Cont. Ed. is a Joke

[Terrel L. Shields]

The purpose of continuing education (CE) was to further and expand the knowledge base of the appraiser on an on-going basis. Has it accomplished that or not? I believe the answer is no. It seems more to the point to have dumbed down the appraiser by emphasizing compliance to outdated doctrine, embracing needless diversify training, and confusing the regulatory issues with needless legalese. For the past 20 years CE has drifted down and down to the point it has utterly failed to live up to its name. There is no continuity in improving the valuation skills of the appraiser and the classes seem to avoid any substantive effort to actually improve the valuation skills of the appraiser.

Today many states, if not all, are requiring CE to include a class on diversity training intended to prevent some sort of racial bias that apparently is rampant mostly among old white guys. In fact, the powers that be are arguing that racial discrimination is built into appraisers. It does so without explaining what possible motive is had by an appraiser to deliberately or inadvertently discriminate on the basis of race.

What incentive is there to mis-appraise a property? It should be obvious that the consequences of doing so are far more damaging to the appraiser than any possible benefit to them. There is no obvious up side for the appraiser. The argument then becomes that of saying the bias is an unrecognized bias. Implicit in this bias (unconscious bias) is that we hold some deep seated beliefs that occur due to our upbringing, experience, or some past hurt by a group.

But even such unconscious biases are obvious on the face of it. Again, the appraiser is keenly aware that there are such biases and have no reason to engage in them. We have had over 30 years of training which reinforced that with the signing of every certification on every report we prepare. Further, few of us are not away of the federal bank laws against discrimination based upon race, religion, sex and even age. These are disclosures we've witnessed in our own loan history, in our training, and every basic set of educational materials we've had. We've long had old textbooks pointed out to us that did use race as basis for valuation such as McMichael's Appraising Manual (1931,et al) as if we were not aware of the pitfalls of appraising the individual instead of the property.

In addition to the racial discrimination government has now assumed is rampant among appraisers, other state requirements require hours be applied (wasted) to specific state issues as well as the inordinate emphasis upon USPAP and its two year cycle. In other words, there is a much reduced amount of potential CE training time for truly improving one's skills. 14 hours per year training, in effect, becomes 7 or maybe 10 hours out of the annual CE budget.

The providers have been winnowed down by online piffle created to comply with the law and not much else. We get classes on how to fill out FHA requirements, or FNMA requirements. Perhaps we have a class on architecture, a class of examples of mortgage fraud, legal missteps or how to spot flip[s and fraud and avoid working for crooks. Useful perhaps but is that really continuing our “education”? Are we learning better techniques? Are we learning to use the simplest of tools like Excel? And you probably heard about sinking fund calculations and Inwood tables exactly once in some early class and never heard the term used again. And that was likely less than 10 minutes of your training.

CE is a joke. Change my mind.

 

[Fernando]

The purpose of continuing education (CE) was to further and expand the knowledge base of the appraiser on an on-going basis. Has it accomplished that or not? I believe the answer is no. It seems more to the point to have dumbed down the appraiser by emphasizing compliance to outdated doctrine, embracing needless diversify training, and confusing the regulatory issues with needless legalese. For the past 20 years CE has drifted down and down to the point it has utterly failed to live up to its name. There is no continuity in improving the valuation skills of the appraiser and the classes seem to avoid any substantive effort to actually improve the valuation skills of the appraiser.

Most of the classes I'd taken already and are like repeat.

Today many states, if not all, are requiring CE to include a class on diversity training intended to prevent some sort of racial bias that apparently is rampant mostly among old white guys. In fact, the powers that be are arguing that racial discrimination is built into appraisers. It does so without explaining what possible motive is had by an appraiser to deliberately or inadvertently discriminate on the basis of race.

On contrary, diversity training has been recent and is interesting and practical to use in our appraising. You may learn something.

What incentive is there to mis-appraise a property? It should be obvious that the consequences of doing so are far more damaging to the appraiser than any possible benefit to them. There is no obvious up side for the appraiser. The argument then becomes that of saying the bias is an unrecognized bias. Implicit in this bias (unconscious bias) is that we hold some deep seated beliefs that occur due to our upbringing, experience, or some past hurt by a group.

But even such unconscious biases are obvious on the face of it. Again, the appraiser is keenly aware that there are such biases and have no reason to engage in them. We have had over 30 years of training which reinforced that with the signing of every certification on every report we prepare. Further, few of us are not away of the federal bank laws against discrimination based upon race, religion, sex and even age. These are disclosures we've witnessed in our own loan history, in our training, and every basic set of educational materials we've had. We've long had old textbooks pointed out to us that did use race as basis for valuation such as McMichael's Appraising Manual (1931,et al) as if we were not aware of the pitfalls of appraising the individual instead of the property.

In addition to the racial discrimination government has now assumed is rampant among appraisers, other state requirements require hours be applied (wasted) to specific state issues as well as the inordinate emphasis upon USPAP and its two year cycle. In other words, there is a much reduced amount of potential CE training time for truly improving one's skills. 14 hours per year training, in effect, becomes 7 or maybe 10 hours out of the annual CE budget.

Bias classes have shown we have unconscious bias which we have to be aware of. I admit I have bias and try not to interfere with my appraising.
Interesting that I use the perceived perception of reader's bias with a Tesla on driveway (that is when it was innovative and more expensive).

The providers have been winnowed down by online piffle created to comply with the law and not much else. We get classes on how to fill out FHA requirements, or FNMA requirements. Perhaps we have a class on architecture, a class of examples of mortgage fraud, legal missteps or how to spot flip[s and fraud and avoid working for crooks. Useful perhaps but is that really continuing our “education”? Are we learning better techniques? Are we learning to use the simplest of tools like Excel? And you probably heard about sinking fund calculations and Inwood tables exactly once in some early class and never heard the term used again. And that was likely less than 10 minutes of your training.

CE is a joke. Change my mind.

Realtors have CE classes but only have to take them every 7 years. Appraiser classes are excessive and having to take them every 4 years.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Bias classes have shown we have unconscious bias

If unconscious, then it is impossible to compensate for. No one doesn't know that skewing data due to race, religion, color, sex or age is wrong and is against banking law. It's written in USPAP.

Not even I think that @ucbruin would appraise the home of a Christian differently than he would an agnostic.

having to take them every 4 years.

Some states like mine are every 2 years and USPAP is every 2 years.

 

[sputnam]

I'll say it again. I do reviews. Every day I see appraisal reports that don't comply with USPAP. Sometimes the violations are minor. Sometimes they are significant. When appraisers get it right more than they do, then maybe appraisers could claim that taking a USPAP update every other year is a waste of time.

I do agree that CE should mostly be about refreshing old skills and learning new ones. Unfortunately, for the 'old dogs' that's hard to find.

IMO, the worst education decision made was allowing appraisers to get 100% of their CE online.

 

[chad hampton]

What are some examples of USPAP violations that you see? How often do you disagree with the values?

I’ve taken a few good CE courses over the years, none of them were ever online. The good ones are only in person, Mel black used to have some really good in person CE, one class revolved around state board cases where he took some of the unique appraisal board cases and we discussed to them.

But these days online CE is more or less extortion. Write a check and we’ll let you keep your license for another two years.

If anybody wants to change that, they need to eliminate the online education and bring back in person education providers, but that won’t happen, and we all know why

 

[alebrewer]

Do you think that appraisers had anything to do with the downward trajectory of education quality? It seems to me that - much like any other good or service - consumers vote with their $. And appraisers have consistently voted for the easiest and most expedient CE. Apply that algorithm over 3-4 decades, and you'll eventually push the 'real' CE providers out until you're left with online stuff that a 6th grader could sit through.

 

[chad hampton]

Do you think that appraisers had anything to do with the downward trajectory of education quality? It seems to me that - much like any other good or service - consumers vote with their $. And appraisers have consistently voted for the easiest and most expedient CE. Apply that algorithm over 3-4 decades, and you'll eventually push the 'real' CE providers out until you're left with online stuff that a 6th grader could sit through.

Probably. But if you give anybody the cheapest and easiest path, that’s what they’re gonna take. I know my state used to have a rule that you could take half your CE online. Now it’s 100%. I don’t think it was the appraisers who showed up at board meetings and pushed for that change. I assume that’s the way it was in a lot of states? Appraisal boards have the ability to make decisions for themselves as to what’s best for the profession. They don’t always have to give into threats and pressure. Yet they always seem to.

 

[DWiley]

I think CE is what one makes of it. Many wait until the last minute, and they intentionally look for something that will be quick and easy (and cheap). Those kinds of courses are readily available to anyone who makes even a small effort to search them out.

On the other hand, there are also courses one can take to actually learn something new. I have taken several CE courses that were quite challenging - to the point where it took longer to complete than the credit hours I received.

 

[alebrewer]

Probably. But if you give anybody the cheapest and easiest path, that’s what they’re gonna take.

Exactly my point. We have to share some of the blame. The AI courses have always been available - but everyone chooses McKissock. Wonder why?

 

[Gobears81]

USPAP updates are the biggest waste of seven hours every two years. When was the last substantial change that we've had in USPAP? The rate of change is going down, yet we are required to spend an entire day going over the revised language or addition of an advisory opinion.

Illinois now requires an hour of sexual harassment training every two years. That isn't going to change how anyone acts, but that is time that I never get back that could be spent on something productive.

I belong to two professional organizations and recently let my membership discontinue to a third. All three require ethics classes every five years or so, which is also some of the most soul-sucking time wastes to ever sit through. Now I hear about requirements for adding a fair housing class - don't know all of the details, but I appraise maybe two houses a year, so that would obviously be another unnecessary expense. Also, when I was taking a USPAP class several years ago, they were going over claims made by homeowners - it seems that the course author was clearly not an appraiser, as they also treated the claims as merited and the appraiser as guilty without further investigation.

As for the other CE - some of it is good, some of it isn't. Maybe they only add a slight nuance to the toolbox, but I don't always feel like it is a complete waste of time. The moral of the story seems to be that the powers-that-be shouldn't bother with trying to shape the ethics or conduct of the appraiser, and just reduce CE to where they have an opportunity to actually learn something.