Appraisal Institute Last-minute Shakeup

[Non Sequitur]

This is the LinkedIn post referenced above (bolding mine):


"It’s election time again at The Appraisal Institute. This year we have two candidates running for Vice President, the role that segues into becoming the President. This is a “volunteer” role which comes with a lot of political power. The President ultimately makes appointments to committees, decides who gets lucrative teaching and education contracts, and at the end of their tenure, presides over the National Nominating Committee (NNC).

The NNC is a 10-person committee that determines who “wins” the election for VP. The members of The AI do not get to vote directly for a candidate.

In past years, you could see who were the members of the NNC. There was a process where you could write letters in support for your candidate which I always believed were given directly to the NNC. You hoped that the NNC would consider the number and quality of the letters written.

This year, The AI has removed the names of the NNC from their webpage. Also, I have been told that all the letters written are shunted though a process where the in-house counsel of The AI gets to read and censor the letters as they see fit. And who knows if the letters are actually being sent to the NNC? No way to call anyone on the committee to double check.

If you were going to control the outcome of a process, I can think of no better way to do it. And if you are completely disgusted, stay tuned. In my next column, I’m going to talk about the dirtiest secret of all at The AI, The Audit Committee."

 

[Non Sequitur]

 

[RCA]

The Appraisal Institute's Self-Inflicted Trap

Well, well. The AI has a serious problem — one decades in the making from keeping their heads in the sand. Now they're starting to realize it.

1. The Appraisal Journal

The flagship journal of a professional organization signals that organization's intellectual credibility. I heard derogatory comments about The Appraisal Journal as far back as 2004, from a well-known Chief Appraiser and USPAP Instructor in San Jose I worked under doing commercial appraisals. His view: the journals from the 1960s and 70s were substantially better. My own assessment of most technical articles published since then — written by the usual parade of Ph.D.s — is that they were largely unoriginal and technically weak.

The AI apparently knows this too. Their review panel now lists 47 members, and I'm noticing more with mathematics backgrounds — which is encouraging, at least in principle. A random sampling wasn't particularly impressive, with perhaps two or three exceptions. The pattern is telling: reviewers affiliated with top-tier universities typically lack strong technical credentials in mathematics, while those holding Ph.D.s in math tend to come from lower-ranked departments with weaker programs. More critically, I see no evidence of real data mining experience among them. They appear to be heading in the right direction — but slowly, and from a low baseline.

2. Amorín's Recent Articles

Amorín's last two articles break the pattern — one publishes R code, the next discusses Network Theory. That's notable. But as far as I can determine, he hasn't actually applied these methods in real appraisals himself, which used to be a prerequisite: articles were expected to discuss methods tested in actual practice. That standard appears to have been quietly dropped.

The R article focuses on Bayesian inference — which is arguably a poor fit for most appraisal work, appropriate only in rare circumstances. The Network Theory piece is more interesting but overstates the case: business location is primarily driven by zoning, property availability, and price. Network Theory has real but limited applicability — perhaps 15–20% explanatory weight on property prices in cases where traffic corridors and locational choice actually matter. Still, both articles point in a better direction. The real challenge will be finding appraisers with genuine hands-on experience using advanced methods. That may prove harder than it sounds.

Conclusion

Some people at the AI clearly understand what needs to change and are making a genuine attempt. The risk is that less technically-oriented members — likely the majority — may not welcome this new direction once they notice it. The AI is caught in a trap of their own making. Whether they can climb out is an open question.

 

[Non Sequitur]

Another LinkedIn post [below] from someone who cares about the insta-toot. And I do believe she cares because she's speaking out, unlike those at the local and national levels who believe the collapse in membership and the resulting revenue loss can be solved with closed board meetings and back room dealing.

I'm done, and after 12 years not even a phone call to check if I died or retired. I did receive an email from membership reminding me of the lapse and asking for a copy of the receipt if I renewed. Eh, I'm not sure why membership wouldn't have access to that but I'm the jerk for pointing it out. The good news is the constant emails and postal mail I receive about life/disability insurance may stop. Crazy, that's the only consistent marketing by the insta-toot.

From LinkedIn:

"Let’s talk about the professionals who are actually employed to lead The Appraisal Institute. After the dismissal of Cindy Chance as CEO, the fractional CFO became the CEO. Recently, he is “missing in action”. Didn’t make the national conference in Nashville last month. No comment as to where he is right now. The organization is losing money but he has not recommended any cost cutting. In his place is the “Director of Operations”, an inexperienced individual with no accounting or business background, whose prior job experience includes fractional marketing and who lists all his college theater classes on his LinkedIn. He’s a good guy, but in way over his head.

The organization’s losses have turned from a trickle to a hemorrhage. Rumor has it that the organization will be $2 million plus in the red for 2026, with no plan as to how to stop the bleeding.

The Board of Directors should be looking to outside expertise to save the organization. Instead, they are looking to the unqualified Director of Operations, an unqualified internal international marketing manager, or rumor has it, a prior CEO. The CEO, whose poor leadership led to the hiring of Cindy Chance, Yes, he’s a great appraiser, but he’s a terrible businessman, and part of the reason we are in this mess in the first place.

The people on the Board rely on the thought they have E&O insurance and so it does not matter what they do because any bad decisions will be covered by insurance. At some point we will be uninsurable.

For the love of god, get some outside help. There is still time to save this organization."

 

[Non Sequitur]

And a follow up post on LinkedIn:

"So in my last column, I wrote about how the Audit Committee and the Executive Committee work together to control election results. Don’t forget that individual members of The Appraisal Institute do not get to individually vote for their leaders. The election is decided by The Nominating Committee, which is Chaired by the (non-voting) Immediate Past President of The AI and a member of the Executive Committee.

There are two people running for 2027 Vice President, the role that segues into President of The Appraisal Institute.

Both people have impressive credentials, both in their professional careers and in their service to The Appraisal Institute. One person is running from the floor, on a platform of reform. He has a plan to restructure the organization and addresses the exploding financial losses. It’s a very good plan. He also tangentially addresses the corruption within the system. It’s a double-edged sword, because the people he is criticizing are the people who will decide if he gets the role. The other person runs on a platform of status quo. It’s all vaguely positive.

But there is one big difference between the two candidates. One is a member from the floor. The other is a member of the Audit Committee.

The candidate who's on the Audit Committee spent a disproportionate amount of time at the recent AI Conference hanging out in public with the Chair of the Nominating Committee. You know, the person who can lean on members of the Nominating Committee to make the election go a certain direction. The two of them were super chummy. Might have been flaunting it a little to the people who were paying attention. In the meantime, the other junior member of Audit, who probably has realized that if her fellow Audit Committee member wins, she will become head of Audit – well, let’s just say her behavior in public at the AI Conference was less than exemplary. The other guy, who we know would be a better choice to save the organization, well let’s just say he’s been networking hard but is discouraged.

We all know who is going to “win” the election."

Part 2:

"So today we are going to talk about the Audit Committee at The Appraisal Institute, the committee no one talks about and is poorly understood, but holds a good deal of the power within the organization. In the past 10 years, a disproportionate number of people elected to the gravy train that is the four-person Executive Committee first served on Audit.

To simplify, Audit is a five-member subgroup of the 25-person Board of Directors. Elected by the BOD, members of Audit serve a 2-year term, with staggered terms of service. With five people and a 2-year term, there is at least a 33 percent chance if elected, you will serve as Chair of Audit. In alternating years, it is 50 percent.

Audit and the Executive Committee comprise 9 of the 25 voting members of the Board of Directors. That’s 36%. To get to a simple majority, this voting block only needs 4 of the remaining 16 members of the Board of Directors to push through what they want. The way the Board is structured allows this voting block to remain in power with a disproportionate level of control.

Once members realized that the Executive Committee could align itself with Audit and control the BOD, that is where the trouble started. Members of Audit who did the bidding of The Executive Committee could expect to be rewarded by being elected to The Executive Committee. The remaining members of the BOD have no power at all.

Recently, a task force was convened to consider how we elect the members of The Executive Committee. In the end, the Chair of the Audit Committee was appointed Chair of the task force to consider the conflicts of interest in the voting process of the Executive Committee. Basically, they were charged with investigating themselves. Are you surprised that so far no recommendations have been made? It’s corruption at its best.

More to come on Audit…"

 

[RCA]

And a follow up post on LinkedIn:

"So in my last column, I wrote about how the Audit Committee and the Executive Committee work together to control election results. Don’t forget that individual members of The Appraisal Institute do not get to individually vote for their leaders. The election is decided by The Nominating Committee, which is Chaired by the (non-voting) Immediate Past President of The AI and a member of the Executive Committee.

There are two people running for 2027 Vice President, the role that segues into President of The Appraisal Institute.

Both people have impressive credentials, both in their professional careers and in their service to The Appraisal Institute. One person is running from the floor, on a platform of reform. He has a plan to restructure the organization and addresses the exploding financial losses. It’s a very good plan. He also tangentially addresses the corruption within the system. It’s a double-edged sword, because the people he is criticizing are the people who will decide if he gets the role. The other person runs on a platform of status quo. It’s all vaguely positive.

But there is one big difference between the two candidates. One is a member from the floor. The other is a member of the Audit Committee.

The candidate who's on the Audit Committee spent a disproportionate amount of time at the recent AI Conference hanging out in public with the Chair of the Nominating Committee. You know, the person who can lean on members of the Nominating Committee to make the election go a certain direction. The two of them were super chummy. Might have been flaunting it a little to the people who were paying attention. In the meantime, the other junior member of Audit, who probably has realized that if her fellow Audit Committee member wins, she will become head of Audit – well, let’s just say her behavior in public at the AI Conference was less than exemplary. The other guy, who we know would be a better choice to save the organization, well let’s just say he’s been networking hard but is discouraged.

We all know who is going to “win” the election."

Part 2:

"So today we are going to talk about the Audit Committee at The Appraisal Institute, the committee no one talks about and is poorly understood, but holds a good deal of the power within the organization. In the past 10 years, a disproportionate number of people elected to the gravy train that is the four-person Executive Committee first served on Audit.

To simplify, Audit is a five-member subgroup of the 25-person Board of Directors. Elected by the BOD, members of Audit serve a 2-year term, with staggered terms of service. With five people and a 2-year term, there is at least a 33 percent chance if elected, you will serve as Chair of Audit. In alternating years, it is 50 percent.

Audit and the Executive Committee comprise 9 of the 25 voting members of the Board of Directors. That’s 36%. To get to a simple majority, this voting block only needs 4 of the remaining 16 members of the Board of Directors to push through what they want. The way the Board is structured allows this voting block to remain in power with a disproportionate level of control.

Once members realized that the Executive Committee could align itself with Audit and control the BOD, that is where the trouble started. Members of Audit who did the bidding of The Executive Committee could expect to be rewarded by being elected to The Executive Committee. The remaining members of the BOD have no power at all.

Recently, a task force was convened to consider how we elect the members of The Executive Committee. In the end, the Chair of the Audit Committee was appointed Chair of the task force to consider the conflicts of interest in the voting process of the Executive Committee. Basically, they were charged with investigating themselves. Are you surprised that so far no recommendations have been made? It’s corruption at its best.

More to come on Audit…"

1. I can't disagree with most of what you say. I just do not keep up on that kind of detail.
2. I have never denied that the Appraisal Institute does some good and has a certain purpose. But, in my opinion, it hasn't been keeping up with the flow of progress over the past 20-30 years, at least. A major part of the problem is that far more talent is needed within the profession to advance to leadership positions. The organization of the appraisal system, its motivations, is geared AGAINST more talent coming into appraisal. Rather, in fact, it encourages the lowest possible standards.
3. The GSEs are always making things worse, or at a minimum not helping.
4. TAF is always making things worse, or at a minimum not helping.
5. As the primary appraisal leadership organization in the US, it simply does not fulfill that position. It lacks backbone, intelligence, and so many things that are needed.

I DO NOT believe the Appraisal Institute can be saved. It can perhaps be kept afloat for longer, maybe for another 5-10 years. But the AI needs to be completely replaced with leadership coming directly from the likes of UC Berkeley, Stanford, UC San Diego, UCLA and other leading universities. Yes, all in California. But surprisingly, that is where most of the best statistics for real estate come from (Leo Breiman (UC Berkeley), Jerome Friedman (Stanford), Robert Tibshirani (Stanford), Trevor Hastie (Stanford)). Put the research branch in California and the administrative branch in Dallas! Why research in California? -- Because that is the center of real knowledge for real estate, and with tons of real estate in a relatively small area, along with the best universities, thus a prime location for advanced research and cooperation from academia. Why Dallas? - Central location, active economy, low-cost housing.

 

[RCA]

1. I can't disagree with most of what you say. I just do not keep up on that kind of detail.
2. I have never denied that the Appraisal Institute does some good and has a certain purpose. But, in my opinion, it hasn't been keeping up with the flow of progress over the past 20-30 years, at least. A major part of the problem is that far more talent is needed within the profession to advance to leadership positions. The organization of the appraisal system, its motivations, is geared AGAINST more talent coming into appraisal. Rather, in fact, it encourages the lowest possible standards.
3. The GSEs are always making things worse, or at a minimum not helping.
4. TAF is always making things worse, or at a minimum not helping.
5. As the primary appraisal leadership organization in the US, it simply does not fulfill that position. It lacks backbone, intelligence, and so many things that are needed.

I DO NOT believe the Appraisal Institute can be saved. It can perhaps be kept afloat for longer, maybe for another 5-10 years. But the AI needs to be completely replaced with leadership coming directly from the likes of UC Berkeley, Stanford, UC San Diego, UCLA and other leading universities. Yes, all in California. But surprisingly, that is where most of the best statistics for real estate come from (Leo Breiman (UC Berkeley), Jerome Friedman (Stanford), Robert Tibshirani (Stanford), Trevor Hastie (Stanford)). Put the research branch in California and the administrative branch in Dallas! Why research in California? -- Because that is the center of real knowledge for real estate, and with tons of real estate in a relatively small area, along with the best universities, thus a prime location for advanced research and cooperation from academia. Why Dallas? - Central location, active economy, low-cost housing.

I must add, though, that I don't think the Appraisal Institute leaders are that much to blame for the same problems that many organizations and industries are facing.

Take auto repair mechanics:

Ford can't find mechanics to fill its empty bays and, consequently, can't keep up with customer repairs. Why? Apparently, Ford management had their engineers design autos and pickups so they would be cheap to produce rather than easy to repair. Ford has always allocated only so much time and expense for its mechanics to repair various defects, and now, for some reasion, it doesn't update the time allotments after the engineers redesign parts to take 10 times longer to repair. Consequently, mechanics who spent $30K-$70K to get certified and up to $50K for tools can't make a living. - And no one seems to care. So, they drop out. Ring a bell?

I am seeing this in many places. Talk about the trucking industry, or ....

The industry, including service sectors, seems to assume that every lower-level job can eventually be done by robots, automated machinery, or AI. Thus, no need to worry about rank-and-file employees - they will be gone soon.

And so, in our case, what is the Appraisal Institute going to do about all those nice, friendly, homey, well-dressed appraisers who attend their 1-day conferences for $150-$200 EACH? Simple, they are just going to give them some useful information to keep them in the loop for as long as possible until they stop getting assignments. And then, probably at some point, everything just falls flat and that is that. Why attempt to teach them new skills? They will be out of work anyway, sooner or later, come hell or high water.

So, nobody is motivated now. It's a dismal future.... Me? Something wrong with me to be so positive for myself --- no, it's just that I am happy when everything is so ****ing complicated.

 

[Surf Cat]

I must add, though, that I don't think the Appraisal Institute leaders are that much to blame for the same problems that many organizations and industries are facing.

Take auto repair mechanics:

Ford can't find mechanics to fill its empty bays and, consequently, can't keep up with customer repairs. Why? Apparently, Ford management had their engineers design autos and pickups so they would be cheap to produce rather than easy to repair. Ford has always allocated only so much time and expense for its mechanics to repair various defects, and now, for some reasion, it doesn't update the time allotments after the engineers redesign parts to take 10 times longer to repair. Consequently, mechanics who spent $30K-$70K to get certified and up to $50K for tools can't make a living. - And no one seems to care. So, they drop out. Ring a bell?

I am seeing this in many places. Talk about the trucking industry, or ....

The industry, including service sectors, seems to assume that every lower-level job can eventually be done by robots, automated machinery, or AI. Thus, no need to worry about rank-and-file employees - they will be gone soon.

And so, in our case, what is the Appraisal Institute going to do about all those nice, friendly, homey, well-dressed appraisers who attend their 1-day conferences for $150-$200 EACH? Simple, they are just going to give them some useful information to keep them in the loop for as long as possible until they stop getting assignments. And then, probably at some point, everything just falls flat and that is that. Why attempt to teach them new skills? They will be out of work anyway, sooner or later, come hell or high water.

So, nobody is motivated now. It's a dismal future.... Me? Something wrong with me to be so positive for myself --- no, it's just that I am happy when everything is so ****ing complicated.

Ford CEO Jim Farley received $27.5 million in total compensation for 2025, marking a career-high and an 11% increase from the previous year. This payout occurred despite the company reporting an $8.2 billion net loss and facing record recall numbers.

Who needs that kind of money "per year"? Yet, the mechanics keeping the Ford vehicles on the road can't afford a modest house. Gluttony at its finest. Corporate greed is everywhere.

I have a 2014 Ford Fusion Hybrid. I like the car, it is really touchy though and sensitive in comparison to my former Toyota Camry hybrid. I sold the Toyota with 130k on the ODO, the piston rings had a problem on my year.... requiring frequent top offs.....the reason I got rid of it. Other than that it was really solid.

 

[RCA]

I must add, though, that I don't think the Appraisal Institute leaders are that much to blame for the same problems that many organizations and industries are facing.

Take auto repair mechanics:

Ford can't find mechanics to fill its empty bays and, consequently, can't keep up with customer repairs. Why? Apparently, Ford management had their engineers design autos and pickups so they would be cheap to produce rather than easy to repair. Ford has always allocated only so much time and expense for its mechanics to repair various defects, and now, for some reasion, it doesn't update the time allotments after the engineers redesign parts to take 10 times longer to repair. Consequently, mechanics who spent $30K-$70K to get certified and up to $50K for tools can't make a living. - And no one seems to care. So, they drop out. Ring a bell?

I am seeing this in many places. Talk about the trucking industry, or ....

The industry, including service sectors, seems to assume that every lower-level job can eventually be done by robots, automated machinery, or AI. Thus, no need to worry about rank-and-file employees - they will be gone soon.

And so, in our case, what is the Appraisal Institute going to do about all those nice, friendly, homey, well-dressed appraisers who attend their 1-day conferences for $150-$200 EACH? Simple, they are just going to give them some useful information to keep them in the loop for as long as possible until they stop getting assignments. And then, probably at some point, everything just falls flat and that is that. Why attempt to teach them new skills? They will be out of work anyway, sooner or later, come hell or high water.

So, nobody is motivated now. It's a dismal future.... Me? Something wrong with me to be so positive for myself --- no, it's just that I am happy when everything is so ****ing complicated.

Also, another good example is the Railroad industry. Conductors have been walking away from jobs since about 2015, and labor cutbacks - when the industry is making record profits.

 

[RCA]

All in all, as Elon Musk says: "The government is basically unfixable." And the reason for that is the widespread inefficiencies of our national "system." The whole thing - not just the government, but especially the government and anything related to it.

It all goes back to the people, to the populace. If people don't care to use common sense and always think about the greater good, then things will go bad and rot.

Now, getting back to the Appraisal Institute, TAF, and the GSEs: Yes, they are rotten, as are most of the people who run them. But that situation is endemic to most of our society.

And if one had to point fingers, it would be to the education system that produced the so-called "citizens." The education system is the core rot. And, well, that goes back to Hollywood, the news media, and so on and so forth, and of course, the politicians that are the result and the legal system, never to forget the corrupt and absolutely rotten attorneys. It is all just one enormous cancer.

And only a Nazi tyrant can fix things, but then that is not a good solution either: Maybe those Russians who worshiped Stalin had a point, at least in a way, at least partially. ( ChatGPT says the view that Stalin suppressed corruption is actually mistaken, because he replaced it with "political loyalty" that was just another form of corruption. - Which, come to think of it, sounds a lot like the Democrat party ... or, just possibly, the Trump Administration.

So, it's a problem to be solved. ....

Getting back to the rot, it is a question of degree that's all.