If you had seen the body of work that was coming into the lenders from their wholesale lines and compared them to the staff appraisals that lender was doing you would be shocked to see the difference in the levels of apparent bias. I was doing reviews for one of the big boxes of their wholesale lines and was working for their regional manager (they recruited me to do it) on an outside fee-review basis, so I know.
I was routinely saving that lender about $1M a week in the overvalued portions of these value conclusions.
Now the implication about the direct lenders (working directly through their AMCs) is that they're transmitting their pressure via blacklisting and ROVs and stips, but that's separate and apart from when a Mtg Bkr is controlling the engagement. For one thing a lender doing that on a systematic basis is building a paper trail that the regulators can (if/when they're looking) readily identify, right down to the individuals who are making those decisions. That's effectively impossible to do with the Mtg Bkrs.
So I am not suggesting "lender pressure" has been eradicated, but I am saying that it's been reduced to a fraction of what it was. And ANY fractional reduction completely justifies cutting the MBs out of the loop regardless of what else happened to your fees.
Nobody ever owed a business opportunity of any type, and they certainly never owed you the right to require the lenders to continue to use bkr-engaged appraisals. The nature of business is that we look for whatever the opportunities there are and proceed to work those opportunities. It is not to expect the State to set aside those opportunities for you.
