Deal Nears to Curb Home-Appraisal Abuse, Coumo, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae

[Mike Plumlee]

I am putting together a proposal for them. They are interested in what I will be presenting. Outline is being worked on now.

Pam, may the Force be with you.

 

[Laughing Heir]

I know I'm late to the dance.

I'm embarrassed to admit my naivety but I had always assumed that every appraisal was already warehoused somewhere. Scanned and submitted to a server farm protected under lock & key in the belly of a mountain in North Dakota.

What currently happens to the appraisals that are included in financing transactions? Are they even packaged with the loan when it's sold?

The confusion sets in for me b/c wouldn't Fannie & Freddie already have an extensive archive of appraisals? What do they currently do with them?

 

[Kevin Mc]

Obviously I'm late on this but I was on vacation last week and just found this forum so please cut me some slack.

I've been a staff appraiser at a regional bank for 14 years and have never received any pressure or mandate from my employer to "hit values" or "make the deal work" as a condition of my employment, which is one of the main reasons I've stayed there. We use a combination of staff and "known" fee appraisers. Our loss ratio is significantly lower than the industry average and the notion that eliminating "in house" staff from any reputable lender will reduce losses is ridiculous. The solution is not to eliminate the staff appraisers but to hold the less reputable institutions accountable by making them take back loans where fraud or negligence is found. If the appraisal is found to be the cause, go after the appraiser. I've had the opportunity to do a fair amount of field reviews through our wholesale division and let me tell you, there's a lot of bad work out there. Cutting out staff appraisers will only make things worse. Otoh, if I don't get laid off, I assume that field reviews will be all that I do, so maybe that will mean more work....

Hope you enjoyed your week off Lost and welcome to the forum. Great post.

 

[65076507]

Is there a way we can all sign something on here and just one of us send it to our congressman...Maybe we all start a thread and voice our concerns and e-mail a copy of that thread to congressman, Cuomo's office, etc.? Pam, can you lead this...........IF you

 

[65076507]

Let's all start a thread voicing our concerns and send it to our local congressman, Cuomo's office, and to anyone other related party. Pam, can you start this?

 

[Bearslide]

Obviously I'm late on this but I was on vacation last week and just found this forum so please cut me some slack.

I've been a staff appraiser at a regional bank for 14 years and have never received any pressure or mandate from my employer to "hit values" or "make the deal work" as a condition of my employment, which is one of the main reasons I've stayed there. We use a combination of staff and "known" fee appraisers. Our loss ratio is significantly lower than the industry average and the notion that eliminating "in house" staff from any reputable lender will reduce losses is ridiculous. The solution is not to eliminate the staff appraisers but to hold the less reputable institutions accountable by making them take back loans where fraud or negligence is found. If the appraisal is found to be the cause, go after the appraiser. I've had the opportunity to do a fair amount of field reviews through our wholesale division and let me tell you, there's a lot of bad work out there. Cutting out staff appraisers will only make things worse. Otoh, if I don't get laid off, I assume that field reviews will be all that I do, so maybe that will mean more work....

Welcome to the Forum, Lost - glad you found us. Good post. I can only hope the coming shake-up will indeed punish the guilty and promote the innocent. The lenders and appraisers who played by the rules should not be punished due to the excesses of the lenders, mortgage brokers and skip appraisers who chose to ignore the rules.

 

[65076507]

I got it!!!!

Let's all start a union......Will you guys vote me president if I get it started?

 

[65076507]

Bearslide, great point......It's obvious....We need to punish those responsible for the problem. Good honest appraisers that have not done anything wrong should not be penalized. Something needs to be done ASAP.

 

[Bearslide]

Bearslide, great point......It's obvious....We need to punish those responsible for the problem. Good honest appraisers that have not done anything wrong should not be penalized. Something needs to be done ASAP.

Ah, to be young and enthusiastic..............welcome to the Forum (should have welcomed you before, sorry).

 

[panappr]

Bearslide, great point......It's obvious....We need to punish those responsible for the problem. Good honest appraisers that have not done anything wrong should not be penalized. Something needs to be done ASAP.

Frankly, I don't think appraisers did anything wrong, except for "Skippy" who was doing appraisals so fast he forgot what day he did the inspection. The entire meltdown is a result of poor loan products (worst ever) and the negligence of the lenders, (sorry, if your reading this, but shame on you) offering stated income loans to almost everyone, not verifying job status or business climates for the self employed, giving people money they could never afford to pay back in the long term, and looking the other way, just because the market was appreciating. Its almost as if you wanted these properties back in your lap, so you could re-sale them for an enormous profit.

Well the market tanked!!! And it wasn't because the appraisers colluded with the mortgage brokers, or loan officers, or had bad intentions. It's because you gave allot of money to allot of uneducated and greedy people, "the public". Even those that don't know how to speak English. The reaction of Freddie/Fannie and the Feds is so short sited. If you think corralling up all the appraisers and making them work for AMC's is the answer, you would be doing far more harm than good. First of all, the well seasoned and experienced appraisers won't work for AMC fees, and they will most likely leave the business altogether. Then you'll be left with a bunch of appraisers who think that $500 a week is a dam good salary for 120 hrs. No name calling but, the actual cost of doing an appraisal in compliance with USPAP in California has skyrocketed. So if your planning to work for an AMC, I hope you're married and your spouse has a good job.