AMC hires Convicted Felon as Property Data Collector

[Zoe]

That man hasn't faced a jury yet. DJT may be facing one in Georgia.

 

[Zoe]

If you pay your bail amount and do what the court says, you get your money back from what I understand. If you hire a bail bond company and pay 10% of bail, you lose that 10% even if you do what court says.

I bought my house from a bounty hunter. He made a bunch of money from what I heard. Didn't want to run from him on bail.

DOA was his terms. Dead or alive. Your choice.

We can leave this peaceful and you go with me or your life has ended. Bounty hunters don't play.

 

[glenn walker]

Joan vets everybody. Didn't you know that?

Joan is Semi Retired Spends most time on Vacations and cruises..

 

[Zoe]

The court has already gave the bounty hunter jurisdictional rights.

 

[Zoe]

Understand? The bail bond company and/or the court have gave the bounty hunter jurisdictional rights?

 

[Zoe]

Don't skip bail.

Some bounty hunters make good money from bail companies. I am certain. Dead or alive don't matter in many cases with the bail bond company.

The bail bond company has to pony up if bounty hunter or law enforcement don't find them.

Depends on who posted bail.

 

[Mejappz]

Hamp is catching on.

 

[Carnivore]

Several Problems that I did not think about. The Background Check is your Prior History when that report is requested. Minor issue is what the applicant may have done during that Gap. I don't know the average day gap; one day, one week etc So that is a possibility I doubt it is significant. Seems to me that if AMC's in particular are sensitive to this issue they would be requiring a back ground check annually. This would update their data base and weed out the bad actors. This is costly, although Vendors might pay the cost. Well, AMC's are Cheap Charlies so no telling what they are paying per Inspection. Especially to the Unlicensed Inspectors. There is probably a high turnover rate for inspectors. Especially the first year when the Inspectors find out they are 1099 Sole proprietors.

Here is the Biggee.. Many Major Cities policies about criminals is catch and release because the DA will not prosecute. The Result is they will repeat offend. Rinse Wash Repeat. The Likelihood of these peeps going straight and becoming Home Inspectors is pretty low.

So it really depends on how much exposure the AMC's can tolerate.

 

[Mejappz]

It keeps getting worse for Classless, and the GSEs consecrated "gang of six". A quick-thinking Realtor was the one to tip off NAR that Paschal was a felon, thus thwarting a home robbery or rape.

*** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***

‘CLEAN-SLATE’ LAWS, BAD POLICY COULD DISPATCH MORE FELONS
TO BORROWERS’ HOMES

VENTURA, Calif. (May 12, 2023) – An astute real estate broker recognized the
name of a Michigan man awaiting sentencing in an armored-car robbery. The
latter had been engaged by one of six companies authorized by mortgage giant
Fannie Mae to dispatch so-called “data collectors” to borrowers’ homes.

The broker alerted the bank and the National Association of Realtors. New,
progressive laws designed to conceal felony convictions from employers,
combined with a recent policy decision by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that
authorizes the use of low-paid, unlicensed “home data collectors” to replace
state-licensed appraisers, all but guarantees more such incidents.

In California, state Senate Bill 731 – a so-called clean-slate law – will take
effect in July. The law dramatically expands eligibility for those with felony
convictions to have their criminal records sealed or expunged, meaning those
records can no longer be accessed by potential employers. In New York State,
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie promised to consider a similar clean-slate bill
before the end of session in mid-June.

States with broad felony and misdemeanor sealing and expungement,
according to the Restoration of Rights Project, are Arizona, Arkansas,
Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New
Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota and Washington. Many more states
offer what is called “limited felony and misdemeanor relief.”

Vermont has had an expungement process since 2011. It removes arrests or
convictions from a person’s criminal record as if it never happened. Opponents
of such laws question whether sealing the records of criminal convictions is
safe for America’s workplaces.

Combine the trend to seal the records of felons with the push by mortgage
giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to replace many of the nation’s 80,000
heavily regulated state-licensed appraisers with a combination of computer
algorithms – known as “black box appraisals” – and unlicensed human
inspectors called “property data collectors.” The data collection process,
according to Fannie Mae, entails a full interior and exterior inspection of the
borrower’s home.

n a recent presentation, Veterans Administration Chief Appraiser James
Heaslet revealed that one of the six companies recently contracted with Fannie
Mae to replace or augment appraisers had engaged an individual with an
armed-robbery conviction as a home “videographer.”

Paschal Uchendu, 27, of Mason, Michigan, was reportedly awaiting sentencing
and out on bail, having pleaded guilty to bank larceny. He and two other men
were facing up to ten years in prison, up to three years of supervised release,
and fines in excess of $250,000. Looking to earn a few bucks until his
sentencing on March 8, 2023, he was reportedly approved by a company called
Class Valuations to enter borrowers’ homes to perform various tasks.

Heaslet, a retired Marine Gunnery Sergeant, is skeptical about the use of non-
appraisers to enter homes. “The veteran always comes first,” he said. “The VA
is always concerned about the protection of our veterans, about who goes into
veterans’ homes.”

As of this writing, the VA only allows licensed or certified appraisers or, where
applicable, licensed trainees to perform interior inspections of veterans’ homes.
The idea of unlicensed individuals being hired off the streets and paid a
pittance to video and photograph the interiors of borrowers’ homes, which
would include the exact location of valuables and children’s bedrooms, has
been unsettling to some.

Leigh Brown, a real estate broker, video-blogger and coach based in Charlotte,
North Carolina, questions whether borrowers should let property data collectors
into their homes at all.

“We’re getting these emails that for $50, $60 [or] $75, they’ll pay you to walk
into a house [and] do an inspection without a license,” she said. “The data
collectors aren’t under a regulatory body. As a consumer, do you want them in
your house? They might all have great intentions. They might all be honorable
people, but I’m a bit of a skeptic. I just don’t know who they are.”

In the Michigan armored-truck heist, it was reported that a real estate agent in
the Grand Rapids area recognized the man’s name from local news accounts
and flagged him to the lender and the National Association of Realtors.

“I’m not a fan of heavy regulation, but regulation has its place,” said Brown.
“This is crazy. Why in the world are our institutions trying to get rid of certified
appraisers? There’s too much power getting consolidated into the hands of big
banks.”

John Dingeman, chief appraiser at Class Valuation, LLC, the company that
engaged Uchendu, contends the property data collector – called “scanners”
internally at his company – had not yet been convicted when his company
engaged the man and thus would not have been on any criminal database.
“Class takes these allegations seriously,” he wrote on an appraiser bulletin
board, “and we wanted to take the opportunity to provide clarity. We have a
standard protocol where all scanners are background-checked. As you are
aware, a background check will reveal all convictions. However they will not
reveal pending matters. The scanner at hand had a pending criminal matter
that was not revealed in the background check. As soon as Class became
aware of this matter, the scanner was removed from our panel prior to
completing any services.”

According to the Veteran’s Administration, Uchendu had already been
convicted in the theft of $1.2 million while being approved to work for the
company as a property data collector.

Many business leaders, including those with banks, have applauded the wave
of clean-slate laws being passed by the states.

Nan Gibson, executive director of the JPMorgan Chase PolicyCenter, said in
written testimony to the New York legislature in early 2022. “By reducing
barriers to employment for those with criminal records, we will be able to get
more people back to work more quickly.”

The nation’s borrowers, brokers and sidelined appraisers have been less
upbeat.

# # #

Jeremy Bagott is a real estate appraiser and former newspaperman. His most
recent book, “The Ichthyologist’s Guide to the Subprime Meltdown,” is a
concise almanac that distills the cataclysmic financial crisis of 2007-2008 to its
essence. This pithy guide to the upheaval includes essays, chronologies,
roundups and key lists, weaving together the stories of the politics-infused
Freddie and Fannie; the doomed Wall Street investment banks Lehman and
Bear Stearns; the dereliction of duty by the Big Three credit-rating services; the
mayhem caused by the shadowy nonbank lenders; and the massive
government bailouts. It provides a rapid-fire succession of “ah-hah” moments
as it lays out the meltdown, convulsion by convulsion.

 

[chad hampton]

Wtf is a scanner?

I’m so embarrassed that some of these people hold the same appraisal license I do. How typical, keep changing what you call something in hopes it’s easier to swallow. I’ve been seeing that for five years with the snake oil salesmen that push these things. It’s lies and half truths every time they open their mouths.