Do You Have Copies Of Your Appraisals?

[Dee Dee]

Just popping this poll back up to the top of the heap. Let's keep the votes coming!

Newbies, if your supervisor vanished off the face of the earth tomorrow or a couple of years from now, would you be able to defend yourself and prove your innocence in a court of law or in a criminal investigation if your digital signature is attached to a fraudulent appraisal?

Protect yourself!

 

[D-Max]

Jerry,

Thanks for the suggestion however I have RAID setup on this system as well as nightly backups to an external harddrive. I also subscribe to the alamode Vault. Call me paranoid but I spent 3 days last year recovering a deleted partition table to retrieve my files. 3 wasted days....ironically it happened while I was setting up my RAID system.

 

[Jerry Still]

Richard,

Your hard drive was jealous of that Raid system that you were installing. Might have been a lady hard drive, PM s..ing?

Florida B) Jerry

 

[Kate]

Originally posted by Pamela Crowley (Florida)@Feb 11 2004, 10:17 AM


I'm currently aware of a case that will likely be pending at a State Board where the trainee is now certified. This appraiser worked from home, sent the appraisals as they were completed to their supervisor, who then 'finished' them and sent them to the client. The trainee does not have a copy of the final product. This appraiser will not be able to provide to their State Board a copy of the finished product that was sent to the client. This appraiser has no clue what was really sent. The supervisor has the trainees digital signature but the trainee has no clue if it was used or what it was used on.

The implications of this scenario are HUGE. I'll add much more to this after I get some more time and some answers to the poll.

NOBODY WILL KNOW WHO ANSWERED WHICH WAY IN THIS POLL.
Please, do answer this poll and answer it honestly.

The implications of this scenario are HUGE. I'll add much more to this after I get some more time and some answers to the poll.

Pam, could you let us in now on what you were talking about before?

 

[Dee Dee]

This poll was getting buried, so I'm popping it back up to the top again for new trainee forum members who may have missed it.

With the growing number of federal and state investigations underway, as well as foreclosures that are causing reviews of the original appraisals, I think it's important that newbies make sure that they don't get caught in the crossfire.

 

[Lorie Miller]

I have a copy of each of the appraisals I have worked on and/or completed stored on zip disk and now they are on CD's. This way, I don't have to store paper files and I can access the reports as needed.

 

[Dee Dee]

Do they have your supervisor's signature on them, exactly as they were sent to the client?

 

[Wendy]

I didn't vote 'cause I'm no longer a trainee. Seeing as it wasn't that long ago that I was, thought I'd add a comment.

I had two mentors for my trainee days. Mentor #1 does condemnation work and some commercial - huge jobs with tons of files. I do not have copies of all those files, nor do I feel that I need them. Regardless, he is in the process of scanning every piece of paper onto disks - those I will burn a copy of for my files.

My second mentor does strickly residential mortgage work. I have full and complete copies of all of those files - electronic and paper. Even have a back-up disk of the electronic files burned. I still do some work for this mentor as a cert, and we have maintained the dual files. Never hurts to CYA.

When you do keep copies of your files, make sure there is nothing in them but the report and supporting information. I know someone who used to write all sorts of comments on papers in the file - kinda like thinking out loud. Well, he wrote "too high" on one sale's tax record and didn't use the sale, but left the paper in the file. Guess what got brought up in court after the other lawyer searched the file? Not only should you keep your files, but make sure you know what's in them!

 

[Lorie Miller]

Dee Dee, the answer to your question is yes, all of the reports that I have saved on CD are what was sent to the clients.

 

[Ken Youngkrantz]

what is in a work file?
I am asking this question on here because quite frankly getting a "real person" on the phone at OREA is about equal to winning the lottery.... I have a copy of the report exactly as it is sent to the lender. All pages of it. Should I keep a copy of the checklist that I use when inspecting the property. When I get comp's from metroscan some times I will print those out, what about copies of those.
what about information on comp's that I didn't use for one reason or another?
My supervisor says "don't worry about it, you've got a key to the office." He says it is good for me to keep copies of the reports but I don't need to keep copies of all this other material. How about the order from the lender for the appraisal? I would appreciate some other opinions. Unfortunately for us trainee's the only opinion we get on many things is that of our mentor and I'm not saying they are not good opinions, I just think two or three opinions are betting than one. Any suggestions from anyone, especially in California, would be appreciated.
Thanks
Ken

P.S. I am loving this appraisal business more everyday!