Appraiser Bias Education

[Surf Cat]

The most common version of the complaint is that appraisers won't leave the neighborhood. Not that they're understating the subject's condition and using inferior condition comparables in the same neighborhood.

The de facto Redlining allegation they keep complaining about is explicitly a location attribute. Not a quality/condition attribute. Their allegation is that all locations with similar proximity to services and employment and such should be valued equally, and that the reason they don't get appraised equally is because appraisers won't choose on some purely discretionary basis to bypass more proximate for less proximate.

Our kid's current vehicle is long in the tooth so, I've been searching for a replacement. Found what looked like a
"phenomenal deal". The owner was located South Central.... (yes, I went to view the vehicle first thing in the morning) I took the wife with me (even though she was hesitant to go) because the seller was Hispanic and she's fluent. I needed her for negotiations should I have liked the vehicle.

The car was completely different in person then depicted in the photos. It was a perfect case on why appraisers "shouldn't" do hybrid appraisals.

The point of my reply however, was the area. As well as quality and condition of the properties within the area. Trash in the streets, dirty sidewalks, iron bars on every door and window no matter if it was residential or commercial. The residents have a lack of vested interest in the area thus, fix their dwellings with lower cost materials. The city follows suit and doesn't put the necessary services/man power into cleaning up the area.....a form of bias in itself.....

The seller stated he and his wife wanted out of the area as the gunshots and helicopters overhead every night have them on edge.

I was pointing out to the wife the change occurring right before our eyes as we made our way back home further southwest. Appraisers are just following what they were taught from the very beginning..... location location location. Even Fanni says it;

within the neighborhood is the best indicator of value as sales prices of comparable properties from the same location should reflect the same positive and negative location characteristics.

It's extremely unfortunate that appraisers were labeled as the biased party in the real estate transaction while the other parties involved were left untouched of the accusations.

I also believe that the DNC has felt the ramifications of their finger pointing in their ratings of the most recent polls. You know you're doing something wrong when you're rated lower than the chaotic way that Trump is running things.

As for the bias class that appraisers "must" take which appraisers view as an unjust punishment. There should be a course that facilitates growth and learning. We as appraisers go to many different areas, into many people's homes, There's different social and ethnic makeups. A course on understanding and handling different ethnic and social groups, their social construct, assigned by societal rules would be much more interesting and useful.

 

[Fernando]

As an appraiser, we should be aware of the neighborhood differences. Even on same street, if adjacent house has gang bangers loitering around, it does affect subject.
Had such a case and owner said prior appraiser couldn't appraised at sales price.
If appraisers don't feel comfortable in doing such appraisals, don't take the assignment.

As for bias or fair housing CE classes, I wasn't too thrill in taking it but I learn something especially from a bureaucratic point of view.
And fair housing laws especially in CA have been more restrictive with recent laws like you can't discriminate based on income source. WTF.

 

[Carnivore]

many psychologists agree that all individuals have biases, both conscious and unconscious. These biases can stem from a variety of factors, including individual experiences, cultural influences, and learned associations. While some biases may be rooted in prejudice or discrimination, others are more subtle and can affect judgment and decision-making in various aspects of life.

...

Can we unlearn implicit biases?​

The idea that people have biases that operate below the level of conscious thought is uncomfortable. But decades of research have found that many people who would never consciously agree with prejudiced statements against Black people, LGBTQ people or women can nonetheless harbor implicit biases toward these groups and others.

Mahzarin Banaji, PhD, one of the pioneers of implicit bias research, talks about where implicit biases come from, the difference between implicit bias and prejudice, and which biases have lessened – and which have not – in recent years.__________________________________The American Psychological Association is the leading scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States, with more than 157,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students as its members.


So this is the never ending story

 

[ucbruin]

Appraisers taking online Bias CE courses need to be offline by noon....

 

[Fernando]

Bias classes show how we have biases at different levels. Good to have a Woke class.

 

[TerryRohrer]

The workhorse method for assessing implicit bias is the Implicit Association Test (IAT). You can take several of these here to see what they are like for yourself. But before you do, you should consider these reasons to be skeptical about any claims about implicit bias.

1. The peer-reviewed scientific literature has witnessed a great walking back of many of the most dramatic claims made on the basis of the IAT and about implicit social cognition more generally.
2. There is no consensually-accepted scientific definition of implicit bias.
3. The IAT measures reaction times, not things that most people think of as bias.
4. At best, the IAT measures the strength of association of concepts in memory.
5. The IAT may capture prejudice, stereotypes, or attitudes to some degree, but, if so, it is not a clean measure.
6. The IAT, as used and reported, has a potpourri of additional methodological and statistical oddities.
7. Many of the studies that use IAT scores to predict behavior find little or no anti-Black discrimination specifically.
8. Whether IAT scores predict behavioral manifestations of bias beyond self-report prejudice scales is unclear, with some studies finding they do and others finding they do not.
9. Procedures that change IAT scores have failed to produce changes in discriminatory behavior.
10. There is currently no clear evidence that implicit bias trainings accomplish anything other than teaching people about the research on implicit bias.
11. There is no evidence that IAT scores are "unconscious."
12. Critiques and discussions of its limitations or weaknesses are often not presented when the IAT is taught to introductory psychology students.
Here is my advice to you: Take an IAT or two (which you can here) if you have not already, just to see what the buzz is about. But now you are armed with enough information to reject any simple-minded proclamations about unconscious racism or the supposed power of implicit biases.

12 Reasons to Be Skeptical of Common Claims About Implicit Bias

Limitations and flaws in implicit bias research aren't always communicated to the general public.

www.psychologytoday.com

 

[TerryRohrer]

"In a 2018 essay, West Virginia University sociologist Jason Manning argued that "unconscious racism" bears a resemblance to older superstitions about the evil eye and sympathetic magic—but rather than mysterious unseen supernatural forces, we have mysterious unseen unconscious forces. There are, of course, some differences between beliefs in the evil eye and unconscious racism. There is no evidence that people can harm you by looking at you, whereas there is a wealth of studies on implicit social cognition. But I argue that the comparison may still be justified because the evidence for unconscious racism is so weak.

A moral panic occurs when some substantial portion of a society creates a "folk devil"—members of the community considered deviant and dangerous—and exaggerates the dangers they pose. In one research report, for example, people massively overestimated the number of unarmed Black people killed by police in 2019, with more than half of all liberals surveyed estimating the number at 1,000 or more (when data indicated it was more likely to be around 27). And many people have been denounced or socially ostracized for opposing things like affirmative action and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, even though the majority of Americans, including majorities of Black and Hispanic respondents, oppose basing college admissions or hiring on ethnicity or race."

12 Reasons to Be Skeptical of Common Claims About Implicit Bias

Limitations and flaws in implicit bias research aren't always communicated to the general public.

www.psychologytoday.com

 

[Carnivore]

What we have here are a lot of phyco-Babble Doctors who perpetuate this stuff for a living. I bet not any of them would admit they have bias's

unusually enlightened

illuminati, designation in use from the 15th century, assumed by or applied to various groups of persons who claimed to be unusually enlightened. The word is the plural of the Latin illuminatus (“revealed” or “enlightened”).Apr 21, 2025




i

 

[Fernando]

We all have biases but we won't admit it.
Even Trump has it saying buy 2 dolls than 30 dolls.
Let Them Eat Cake.

 

[TerryRohrer]

I have been unable to find it again, but there was a well-known Agricultural Economist who wrote an article during the 1980s that explained how the profession of "Agricultural Economist" came to be. There was no such thing before the 1930s. Then, during the Dirty Thirties, the government started spending money foolishly trying to manipulate markets and "save" farmers from the economic forces. Soon after, economists started researching these programs and proposing others, all to "save" farmers and "ensure cheap food supplies" and, lately, to ensure "food security." Suddenly, there was a new profession, Agricultural Economist. The author of said article that the studies done by Ag Economists at the behest of congress folks wanting to expand those programs, and paid for by the government, or paid for by proponents of those programs who stood to benefit by their implementation (do you think Archer Daniels Midland, headquartered in Chicago, opposes any program to expand ethanol use?). It was always clear that if you didn't conclude in favor of the position held by the party funding the research, such research would end or be done elsewhere. The "climate change" trope has a similar evolution. Bias promotion and consulting has a similar evolution. The basic problem is humans are involved and humans are greedy and humans' opinions can be purchased. No amounts of wasted money or ink or trees are going to change that, ever. These are all simply social engineering movements intended to redistribute the wealth of other in favor of the supporters of the proponents.