Appraisal Institute Controversy

[ucbruin]

The vast majority of consumers don't self-fund their mortgage loans....
So why shop around....

 

[scotthartman]

"secret" meeting?

Appraisal Institute CEO fired following ‘secret’ board meeting

Cindy Chance, CEO of the Appraisal Institute, was fired Thursday during what she described as a "secret board meeting" she was excluded from.

www.housingwire.com

...was terminated during what she described as a “secret board meeting” on Thursday night that she was excluded from.​

The Appraisal Institute now faces a backlash from members who support Chance, a veteran nonprofit leader who joined roughly a year ago and pledged to make governance reforms and support the work of on-the-ground appraisers.​

When i attended an AI class back about 10 years ago, the chapter (New Mexico High Plains) there was considerable backlash over AI leaving TAF because TAF thought they could be educators too. Our instructor was the Prez at the time they withdrew from TAF and was forced to defend his position to the class - speaking of which - about 2 hours of the class was devoted to this issue which had nothing to do with 'continuing education' - but that's another issue.

Shame on Housingwire for stooping to a new low in reporting this story, rather than report the news in a fair and balanced presentation.

The Board of Directors of all corporations, the Appraisal Institute Included, has a right and many times a responsibility to meet in Executive Session in order to receive advice from legal counsel - both internal and external - on corporate business, especially human resources issues.

In the corporate environment in the United States, Chief Executive Officers serve at the inclination of and with the approval of their Board of Directors. When a CEO loses the confidence of their Board, a separation is imminent. When the hiring or firing of a CEO is on the agenda, the CEO is generally not invited to the Board meeting.

Ms. Chance’s comments clearly read like a disgruntled employee who intends to sue her prior employer based on her or her attorney’s reading of an employment contract, and someone who is attempting to try her case in the court of public opinion to gain an advantage in pending legal proceedings.

With respect to the incorrect reporting that the Appraisal Institute “has been criticized by the government for a lack of diversity”, extensive research shows the statement above to be untrue. The appraisal industry, of which the Appraisal Institute is a part, does indeed suffer from a lack of diversity for a variety of reasons; and has been correctly disparaged because of that fact.

Conversely, the Appraisal Institute has been a leader for the past 10+ years in addressing the diversity issue – long before the topic was popular. The Appraisal Institute has offered scholarships and other financial incentives for women, persons of color and persons with disabilities in order to attract a more diverse group of appraisers into the profession.

Further, for the last 4 years the Appraisal Institute has been one of the original primary sponsors of the Appraisal Diversity Initiative along with Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and the National Urban League. This initiative has attracted a large number of applicants of color into the first level of qualification (Trainee) in order to become a Certified Appraiser. Successful applicants have been rewarded with scholarships for the educational costs, mentoring with successful appraisers, and introduction to job opportunities both during and upon completion of training.

Housingwire owes the Officers and Board of Directors of the Appraisal Institute an apology for its failure to accurately report the news regarding the departure of its Chief Executive Officer and a pledge to do much better in the future.

 

[Tiffany Gibbons]

Shame on Housingwire for stooping to a new low in reporting this story, rather than report the news in a fair and balanced presentation.

The Board of Directors of all corporations, the Appraisal Institute Included, has a right and many times a responsibility to meet in Executive Session in order to receive advice from legal counsel - both internal and external - on corporate business, especially human resources issues.

In the corporate environment in the United States, Chief Executive Officers serve at the inclination of and with the approval of their Board of Directors. When a CEO loses the confidence of their Board, a separation is imminent. When the hiring or firing of a CEO is on the agenda, the CEO is generally not invited to the Board meeting.

Ms. Chance’s comments clearly read like a disgruntled employee who intends to sue her prior employer based on her or her attorney’s reading of an employment contract, and someone who is attempting to try her case in the court of public opinion to gain an advantage in pending legal proceedings.

With respect to the incorrect reporting that the Appraisal Institute “has been criticized by the government for a lack of diversity”, extensive research shows the statement above to be untrue. The appraisal industry, of which the Appraisal Institute is a part, does indeed suffer from a lack of diversity for a variety of reasons; and has been correctly disparaged because of that fact.

Conversely, the Appraisal Institute has been a leader for the past 10+ years in addressing the diversity issue – long before the topic was popular. The Appraisal Institute has offered scholarships and other financial incentives for women, persons of color and persons with disabilities in order to attract a more diverse group of appraisers into the profession.

Further, for the last 4 years the Appraisal Institute has been one of the original primary sponsors of the Appraisal Diversity Initiative along with Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and the National Urban League. This initiative has attracted a large number of applicants of color into the first level of qualification (Trainee) in order to become a Certified Appraiser. Successful applicants have been rewarded with scholarships for the educational costs, mentoring with successful appraisers, and introduction to job opportunities both during and upon completion of training.

Housingwire owes the Officers and Board of Directors of the Appraisal Institute an apology for its failure to accurately report the news regarding the departure of its Chief Executive Officer and a pledge to do much better in the future.

Wow. I noticed Freddie Mac has a new female CEO.

 

[Charles West]

More from Dave:

Appraisers.....



As most of you know by now, the initially respected lady, Cindy Chance, Ph.D, hired by the A.I. Board of Directors in late 2023 to be the Appraisal Institute CEO, was fired by that Board on Sept. 12, 2024. The fact that she was actually ‘fired’ was revealed by Ms. Chance in a published interview she did with HOUSINGWIRE, distributed on Sept. 13, 2024. (https://www.housingwire.com/articles/appraisal-institute-fires-ceo/)



All organizations which operate with Bylaws, and Policies and Procedures manuals, have provisions to conduct Board meetings at any time, by various methods. A.I. is no different. In A.I.’s case, “Special Meetings” are permitted, at which a specified quorum of Board members is required, but the CEO can be excluded from the meeting .... which was done in this case. Secondly, personnel matters within organizations are considered private, and thus, very little information will be disclosed, if any.



I spent time late last night into early this morning (9/13-14/24) examining the A.I. Bylaws. A section within those identifies how a ‘Special Meeting’ may be called. In A.I.’s case, there are three ways to do it.



Once I determined how calling the Special Meeting can be done, I sent a personal email to A.I. President Sandra Adomatis, asking for specific info about how the meeting was called, who attended, and the Yea/Nay vote count outcome for the (presumed) motion presented to fire Ms. Chance.



Ms. Adomatis did not respond to me directly, which is her prerogative. Instead, she passed my message onto the Outside Counsel attorney who was the parliamentarian for this Special Meeting. I’m going to keep that attorney name private, but this is the statement that the attorney provided to me in a reply message this morning:



“Please be advised that the Special Meeting was called by the President, not by petition, and all legal requirements for the meeting were met. No further information about the meeting will be forthcoming as it was held in Executive Session, which requires confidentiality.”







Dave Towne, MNAA, AVAA, AGA Owner / Educator

Certified Residential RE Appraiser Appraiser Education Service

23+ yrs Experience Quality live appraiser CE education

FHA Approved 360-708-1196

Accredited Green Appraiser dtowne@fidalgo.net

Specialist – HUD Sec. 184 Lending Pgms.

Freelance Writer – Appraisal Topics Member

360-708-1196 Kiwanis Club of Mount Vernon

Towne Appraisals Board of Director’s Member

dtowne@fidalgo.net

www.towneappraisals.com

Mount Vernon, WA



Appraisal Institute – Practicing Affiliate Member

National Association of Appraisers – Member

Appraisers’ Coalition of Washington – Member

American Veteran American Appraiser – Honored Recipient

 

[Surf Cat]

Provided they are truly in the value range.

Well, in your case, you primarily do rural appraisals which is completely out of my wheelhouse. Conforming to my statement in your world....I could see why you posted that statement.

As George hatch says, I'm in a data rich environment. I can pretty much conform to that statement in all aspects (Market area, construction, year built, GLA, site area, views, Etc). It's part of the process for each and every report for me...

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

I'm in a data rich environment. I can pretty much conform to that statement in all aspects

Yes, but if you are wanting to "hit a number" then just pull 3 sales that are bigger better newer. I used to see it all the time in reports when I did see them occasionally.
Need $150k? But the house is $120k house? Pull 3 superior comps and call them 'inferior, equal, and superior' - works every time. Use Q2 for Q3 houses. You can bracket anything but 'tweaking' it upwards is no biggie for Skippy.

 

[Elliott]

Shame on Housingwire for stooping to a new low in reporting this story, rather than report the news in a fair and balanced presentation.
.

What would you have HousingWire do? Not report? Do you not think the Exec Committee can't give their reasons or even say 'We won't comment." Its not like they were the one that was sandbagged.

I generally feel, more information is better than less information. I still haven't gotten use to the Corporate Media (ABC,CBS,NBC,MSNBC,CNN,NYT,WaPo,etc.) 'producing' one version of the news, or 'their' version of the news. And its not like HW is some far out radical source of housing information.

 

[Non Sequitur]

Once I determined how calling the Special Meeting can be done, I sent a personal email to A.I. President Sandra Adomatis, asking for specific info about how the meeting was called, who attended, and the Yea/Nay vote count outcome for the (presumed) motion presented to fire Ms. Chance.



Ms. Adomatis did not respond to me directly, which is her prerogative. Instead, she passed my message onto the Outside Counsel attorney who was the parliamentarian for this Special Meeting. I’m going to keep that attorney name private, but this is the statement that the attorney provided to me in a reply message this morning:



“Please be advised that the Special Meeting was called by the President, not by petition, and all legal requirements for the meeting were met. No further information about the meeting will be forthcoming as it was held in Executive Session, which requires confidentiality.”

That certainly puts her September 5 "Message from the President/Public Announcement" in a different light.

 

[gregb]

Shame on Housingwire for stooping to a new low in reporting this story, rather than report the news in a fair and balanced presentation.

The Board of Directors of all corporations, the Appraisal Institute Included, has a right and many times a responsibility to meet in Executive Session in order to receive advice from legal counsel - both internal and external - on corporate business, especially human resources issues.

In the corporate environment in the United States, Chief Executive Officers serve at the inclination of and with the approval of their Board of Directors. When a CEO loses the confidence of their Board, a separation is imminent. When the hiring or firing of a CEO is on the agenda, the CEO is generally not invited to the Board meeting.

Ms. Chance’s comments clearly read like a disgruntled employee who intends to sue her prior employer based on her or her attorney’s reading of an employment contract, and someone who is attempting to try her case in the court of public opinion to gain an advantage in pending legal proceedings.

With respect to the incorrect reporting that the Appraisal Institute “has been criticized by the government for a lack of diversity”, extensive research shows the statement above to be untrue. The appraisal industry, of which the Appraisal Institute is a part, does indeed suffer from a lack of diversity for a variety of reasons; and has been correctly disparaged because of that fact.

Conversely, the Appraisal Institute has been a leader for the past 10+ years in addressing the diversity issue – long before the topic was popular. The Appraisal Institute has offered scholarships and other financial incentives for women, persons of color and persons with disabilities in order to attract a more diverse group of appraisers into the profession.

Further, for the last 4 years the Appraisal Institute has been one of the original primary sponsors of the Appraisal Diversity Initiative along with Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and the National Urban League. This initiative has attracted a large number of applicants of color into the first level of qualification (Trainee) in order to become a Certified Appraiser. Successful applicants have been rewarded with scholarships for the educational costs, mentoring with successful appraisers, and introduction to job opportunities both during and upon completion of training.

Housingwire owes the Officers and Board of Directors of the Appraisal Institute an apology for its failure to accurately report the news regarding the departure of its Chief Executive Officer and a pledge to do much better in the future.

Good first post for Scott on the AF.

Great to see an SRA weighing in on the firing of CEO Cindy Chance.

Don't think you hit the mark for me in your first sentence as neither Housingwire nor AI members were given adequate information from AI as to the justification for firing Cindy, corespondidly it was impossible for Housingwire to report the news in a fair and balanced presention. Not saying that the AI had to justify its board's action to fire Cindy Chance, just saying Housingwire and most AI members had only the Sandy items posted above, which some have labeled as ghostlighting.

Looking forward to some transparency on the AI's decision to fire Cindy Chance, in the event that it becomes available, then its goals going ahead.

 

[Non Sequitur]

Good first post for Scott on the AF.

Great to see an SRA weighing in on the firing of CEO Cindy Chance.

Don't think you hit the mark for me in your first sentence as neither Housingwire nor AI members were given adequate information from AI as to the justification for firing Cindy, corespondidly it was impossible for Housingwire to report the news in a fair and balanced presention. Not saying that the AI had to justify its board's action to fire Cindy Chance, just saying Housingwire and most AI members had only the Sandy items posted above, which some have labeled as ghostlighting.

Looking forward to some transparency on the AI's decision to fire Cindy Chance, in the event that it becomes available, then its goals going ahead.

The spin is starting. His post is very similar to several that are popping up across social media characterizing Dr. Chance as a disgruntled employee. For shame.