Enforcement help is all ready here!

[ockyappraiser]

With HR 3221 passed a few weeks ago, I wondered what effect the provision on "appraiser independence" was having with our state deparments of Financial Institutions and Appraiser's Board.

I called the Department of Financial Institutions on Friday regarding a broker that refused to pay for an appraisal on a loan that did not close. There response:

in light of the recently passed bill, we are encouraging appraisers to inform us of any mortgage companies that refuse to pay for an appraisal, or apply pressue to hit a value.

He went on to say that they have set up a web site for an online complaint system for appraisers to use. He assured me that they will actively pursue any broker, bank or mortgage company that violates that clause of the bill. Specifically, pressure to hit a value, and tying compensation to hitting the value or the loan closing.

Isn't this where we have wanted to get to?

Check with your state regulatory agency that governs brokers.

 

[Pamela Crowley (Florida)]

Lucky you! I wish all the states would do this.

 

[Michael Tipton]

Lucky you! I wish all the states would do this.

After Saxon's resignation earlier this week in Tallahassee, Floridians will have to wait and see how serious Florida's government is about reform. One of the statements made during the Cabinet meeting Wednesday was the need to update regulations to comply with the new federal law.

I do not have much faith in our AG. Call me cynical.

 

[Oregon Doug]

In Oregon, that would be the Dept. of Finance and Corporate Securities (DFCS). Try www.oregon.gov/DCBS/subject_index.shtml as a starting place - it's the index to their services.

Oregon Doug

 

[Ross (CO)]

Appraiser independence is basically just a concept, and held solely by those appraisers who feel that they should have full independence to provide value opinions with no applied biases or coercion along the way. For such independence to become a practice, and to be recognized as a "right" granted to appraisers.......there still needs to be a heaping bunch of support from the various higher echelons of those who claim to "care".

I received communication from a Denver area mortgage broker back in early February. He had a property to "appraise", o.k. fine, and yet he was relentlessly insistent that I give him a confirmed and comped value that was based on homeowner's projection of a certain amount. Didn't happen. He got no comped pre-valuation from me, and surely I was never the recipient of the "appraisal" that he needed done.

I wrote a letter to one of the members of our Appraisal Board who serves on a Task Force group for the MB Rules Making process, and copied that letter to a second person who IS the regulatory department's go-to guy for mortgage broker oversight as well as a third copy to the Asst. Atty. General. I referred to last year's passage of a Senate Bill that is supposed to have muscle in it for reducing undue influence and "pressures" being imposed upon the Public participating in mortgages AND appraisers serving to support the mortgage lending process.

I referred to this mortgage broker's attempts to strong-arm me, repeatedly via email and some phone messages. The weeks passed......and I NEVER received one expression of concern or interest from ANY of the three individuals who received my letter. What transpired, actually, was the scenario that each of them would likely say was supposed to happen. I simply refused to pre-appraise a certain property at a promised value.....for-free.....as the means to then securing the real appraisal order to deliver a report at or greater than whatever value I had previously given (orally).

Enforcement help is already here ? Not so sure about that. Just because states pass legislation does not mean that any of the persons participating in creating that legislation ever care whether its meaning has impact or that action will be brought against those who are poster-children to the very abuses such legislation is supposed to "fix". At least TAF's July Q&A said that it was o.k. to do comp checks for-free......if one wants to. Great, now that's progress !

 

[PropertyEconomics]

Appraiser independence is basically just a concept, and held solely by those appraisers who feel that they should have full independence to provide value opinions with no applied biases or coercion along the way. For such independence to become a practice, and to be recognized as a "right" granted to appraisers.......there still needs to be a heaping bunch of support from the various higher echelons of those who claim to "care".

I received communication from a Denver area mortgage broker back in early February. He had a property to "appraise", o.k. fine, and yet he was relentlessly insistent that I give him a confirmed and comped value that was based on homeowner's projection of a certain amount. Didn't happen. He got no comped pre-valuation from me, and surely I was never the recipient of the "appraisal" that he needed done.

I wrote a letter to one of the members of our Appraisal Board who serves on a Task Force group for the MB Rules Making process, and copied that letter to a second person who IS the regulatory department's go-to guy for mortgage broker oversight as well as a third copy to the Asst. Atty. General. I referred to last year's passage of a Senate Bill that is supposed to have muscle in it for reducing undue influence and "pressures" being imposed upon the Public participating in mortgages AND appraisers serving to support the mortgage lending process.

I referred to this mortgage broker's attempts to strong-arm me, repeatedly via email and some phone messages. The weeks passed......and I NEVER received one expression of concern or interest from ANY of the three individuals who received my letter. What transpired, actually, was the scenario that each of them would likely say was supposed to happen. I simply refused to pre-appraise a certain property at a promised value.....for-free.....as the means to then securing the real appraisal order to deliver a report at or greater than whatever value I had previously given (orally).

Enforcement help is already here ? Not so sure about that. Just because states pass legislation does not mean that any of the persons participating in creating that legislation ever care whether its meaning has impact or that action will be brought against those who are poster-children to the very abuses such legislation is supposed to "fix". At least TAF's July Q&A said that it was o.k. to do comp checks for-free......if one wants to. Great, now that's progress !

Ross .. and only Ross for a moment please ... what did you find to wrong with TAFs Q&A regarding comp checks? Im just curious.

 

[Diego Lopez]

Do you really think that the mayority of appraiser are going to turn in their customers?

This bill hurts more than it helps.

 

[Ross (CO)]

P.E.,......You mean, you had to repeat my entire posting.....before you were capable of presenting but that one brief question ? !

Sure, I'll answer that. They could have offered the simplest of clarifications for EVERYone's benefit by first defining what a "comp check" actually is......rather than let those two words dangle into perpetuity as some street-slang that surely has varied meanings for varied persons and who make personal business decisions from varied levels of professional integrity.

We don't have a common definition of what "comp checks" are ! It's about time we did, and TAF had a slam-dunk opportunity in their lap......and they took a pass on it. I'm guessing that you were enamored by the July Q&A. I know your position and I'm not curious.

 

[ockyappraiser]

appraisers would not have to "turn in" all the problem brokers. If one or two lost their licenses or received large fines in my market. . .word would get around and the others would back off.

My problems have never been with companies that give me consistent business. Its the occassional order or the order from a new company that either insists on a value. . .precomp before you go out. . .or does not pay when the loan does not close.

This bill takes care of he problem with the LO's that "blanket fax" to all the appraisers orders/precomps to get a value.

Would I turn in such a fax? You betch ya!

 

[Queen City Gurl]

The NC banking commission has been very helpful in collecting on some mgte broker depts..... the problem lies when your client is out of state, which many of ours are these days. Then, not a lot of recourse.....