Appraiser Full Employment Act ?

[Metamorphic]

I do not see a lot of leeway with the Appraisal Independence provision included on page 407 of the bill. Looks like they want a true estimate of market value.​

[snip]

The Secretary may impose a civil money penalty for any knowing and material violation of paragraph (1) under the same terms and conditions as are authorized in section 536(a) of this Act.​

That doesnt sound very serious to me. The possibility of a fine just means it becomes a cost benefit thing. Make enough on violating the law that on the occasion you get caught you can pay the fine and still be money ahead. You'd know they were serious if they were offering up criminal penalties.

 

[Michael Tipton]

That doesnt sound very serious to me. The possibility of a fine just means it becomes a cost benefit thing. Make enough on violating the law that on the occasion you get caught you can pay the fine and still be money ahead. You'd know they were serious if they were offering up criminal penalties.

What do you advocate--public execution. Get serious, the appraisal independence language is an improvement in comparison to prior federal language. California and other states passed mortgage fraud laws last year.

 

[ockyappraiser]

"The possibility of a fine just means it becomes a cost benefit thing. Make enough on violating the law that on the occasion you get caught you can pay the fine and still be money ahead. You'd know they were serious if they were offering up criminal penalties."

How many appraisers do you think would "turn in" the mortgage broker for pressuring them? I brought this up with some clients back when Colorado came out with similiar language. The reponse I got was "if an appraiser turned us in we would stop using the appraiser and let everyone else know what he/she did".

My market is a metro market, but still small enough that word gets around who the honest appraisers are and who are the "go to appraisers for value". The same would happen to the appraiser that "turned in" the mortgage broker for pressuring values. It would probably cost the appraiser a significant amount of business loss unless somehow it could be done anonymously.

 

[Pamela Crowley (Florida)]

The ONLY cure is to take the appraiser selection and ordering completely away from ANYBODY or ANY COMPANY that is involved in the transaction.

 

[Lost Cause]

More Impotent Regulation

What do you advocate--public execution. Get serious, the appraisal independence language is an improvement in comparison to prior federal language. California and other states passed mortgage fraud laws last year.

I don't see the improvement. Without enforcement it's meaningless. The regulations as they were before any changes would have been plenty sufficient to stop the nonsense that has gone on. Why would anyone believe that there'll be any more enforcement of these regs than the previous ones?

 

[liznindy]

Pam said:

The ONLY cure is to take the appraiser selection and ordering completely away from ANYBODY or ANY COMPANY that is involved in the transaction.



And/or Appraisers with some freakin backbone!!!

 

[Metamorphic]

What do you advocate--public execution. Get serious, the appraisal independence language is an improvement in comparison to prior federal language. California and other states passed mortgage fraud laws last year.

No, but it wouldn't be too much to ask to make it a misdemeanor....attempt to defraud a bank....and maybe a disbar them from participating in, or profiting from any mortgage related activity for 5 years.

Changing it to a "pay the fine, business as usual" situation wont improve anything. It will just give the government another opportunity to start another bureaucracy that wont collect enough fines to pay its keep.

 

[Metamorphic]

The ONLY cure is to take the appraiser selection and ordering completely away from ANYBODY or ANY COMPANY that is involved in the transaction.

I still say the only way to permanently fix the problem is to make sure EVERYBODY that has anything to do with qualifying the buyer, or reviewing the appraisal, has a long term, significant, personal, financial interest in the health of the loan.

As long as there's somebody in the process that does not give a ...hoot... whether the buyer ever makes 1 payment because they've already been paid and if anybody ever comes back and says WTH were you thinking loaning to this person, they can just close up shop and open up the next day with a different set of business cards, you have the seeds of the problem we see now.

Pam, your solution....even if it were implemented perfectly.....complete isolating the appraiser from external pressure, would still leave unscrupulous people with the ability to alter or just flat out ignore an appraisal, they'd still be able to mis represent buyers ability to pay, they'd still be able to make backdoor deals to make the sales price look like it meets appraised value.

 

[Lobo Fan]

It does look like this bill will just allow lenders to pass all their crappy loans to the FHA instead of FNMA or Freddie. In areas with heavily declining values the 10% equity requirement has been gone for a long time. So the FHA can only loan at 90% of the current value. I would think that the FHA would be interested in getting accurate appraisals. Plus the FHA does not tolerate the same monkey business accepted by Fannie/Freddie.

I just hope that the FHA is able to staff up enough to keep up with the tsunami of BS that is heading their way.

 

[Riick]

The ONLY cure is to take the appraiser selection and ordering completely away from ANYBODY or ANY COMPANY that is involved in the transaction.

AMC = Plausible deniability -- Plays right into the hands of the AMCs and thier freakin' Bank OWNERS

No, but it wouldn't be too much to ask to make it a misdemeanor....attempt to defraud a bank....and maybe a disbar them from participating in, or profiting from any mortgage related activity for 5 years.

So right. If only the language of the Bill included that!
But... Looks like it will be business as usual, with the AMCs as the front men.
Appraising as a profession will be left to those who can afford to work for Rice & Beans.

I just hope that the FHA is able to staff up enough to keep up with the tsunami of BS that is heading their way.

Time to sign-up with FHA as a Reviewer.
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