Appraisal fraud

[Greg Bell]

I can't find a LANNY ROSS with a license in Kansas....

 

[redfish]

The business model of these crooks sounds familiar.......Pulte KB ......

 

[c w d]

Appraisers sell their services too cheap..it's like hiring a hit man for $40...a hooker for $3.. I would aver that Appraisers alone cut rates. Who has over the space of the last 10 years REDUCED their fees of ALL licensed professions in the nation?.. Just name one. Your surveyor? Abstractor? Lawyer? Doctor? Plumber? Nobody cuts rates except appraisers.. I don't understand.

There are more dynamics in the market place than the appraisers setting a price. There is extreme market pressures to lower appraisal prices. It's easy to say "Well, if the appraiser didn't lower his price we wouldn't have low fees". In a sense, that is true, but not entirely accurate. The current market conditions actually limit the potential business an appraiser can attract. Many lenders are not "approving" new appraisers for entry into their preferred or approved lists. Next is the lack of business. A large percentage of available business is being usurped by AVMs and BPOs. This is simple supply and demand economics and outside of the appraiser's realm of control. The tendency to attract more business is to lower prices. But, the lower price is an effect, not a cause. So, in order for most appraisers to survive right now they are having to adapt to the current market conditions. Sadly, idealistic fees and ethics do not attract business these days. Sorry, Terry, but this is the reality. We can do one of four things right now: We can either stay in the business and adapt our business model or we can stay in the business and not adapt our business model or we can attempt to change the way the lending industry orders valuations in order to get more business (good luck with that) or we can see the writing on the wall and move on to something more profitable. Personally, I'm exploring the latter option. I'm tired of not doing anything or going anywhere or putting off maintenance of my home and car or not buying a new set of cloths to replace some that are old or damaged in order to live within my means, currently. As much as I love appraising, I love making a living even more. I'm going to go back to school and get a 4 year degree. While I'll be eating dirt during that time and have to borrow large sums of money to do it, I don't see any appreciable change in the current state of the appraisal business during that time either. The real estate market may turn around in that time and business may increase. But, the fact is more and more valuation alternatives other than appraisals are chipping away at our potential business. A $350 appraisal cannot compete with a $40 AVM. And the pressures in the market place and the power of the lending lobbyists will continue to find more and more scope of application for those products. That means less and less scope of application for appraisals. Then there's the fact that we are also being legislated out of business. The HVCC and the bond bill floating around are going to ensure that we're struggling even more to attract business.