of work. We wouldn't have a few large AMC's essentially running things.

The problem is getting enough people on board. You would need 80% on board or it wouldn't work. I think we would have to establish local unions within geographical areas. What the union could do then is sit down and say among those appraisers that are together, "Unless you (AMC, bank, etc) charge a certain base fee...we as appraisers in the area are not going to do appraisals for any lender or AMC."

Think about it. NO one can just enter this profession. It takes appraisers supervising appraisers to make the system work. If we boycotted certain low ball fee AMC's we could have a big impact if 80% agreed.

 

[Roseybike]

Again, I ask Michigan CG: Name me the organization that attempts to voice the needs and concerns of the residential appraiser for $300.00 per year. I have a check written, but no name on it.

Perhaps the word "union" is not appropriate. We need more of a PAC that has money and a voice to get to the Congress & Senators to show them some of the issues that are aligned with the recent laws and how those do not prevent fraud and do not protect the consumer. These "laws" are actually allowing the very characters that began the housing bubble to continue to provide to GSE's appraisals that have more to do with the information fitting into the computer systems than actually giving a true value based opinion.

I realize that I and my work is only a tiny part of a loan package, however no one else has E & O insurance (realtor? loan officer? AMC?) so WE are the one's always on the hook. And they take us down by using a C3 in one report and the same comp as a C4 in another report.

Regardless - until we find a way to unite and prove our existence is important, sorry guys & gals we are expendable.

 

[Michigan CG]

Again, I ask Michigan CG: Name me the organization that attempts to voice the needs and concerns of the residential appraiser for $300.00 per year. I have a check written, but no name on it......

AI, ASA, NAIFA, ASFMRA.