My prediction on 3.6

[George Hatch]

It seems to me that if there's one occupational field besides legal and insurance practice that would be vulnerable to AI it's accounting. Moreso than appraising. There's a fixed body of knowledge, quantifiable assets and liabilities.

 

[J Grant]

It seems to me that if there's one occupational field besides legal and insurance practice that would be vulnerable to AI it's accounting. Moreso than appraising. There's a fixed body of knowledge, quantifiable assets and liabilities.

We are all speculating, but it seems that humans can only be replaced so much and then there is a backlash against AI.

People like to deal with other people on sensitive matters, not robots. When Tax Turbo came out , the fear was it would replace accountants....many people still pay for tax prep (myself included). AI has its place, but it also has limitations. A human accountant who makes one money-saving suggestion can save a person or business thousands of dollars. It is not just efficiency and cheap rates all the time

AI assistants can not even make a simple appointment. Example - my beauty salon, a rather simple business, recently substituted an AI assistant for the human who answers the phone to make appointments. Well, I made an appointment with it, and it sent me to the wrong salon ( they have two branches. ) Other people must have encountered problems, becaue now the live human is answering the phone. A friend of mine in Cali has had enormous screwups with online bot assistants when making medical appointments. Wrong day, wrong time, wrong location.

My car dealership went that route of a phone AI assistant, and I could not get through to a human to explain a mechanical problem. It kept repeating the same rote suggestion, so after awhile I hung up and went elsewhere for the service

 

[J Grant]

It seems to me that if there's one occupational field besides legal and insurance practice that would be vulnerable to AI it's accounting. Moreso than appraising. There's a fixed body of knowledge, quantifiable assets and liabilities.

IDK- despite any threat of AI, the fees for other professional services have gone up while appraisal fees have remained flat. If one does AMC work, the fees have actually gone down in purchasing power. I see appraisers talking about taking AMC full appraisals for $325 - when I started in 1990, the fee was $275. That AMC fee is below the cost of living now by 100% as a guess.

Pre-pandemic, I paid $400 for a tax prep. Then it went up to $600, and then $800. ( The $800 was a rip-off, but still ) Professional fees and trade fees have gone up an average of 30-40% since the pandemic ( but not appraisal fees )

 

[Trihard]

Pre-pandemic, I paid $400 for a tax prep. Then it went up to $600, and then $800. ( The $800 was a rip-off, but still ) Professional fees and trade fees have gone up an average of 30-40% since the pandemic ( but not appraisal fees )

It's the AMC that is keeping appraiser wages down. Tax prep companies do not have a middle man that needs to double check the work that the tax preparer did. To which then, they would take 50% of the fee for doing basically nothing.

 

[J Grant]

It's the AMC that is keeping appraiser wages down. Tax prep companies do not have a middle man that needs to double check the work that the tax preparer did. To which then, they would take 50% of the fee for doing basically nothing.

Agree 100 %.
The AMC/lender paradigm keeps appraisers' fees down thanks to the HUD bundled fee, which sees the AMC compensation come from a split of the appraisal fee. I am not aware of any other profession that faces a similar scenario.In the appraisal profession, it affects the Res lender segment of work, because the Res loan side is where the HUD bundled fee exists.

 

[Trihard]

Agree 100 %.
The AMC/lender paradigm keeps appraisers' fees down thanks to the HUD bundled fee, which sees the AMC compensation come from a split of the appraisal fee. I am not aware of any other profession that faces a similar scenario.In the appraisal profession, it affects the Res lender segment of work, because the Res loan side is where the HUD bundled fee exists.

Unfortunately the AMC parasites are very difficult to get rid of. Without them, without a doubt, a 1004 appraisal would be in the $600 to $700 for the appraiser and it would be cheaper for the borrower. The amount of money AMC's have stolen from appraisers has to be in the billions.

 

[J Grant]

Unfortunately the AMC parasites are very difficult to get rid of. Without them, without a doubt, a 1004 appraisal would be in the $600 to $700 for the appraiser and it would be cheaper for the borrower. The amount of money AMC's have stolen from appraisers has to be in the billions.

It's a legal form of theft, so the better verbiage would be the amount of money AMC's has siphoned from appraisers.

Your estimation of the figures sounds on point.

 

[glenn walker]

But J.G. and others say they don't work for AMCs but direct lenders only. Are those direct lenders paying the difference? No in many cases the direct lenders are often paying similar fees as the better AMCs and when higher only $50 to $100 more so even getting rid of AMCs the lenders not paying the difference.

 

[J Grant]

But J.G. and others say they don't work for AMCs but direct lenders only. Are those direct lenders paying the difference? No in many cases the direct lenders are often paying similar fees as the better AMCs and when higher only $50 to $100 more so even getting rid of AMCs the lenders not paying the difference.

? When a lender does not use an AMC, they pay the appraisers on their panel a C and R fee - in my area of FL that ranges from $525 -$595 for a non-complex order. One of the lenders a while back was ordering direct and using an AMC at the same time. When an order from the same lender came from the AMC, the AMC fee offered was $350. Thankfully, the lender stopped using them after six months. The lender continued paying $525 to the appraisers after they dropped the AMC.

 

[glenn walker]

But your using 1 example you may be surprised that appraisers in your market with the better AMCs are making the same as your direct lenders paying. Unless you know multiple appraisers in your market your just guessing. My partner loved his two best AMCs and they paid him more than the direct lenders and gave him volume.