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"customary And Reasonable Local Fees" Clarified Thanks To Working Re Survey

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I think that Alamode study is the most excellent piece of research completed on this topic. I thought this was supposed to go through in April 2011? I CANT believe that this would ever pass and that it will have any affect on our industry. I don't know why our industry isn't organizing marches or go on strike. I guess there are enough appraisers out there that will never strike and can make a decent living rushing through $150 appraisals.

I posted this to my blog the other day:
On December 27, the American Society of Appraisers, together with the National Association of Independent Fee Appraisers (NAIFA), the Appraisal Institute (AI) and the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers (ASFMRA), filed reply comments with the Federal Reserve regarding its proposed Appraiser Independence Interim Final Regulations. Of utmost importance to ASA and our partners was concern over the potential for “the consideration of fees paid by AMCs when adhering to the first presumption of compliance with the customary and reasonable fee regulations,” which uses a series of factors in determining whether the fee paid to an appraiser is appropriate under the law and regulations. This concern arose from commentary provided by the Fed in its Interim Rule which stated that determining whether an appraisal fee is customary and reasonable, “does not require that a creditor use third-party information that excludes appraisals ordered by AMCs.”

Also addressed in the letter was the appropriateness of safe harbors for reliance upon third-party fee studies and surveys which rely on generally accepted survey methodologies, and a recommendation that the Fed, using its RESPA authority, require separate disclosure of appraisal fees and AMC fees in this or a subsequent rulemaking as a matter of consumer protection and to further ensure that appraisers receive customary and reasonable fees. The letter also directly addresses over a dozen questions raised by the Fed as part of the rulemaking process on a variety of issues, from the extension of conflicts of interest prohibitions to AVMs, to outcome-based appraiser compensation, to the consideration of professional designations as part of a determination of the reasonableness of fees.

I will be following up on the NAIFA website to see what come of this. Maybe we should all be looking to the NAIFA or AI when it comes to coming together as a group to make sure we get some proper representation.
 
Why could we not form an appraiser's guild or union? I just keep thinking something is going to change for the better. It does keep changing...... Just for the worse!
 
Customary and reasonable ...... what a crock. Let's have all businesses be able to tell the customer paying those businesses exactly how much the customer HAS to pay them because some set price is customary and reasonable for the area.

Competition by virtue of providing the same goods or services for less money should not be allowed! Never! That is forboden! Yes, have the goverment mandate this for all businesses because if it is good for the appraisers then it should be good for all businesses!!

Stop blaming the AMCs for the over supply of willing appraisers. Ever hear of supply and demand?
 
This is a bogus suvey. Who is doing appraisals in CT for $300 that is a good appraiser? Noone. Starting fee in CT is $375 and above. This is ala mode trying to benefit and to try to make money off of appraisers by hawking this fee schedule to AMCs. Who are they kidding? This is why I won't go with this software. If ACI starts sucking up to AMCs - I will be done with them as well.
 
Customary and reasonable ...... what a crock. Let's have all businesses be able to tell the customer paying those businesses exactly how much the customer HAS to pay them because some set price is customary and reasonable for the area.

Competition by virtue of providing the same goods or services for less money should not be allowed! Never! That is forboden! Yes, have the goverment mandate this for all businesses because if it is good for the appraisers then it should be good for all businesses!!

Stop blaming the AMCs for the over supply of willing appraisers. Ever hear of supply and demand?

Been here and done-did-it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and so on and so forth.

You get it, but what people think, say, do and choose to believe sometimes don't all jive (actually quite often). I think it's fair to say that you think it's OK because you are permitted to do it. What's happening right now is not the natural course of things working "itself right again" (and by no means was the old system the way to go). The intentions of "the new way" I believe were good on some level but rushed, completely misunderstood by virtually everyone that does not have any real life experience in it and also totally twisted by the the ones with most of the chips right now; this is where you have your overwhelming advantage. For those friends with benefits it's great. Greed, no matter who you are or what you do is an awful character trait to answer to in the end.

What is happening is not OK, it is not right and not all of it has to do with the livelihood of myself and my peers.

You are over selling your service too often and under delivering even more often. This is adding up to the end just a little bit at a time; like anything that is so far leaning, a tipping point is unavoidably reached.

While I do believe that the AMC idea has a foothold in the future, what you have become part of will cease to exist as it does today.......sooner than you think and definitely sooner than you had hoped.
 
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Customary and reasonable ...... what a crock. Let's have all businesses be able to tell the customer paying those businesses exactly how much the customer HAS to pay them because some set price is customary and reasonable for the area.

Competition by virtue of providing the same goods or services for less money should not be allowed! Never! That is forboden! Yes, have the goverment mandate this for all businesses because if it is good for the appraisers then it should be good for all businesses!!

Stop blaming the AMCs for the over supply of willing appraisers. Ever hear of supply and demand?

Customary and reasonable in my area is 300, you took my clients and now charge the customer 450-500. Drop dead, Blue Boy.
 
Customary and reasonable ...... what a crock. Let's have all businesses be able to tell the customer paying those businesses exactly how much the customer HAS to pay them because some set price is customary and reasonable for the area.

Competition by virtue of providing the same goods or services for less money should not be allowed! Never! That is forboden! Yes, have the goverment mandate this for all businesses because if it is good for the appraisers then it should be good for all businesses!!

Stop blaming the AMCs for the over supply of willing appraisers. Ever hear of supply and demand?

The mortgage and banking industry today is not representative of a free and open market. It is an oligarchy, The six largest banks in the US have assets equal to 60% of the GNP. They are Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo. In the mid-1990s, these six banks or their predecessors, since there have been a lot of mergers, had less than 20 percent. Their assets were less than 20 percent of the gross national product. At the same time, the nation’s biggest banks, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase have been the big winners by grabbing over 50% of the loan market and originating the vast majority of the market share. This has, in turn, created a powerful market concentration with tremendous pricing power.

The power in the banking (and mortgage industry) is concentrated in these firms and a handful of others. Because of their political and economic power they can set the rules and the pricing in the appraisal industry. The largest of the AMCs are either owned by or controlled by the big banks. They set the pricing for appraisal products. The deck is stacked against individual appraisers. So don't stick your head in the sand and claim that the "market" is the factor that is determining customary and reasonable fees. Your conclusion is misguided.
 
Customary and reasonable ...... what a crock.

Not really. Government intervention was ok when it lined your pockets but now that it may be threatening a bit of that it is a problem?

Seriously Doc, why are you still on this forum? If I was in your shoes I would be out looking for my next job. Given the current status of your parent company, the future isn't so bright. The non-compete agreement between FFNRES and LPS has ended. Multiple state attorney generals are lining up with lawsuits in regards to LPS's handling of the foreclosure mess and a handful of major hedge fund managers have ingested this information and are looking at LPS like a delicious pork chop ripe for shorting.
Time for a Plan B. Good luck.
 
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This is a bogus suvey. Who is doing appraisals in CT for $300 that is a good appraiser? Noone. Starting fee in CT is $375 and above. This is ala mode trying to benefit and to try to make money off of appraisers by hawking this fee schedule to AMCs. Who are they kidding? This is why I won't go with this software. If ACI starts sucking up to AMCs - I will be done with them as well.

Summer,

They use fee information that flows through the Mercury Network. Someone, or many someones, in your area must be accepting fees at $300 if that is what the survey states. From what I have read, they are not making this up. They are reporting what the actual is. :shrug:

For the record, the Mercury Network is not an AMC

For my dollar, ala mode has done more for the appraiser than the other software providers combined.

ACI, they are the worst and will sell out the appraiser in a heart beat in the name of a quick buck.
 
If ACI starts sucking up to AMCs - I will be done with them as well.

Summer,

ACI, they are the worst and will sell out the appraiser in a heart beat in the name of a quick buck.

Correct. Selling appraisers software is pocket change in ACI world. Selling AMCs and lenders software is their bread and butter.
 
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