Cara?

[Rose in CT]

I have not heard a word from the Connecticut Association of Real Estate Appraisers in a while. What is the progress on the proposed legislation?

 

[hal380]

Cara

Hi Rose;

Our legislation came before the a Judiciary Committee, I believe, in any event it come before a "Gate Keeper" type of committee for hearings and public input. The result of this hearing was then to help them decide yes or no on recommending this legislation to go forward.

We had about 20 CARA members in the gallery and we had several speakers from CARA on the speakers list. Also in attendance was the Appraisal Institute Governmental Affairs person - Ralph Biondi. The official AI position was to speak against our proposed legislation. Their reasoning was that they had a model piece of legislation that had been introduced in other states and they were going to find a legislator to introduce it in Connecticut.

The long and short of it was that the committee said if we could not come together and represent our industry with a unified voice they were not going to considerit further. I was very disappointed with the AI position. We had something which may not have been 110% of what they wanted but I feel if they would have supported our legislation that would be a step in the right direction. When they were ready to go forward, we could have supported them. In the meantime all appraisers in CT would have been well served.

Isn't it suprising how much can be accomplished if it dosn't matter who gets the credit?????

Regards

Hal

 

[Rose in CT]

Hi Hal

I hope CARA isn't giving up!
I think CARA can get better results with contacting The Attorney General's office to address the low fee issue . The "Appraisers Independence " is in affect by FAnnie & Freddie guidlines and as of Jan 1 2010 FHA is adopting the same "appraiser Independence" guidelines. The BIG issue is the fee's the AMC's are paying. I feel this is either a labor law issue or under fair business practices . Appraisers are being forced to split fees with large AMC's (some owned by Lenders) and the borrower is paying more for the appraisal. The appraiser takes all the risk and spends 8-10 hours writing the appraisal and forced to take a 50%-70% split with the AMC's that spend less then 30 mins reviewing the work. This is outragous!
AG Bluminthal has fought for saving 1000 jobs at Pratt and now fighting the utility company for 70 jobs being cut , so now's the time to fight for 1900 state appraisers being forced out of business and the possibility of losing the proffession all due to fee cuts from AMC's outside the state . FHA has already stated beginning Jan 1 2010 appraisers must be paid area prices for the work. We need to clearify that it should be the Appraisers that set the area fee NOT the AMC's. It can easily be done by a small polling during License renewal or 30 min's calling 10 appraisers on the phone by the state Lic board. I will be writing the Ag about this but it would be good if CARA also wrote the AG. CARA is a great idea for CT Appraisers but more appraisers need to join and with all the CE class going on CARA should put out a handout for classes so more appraisers will join . More members mean more power. I urge CARA to rethink the strategy and never give up.