Aloft Appraiser Toolkit

[Mejappz]

Current Board Members​

The ASB is composed of five to nine members who are appointed by the BOT and may serve up to eight years. Activities of the Board are directed by the Chair, who is appointed by the BOT for a one-year term.

Nicholas Pilz, Chair
Timothy Hansen, Vice Chair
Michelle Czekalski Bradley
Patricia Dillon
Alan Hummel
Anjanette Hutson
C. Zachary Meyers
Heather Sullivan

We know what happened with Michelle Bradley, the ASB, and McKissock. Don't take our word for it; just refer to the CFPB.

 

[Mejappz]

Are you suggesting that when they needed to develop education for appraisers, the GSEs should have sought out an entity other than an appraiser education provider?
Who would you have suggested?

No one is arguing that the GSEs shouldn’t have worked with education providers. The problem isn’t that they worked with one—it’s who they chose, how the content is controlled, and what it signals about centralized influence over the profession.

There are hundreds of experienced appraisal educators, including those with a deep background in valuation theory, market modeling, and regulatory compliance. But instead of choosing a neutral, well-established source grounded in analytical rigor, they handed the mic to Aloft—a tech startup known more for automation, fast turnarounds, and software promotion than for actual valuation depth.

Would I have preferred they work with a broader panel of independent educators, university researchers, or seasoned appraisers with no commercial interest in GSE policy outcomes? Absolutely.

But more importantly—why is the content uniform, GSE-authored, and required for all CE providers to deliver it exactly as written? That’s not collaboration. That’s top-down narrative control. And now with someone like Heather Sullivan, who wasn’t known for technical appraisal expertise, in a position at Fannie Mae, it’s hard not to see this for what it is: an echo chamber masquerading as education.


The concern isn’t about who could have been chosen. It’s about the kind of messaging the GSEs want repeated—and who’s willing to repeat it.

 

[djd09]

Forum highlights discrimination and appraisal bias in housing​

Heather Sullivan, a member of The Appraisal Foundation’s standards board, which prepares draft reports on the industry for federal and state regulators, said lenders should review their policies and support diversity initiatives.

The foundation, she said, created a PAREA curriculum that targets students of color, veterans and those interested in working in underserved communities.

Forum highlights discrimination and appraisal bias in housing - Maryland Matters

Maryland Commission on Civil Rights hosts online forum entitled "Closing the Gap on Racial Disparities in Housing."

marylandmatters.org

heather is a party...

 

[Mejappz]

Forum highlights discrimination and appraisal bias in housing​

Heather Sullivan, a member of The Appraisal Foundation’s standards board, which prepares draft reports on the industry for federal and state regulators, said lenders should review their policies and support diversity initiatives.

The foundation, she said, created a PAREA curriculum that targets students of color, veterans and those interested in working in underserved communities.

Forum highlights discrimination and appraisal bias in housing - Maryland Matters

Maryland Commission on Civil Rights hosts online forum entitled "Closing the Gap on Racial Disparities in Housing."

marylandmatters.org

heather is a party...

And there you have it: the revolving door.

 

[DWiley]

But more importantly—why is the content uniform, GSE-authored, and required for all CE providers to deliver it exactly as written?

Well, if you are going to accept and present the GSE course, then it has to actually be the GSE course.

That said, there is no requirement to use the GSE materials. Any provider who wants to put in the time and spend the resources is free to develop their own course. As I understand it, some plan to do just that.

 

[cashcatz]

Aloft went bust. They were absorbed by Inspectify. Heather is with Fannie now and Hansel stayed on with Inspectify.

Inspectify Welcomes Aloft

Uniting to Build a Market Leader in Property Inspections and Valuations

www.inspectify.com

Do you have more info that they actually went bust - or is that just a guess?

 

[George Hatch]

One aspect of providing courses that may not be getting enough consideration is that technical competency with the material isn't enough; not by a long shot. A provider needs to have the processes in place to deliver the coursework at whatever scale they are attempting to operate.

I might be competent to develop a course on a topic, but if I don't have a delivery platform in place then I'm not going to be able to sell that course to anyone.

 

[Mejappz]

hat said, there is no requirement to use the GSE materials. Any provider who wants to put in the time and spend the resources is free to develop their own course. As I understand it, some plan to do just that.

Sure, providers can write their own UAD 3.6 course—but let’s be real: who’s actually going to do that?

The GSEs already wrote the “official” course, trained the trainers, and are clearly signaling that this is the version they expect everyone to follow. So even if it’s technically optional, it’s basically the only game in town. If you write your own, you’re risking confusion, rejection, or worse, being seen as non-compliant by the same entities who set the rules.

And when you’ve got people like Heather Sullivan going straight from Aloft—where she was building GSE-aligned content—into a key role at Fannie Mae, that’s not a coincidence. That’s influence.

 

[Mejappz]

 

[DWiley]

Sure, providers can write their own UAD 3.6 course—but let’s be real: who’s actually going to do that?

The GSEs already wrote the “official” course, trained the trainers, and are clearly signaling that this is the version they expect everyone to follow. So even if it’s technically optional, it’s basically the only game in town. If you write your own, you’re risking confusion, rejection, or worse, being seen as non-compliant by the same entities who set the rules.
.

The GSEs wrote the course to help out the course providers. The big ones could have done it, but many of the smaller ones would not have the resources to do it properly in the amount of time it had to get done.

Some appraisers have already taken the free version and don't intend to take a CE version from anyone. I don't think anyone at the GSEs cares where they take it, or if they take it all, as long as the learn how to complete the new UAD 3.6 correctly. And, yes, it is a GSE data set, so the GSEs get to define what "correct" is.