The future is in our hands? The past has never been in our hands. The lender controls the appraisal industry by selecting their "good ole boy" appraiser. I can assure you that there are highly ethical, highly trained appraisers out here. However, if the lenders really wanted to know what the property was worth and weren't really more concerned with making their deal work, this would not be a problem. I review a lot of junk, too. I am not talking about grammar and spelling errors, I am talking about fraud. These appraisers know better, but they know where their pay check comes from. I was just told by a borrower this week that two different lenders told her that I was too conservative and/or a lowball appraiser. I had to spend time translating their words into "honest". I just completed five field reviews for Freddie Mac that was obvious "fraud" with manufactured values. I have asked for permission twice to turn them into our state. Both times, I have received the "I will have to get back to you on that" response. Every time a lender receives one of these type reports, they should automatically impose sanctions (removal from their approved lists, etc) and turn them over to the respective state licensing boards. However, it is too easy to just ignore the problem and let somebody else worry about it. Don't you think that a significant amount of appraisers might fall in line if lenders actually took away their ability to appraise properties for them or actually pressed the state licensing offices to investigate improper appraisals they have received. This is a bigger problem than individual appraisers can control. Do you realize how hard it is for an honest appraiser to survive? Do you realize how few reports we see other than our own? Lenders could help us rid our industry of bad elements if they wanted to!
