California Licensing Fees Increased to $1,030 Every Two Years

[CANative]

From BREA

"Over the last four years the Bureau planned and implemented budget cuts. The most significant cost saving measures include eliminating two positions in 2018 for a $250,000 annual savings and eliminating three more positions in 2019 for additional$350,000 annual savings. The Bureau also moved the office from downtown Sacramento n 2019 creating a reduction in lease costs for an approximate $300,000 savings over eight years."

 

[Mr Rex]

2 positions totaling $250k and 3 totaling $350k . Wonder where that fell on the Grand Poobah chain? Nice gig if you can swing it.

 

[RCA]

What an incredibly stupid thing to say.

The term "political purposes" is fairly broad in meaning. The VA loans were created by Congress, i.e. politicians:

"The VA home loan program is one of the most popular benefits offered to veterans, and was conceived in 1944 (by Congress) “as part of an attack on the harsh aftermath associated with wars,” according to the Legislative History of the VA Home Loan Guaranty Program (PDF), compiled by the Veterans Affairs Department.

The objectives were to ease as much as possible the economic and sociological problems of the post-war readjustments of millions of men and women who served in the military, the document states. The idea was an alternative to a cash bonus, because it would be much less expensive to the government and would provide more help to veterans.

Supporters of the concept felt this would be a way for the government to help veterans obtain favorable credit. There was a concern that military members, because of their service, hadn’t yet been able to establish a credit rating in order to borrow money for a home or to establish a business. The program “was an attempt to place the veteran on a par with his/her nonveteran counterpart,” the VA document states.
It also helped the economy by providing an investment outlet for large amounts of money that became available after wartime restrictions eased."

The GSEs were originally also political. Now, one might argue they have been corrupted into a kind of dumping ground for bad loans. A haven to support the bad habits private banks have developed to act recklessly in underwriting loans.

 

[RCA]

2 positions totaling $250k and 3 totaling $350k . Wonder where that fell on the Grand Poobah chain? Nice gig if you can swing it.

$125,000 in total costs probably supports a salary of $75,000-$80,000/year, barely a living wage in California.

The thing is, the BREA could be rich - if they would take on the role of being the sole AMC for California, Less overhead, better for everyone. .... Unless you own an AMC.

 

[RCA]

Hey Greg, I just seen your post, I know it's an older post, but it got my attention in regards to your broker license. I'm an A/R in CA and thinking about getting my broker license, since I'm allowed to use my experience as an appraiser to supplement experience portion of the Broker requirement in addition to the courses required. Do you feel it's worth it?

For California, if you have a college degree and are able to read contracts (legalese), getting a brokers license is relatively easy to get: All you need to do is take some online courses and pass the exam. The exam will throw some complicated legal stuff at you though. It is said some attorneys have failed the exam more than once.

 

[ZZGAMAZZ]

If the number of appraisers is significantly lower then maybe they should cut staff in Sacramento?

Michigan $350 every two years; Iowa $375 every two years.

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Even more prudent would be to incorporate BREA into DRE. The two disciplines are obviously disparate, and yet both pertain specifically to real property, probably reflecting a 40% redundancy.

 

[RCA]

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Even more prudent would be to incorporate BREA into DRE. The two disciplines are obviously disparate, and yet both pertain specifically to real property, probably reflecting a 40% redundancy.

Unfortunately, that is a one-way street. There is a conflict of interest between valuation and sales, as well as between valuation and financing.. If the BREA wants to act as an AMC, as an intermediary between clients of appraisal services and appraisers, as well as audit and review appraisers then it must be insulated from clients. One way to insulate the BREA from the clients is to give the clients only one choice for an AMC, namely the BREA; then they cannot threaten to run to another AMC if they don't get their way.

But you can't have an AMC under the same roof as the client. You can't have the BREA under the same roof, reporting to the same manager, as the DRE. In fact, the BREA, it could be argued, must be somewhat autonomous from the State. What the GSE's are to the federal government, the BREA should be to the state government. Each state does have its own BREA (or whatever they may call it). Every lender and client of appraisals services, I would propose, must go through the state BREA to request an appraisal. Every appraisal gets stamped with a unique order number and can always be reviewed by the associated state board.

In addition, USPAP should be revamped and broken up into standards for the different types of appraisals and related issues. There will be a group of common standards applicable to all appraisals of course, but then they diverge into commercial [office, industrial, agricultural, ...], residential [SFR, Income, subsidized,...], equipment, personal, business, and so on. Any single appraiser shouldn't need to concern himself with property types he doesn't work with.

 

[1iView]

This is nothing, a report a year. Support your state board.
did anybody notice the AMC fees 5K....how many reports must they fill to cover that.

 

[George Hatch]

Unfortunately, that is a one-way street. There is a conflict of interest between valuation and sales, as well as between valuation and financing.. If the BREA wants to act as an AMC, as an intermediary between clients of appraisal services and appraisers, as well as audit and review appraisers then it must be insulated from clients. One way to insulate the BREA from the clients is to give the clients only one choice for an AMC, namely the BREA; then they cannot threaten to run to another AMC if they don't get their way.

But you can't have an AMC under the same roof as the client. You can't have the BREA under the same roof, reporting to the same manager, as the DRE. In fact, the BREA, it could be argued, must be somewhat autonomous from the State. What the GSE's are to the federal government, the BREA should be to the state government. Each state does have its own BREA (or whatever they may call it). Every lender and client of appraisals services, I would propose, must go through the state BREA to request an appraisal. Every appraisal gets stamped with a unique order number and can always be reviewed by the associated state board.

In addition, USPAP should be revamped and broken up into standards for the different types of appraisals and related issues. There will be a group of common standards applicable to all appraisals of course, but then they diverge into commercial [office, industrial, agricultural, ...], residential [SFR, Income, subsidized,...], equipment, personal, business, and so on. Any single appraiser shouldn't need to concern himself with property types he doesn't work with.

That's already handled. The SOWR already requires appraisers to identify and meet the needs of their intended users, which by definition means different effective requirements for different types of users. The fact that too many appraisers actually believe in the fire-n-forget boilerplate that will be universally acceptable to 100% of their mortgage lending clients is the result of appraisers not actually understanding the SOWR. It is not the result of the SOWR not being sufficiently explicit about the requirements of fitting the service to the user.

If you're looking for the ASB to dictate the specific recipe of ingredients that will be universally applicable to all mortgage lending appraisals regardless of which lender then you're completely missing the point that our prime directive is to identify who our users are and what their expectations are. In no case can the ASB dictate a self-contained one-size-fits-all recipe for mortgage lending. The ASB doesn't dictate to the mortgage lenders what they are and are not allowed to ask for. That's not their role, nor should we want it to become their role.

 

[CANative]

I like it better when it was half an appraisal per year.

But no one seems to want half an appraisal.