Corelogic Just Acquired Alamode

[TRESinc]

Right. I'm sure when someone calls you inquiring about your service, before you end the call, you give them a few names of other appraisers in the area. Because you're so confident. I think trying to protect your client relationships just makes good business sense.

This business was about relationships. I'm guessing you came in in the 2000's. Back when you just needed a pulse. You were thrust into the position of "business owner" by sheer luck. I didn't expect you to wrap your head around the concept.

you sure like to make assumptions don't ya? sorry i touched on a nerve for you. i've been in this since the mid-90s and i still have 3 of my original clients. i given them great service and they are apparently quite happy with me since they are still sending orders. but you go right on making assumptions that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

If you do mortgage appraisals, I wonder how your client would feel if you handed their borrower a business card for another lender during the inspection. Or better yet, one of those rate shopping sites. If you did, and they called you on it, would you just say..."what's wrong?...aren't you confident that you can keep the loan?"

mortgage related work makes up less than 30% of my business now, and i've worked hard to make it that way. maybe you should put some effort into marketing yourself to non-mortgage clients instead of whining and crying about how you perceive an ordering platform was designed to make you lose work.

Alamode decided that in spite of the relationship I had with them, in spite of the number of cars I've personally bought for Dave Biggers, that it was up to them to "distribute the wealth". To offer MY CLIENT services from my competition after decades of business...10's of thousands of dollars. This isn't facebook or google. I paid good money to this company.

and you got what you expected in return - software to allow you to work. i can't seem to recall the alamode marketing plan where they held a gun to your head and forced you to use their software. i stopped using them about 5 years ago based on how they were treating appriasers at the time, it's not impossible and it had nothing to do with mercury.

i got some news for you - YOUR client is a client to many more appraisers than you, possibly thousands, and the mercury network did not make it that way.it's true, the world does not revolve around you and the sooner you learn that the better off you will be.

 

[timd354]

. Our system would not need to be profitable. In fact, it would be non-profit. It just needs to make the nut.
.

Okay, but somebody has to run the system and presumably they will want to be paid. I think that many non-profit businesses fail because when there is no profit incentive, there is no incentive to innovate, improve and compete and thus such businesses usually do not last.

 

[timd354]

As business owners, we've been doing that for years, convincing clients to use our service over another's. That's part of the business.

Appraisers as a group have been unable to convince a lot of lenders to engage them directly as opposed to using an AMC.......it sounds like you think this would be an easy sell....if you really feel that way, get some appraiser friends together and make it happen. Talk without action will change nothing.

 

[TRESinc]

Easy, you don't use the FNMA form but a summary form in your software. Old certs, etc. My CRs used them in 90% of our work prior to stopping secondary market all together, and then all form reports were non-1004 forms. All I've done for 20 years is narrative and I wrote the certs for those.

please take a few minutes to read and digest what you quote before answering it, it will help to make you appear less foolish. the question was:

if this was done on a FNMA form how did you handle not complying with the per-printed SOW?

i asked home a question about a FNMA form and you jump in with your $0.02 that did not answer the question and skated around it. try, try again.

And one step better, would be to form a regional, appraiser-owned AMC. Imagine if all (or a significant number) the appraisers in a given market formed a second business, in addition to the one they already ran, a cooperative AMC. All 1099 appraisers with a license could join. All would own equal shares. Once the initial model was created, it could be franchised. The trick would be to get it done without greed - someone would need to pony up and start it without expecting to control it forever. That is of course a tall order and wont ever happen, but it would work. Imagine the possibilities. Its the old story though, appraisers are too independent for their own good.

that was already tried, and died. ask evincere.

 

[lefty2cox]

Appraisers as a group have been unable to convince a lot of lenders to engage them directly as opposed to using an AMC.......it sounds like you think this would be an easy sell....if you really feel that way, get some appraiser friends together and make it happen. Talk without action will change nothing.

Tim,

I don't think I said that component would be "easy". I think I said it's not an unsolvable problem. But if easy is requisite for you to consider any idea, maybe this isn't the discussion for you.

And this discussion started yesterday, forgive me if I'm only at "talk" and not "action" a day later.

 

[timd354]

Like 3 days later....sorry Tres, <moderator edit>....we moved on...

Now, that is a nice, mature and professional comment

 

[timd354]

Tim,

I don't think I said that component would be "easy". I think I said it's not an unsolvable problem. But if easy is requisite for you to consider any idea, maybe this isn't the discussion for you.

And this discussion started yesterday, forgive me if I'm only at "talk" and not "action" a day later.

I simply don't see the economics of if working, but maybe someone will prove me wrong

 

[lefty2cox]

Now, that is a nice, mature and professional comment

Tim,
You obviously don't like anything I've said on this thread. It's evident in your tone. And now it's clear, you are displeased with my sense of humor. If you don't mind answering, what's with your signature? I'm assuming most on this thread who are concerned are independent appraisers. Why are you so afraid of your employer? Do you mind disclosing who that is? You can be broad if you're more comfortable with that.

 

[Artemis Fowl]

Tim, You obviously don't like anything I've said on this thread. It's evident in your tone.

IMO you're pretty tone-deaf. You reference a prior topic here that did not seem to resolve to your satisfaction. I daresay history will likely repeat itself. By all means blame it on some elitist AF cabal. Here's a thought tho...maybe it's not us.

 

[timd354]

Tim,
You obviously don't like anything I've said on this thread. It's evident in your tone. And now it's clear, you are displeased with my sense of humor. If you don't mind answering, what's with your signature? I'm assuming most on this thread who are concerned are independent appraisers. Why are you so afraid of your employer? Do you mind disclosing who that is? You can be broad if you're more comfortable with that.

Whether or not one thinks that the joke is funny, it is simply not appropriate for a professional occupational forum. Regarding my employer, I am not afraid of it at all, however I work as the chief appraiser for a highly regulated and publicly traded company and I am not here to speak on behalf of the company. My signature simply makes that clear.