Ethics Question

[CaliforniaSD]

I was assigned an FHA appraisal last Saturday night by phone call from a small (I think one person) AMC, which started our relationship by asking (paraphrasing here) "if I would consider looking at a contract price and saying if I can make it work", which was a big red flag to begin with. I obviously stated that I cannot do that. Next, the AMC tells me to change the lender name and address post effective date, while I am wrapping up the assignment, and they did so on the AMC portal without hesitation, I always save and print the LOE as soon as I get it. I asked about this in the morning here on the forum, and was told by several of you that this is a no no. I told him that I can charge him a cancelation fee and start a new file for a new fee. Finally, the contract price was originally $720,000 and then the seller countered to $740,000. My final opinion of value which is fully supported is $710,000. So, I get a call asking if I would reconsider changing my adverse location adjustment, which is only 2.5% one line, and is fully supported, and the person tells me they think the original $720,000 contract price was "on point," not sure how they came up with that since it could have easily been lower in this market area with the current market conditions.

I have never had someone from an AMC call me at strange hours during the week and weekend and I have never dealt with these types of hard ethics dilemmas. Any suggestions? Should I just cut this person out completely? Isn't the entire point of Dodd Frank for the middleman to not have an agenda and provide a "on point" verbal opinion of value to me over the phone. Any advice, input, or guidance is greatly appreciated. What would you do? Thanks!

 

[Mejappz]

AMCs would do such a thing, shocking, I tell you! I would file a complaint with the state, but I doubt they will do anything. Your state board is infected with cronyism. In the last newsletter, they sanctioned a bunch of appraisers, not one AMC. Best of luck!

 

[Elliott]

Are you expected to send a revised report? I would add a "Revision Request (9/23/22): AMC asked for a review of value. The appraiser reviewed the report and no change in value is made."

Its what football referees do all the time.

 

[George Hatch]

This ain't like the old days where nobody can be held to account. Similarly, you don't need to wait for a year for the State to get around to investigating this complaint.

Put in a phone call to the lender's compliance dept. The lender has directly engaged the AMC to work on their behalf. There are contractual agreements that spell out the terms and conditions of the relationship and they're on the hook for what this AMC is doing in their assignments. They can narrow the misconduct right down to the individual.

Transmitting someone else's ROV to include other alternative sales to consider is one thing; asking you to change the value just because there's a sales contract is different than that. If anyone ever calls you like this again, ask them to send you an email and put their request in writing. If they're dumb enough to actually do that then they deserve whatever they get. If they're smart enough to not do that then they'll also be smart enough to understand that phone calls after hours aren't going to work with you.

 

[Overimprovement]

Candidly, you probably should have ended the 'relationship' as soon as the original question was asked. That's more than a red flag.

But since you are here, now, the best you can do is protect yourself. Since I doubt you care about ever working with this AMC again, just hold the line. No means no. If this is a lender you want to work with in the future, do feel free to contact them regarding the ethical/legal misconduct by the AMC.

Filing a complaint with the state is probably a no win, though I would consider an anonymous one. An AMC going down will do all they can to take you with them. Be careful on that front.

It is sad that an appraiser can mistakenly check a wrong checkbox and have a year long fight costing tens of thousands of dollars, getting kicked off lists in the process. AMCs can basically break every rule written for them, and get off without so much as a wrist slap. The real bad ones will be gone soon enough, but I don't think a massive consolidation of AMCs will help anything.

 

[sputnam]

Withdraw from the assignment. Bill them for the work you have already done and move on. Alternatively, though it's not worth the trouble and won't really accomplish anythin other than eating up your time, you can file a complaint with the AMCs compliance officer.

 

[CaliforniaSD]

Are you expected to send a revised report? I would add a "Revision Request (9/23/22): AMC asked for a review of value. The appraiser reviewed the report and no change in value is made."

Its what football referees do all the time.

No I am not expected to send a revised report. I told him via text message that I reconsidered his request to change the adjustment and that it is supported and justified. I am not answering his phone calls any more, everything in writing or nothing at all. The only reason he has to contact me is a 1004D, and after that I want nothing to do with them.

 

[CaliforniaSD]

This ain't like the old days where nobody can be held to account. Similarly, you don't need to wait for a year for the State to get around to investigating this complaint.

Put in a phone call to the lender's compliance dept. The lender has directly engaged the AMC to work on their behalf. There are contractual agreements that spell out the terms and conditions of the relationship and they're on the hook for what this AMC is doing in their assignments. They can narrow the misconduct right down to the individual.

Transmitting someone else's ROV to include other alternative sales to consider is one thing; asking you to change the value just because there's a sales contract is different than that. If anyone ever calls you like this again, ask them to send you an email and put their request in writing. If they're dumb enough to actually do that then they deserve whatever they get. If they're smart enough to not do that then they'll also be smart enough to understand that phone calls after hours aren't going to work with you.

I am not going to report this individual, as I am not sure what this person is capable of, he has my personal information when I registered with his AMC. When he asked me to reconsider the adjustment, I told him to send me a formal request. He quickly recanted and told me that he would "personally appreciate it" if I would reconsider the adjustment, several time. Then he told me he has another assignment for me, as if he was trying to bribe me with future work. I am avoiding his phone calls like the plague, and everything is either recorded text message or email moving forward. I'll do the 1004D, if needed and then I am cutting all ties.

 

[CaliforniaSD]

Candidly, you probably should have ended the 'relationship' as soon as the original question was asked. That's more than a red flag.

But since you are here, now, the best you can do is protect yourself. Since I doubt you care about ever working with this AMC again, just hold the line. No means no. If this is a lender you want to work with in the future, do feel free to contact them regarding the ethical/legal misconduct by the AMC.

Filing a complaint with the state is probably a no win, though I would consider an anonymous one. An AMC going down will do all they can to take you with them. Be careful on that front.

It is sad that an appraiser can mistakenly check a wrong checkbox and have a year long fight costing tens of thousands of dollars, getting kicked off lists in the process. AMCs can basically break every rule written for them, and get off without so much as a wrist slap. The real bad ones will be gone soon enough, but I don't think a massive consolidation of AMCs will help anything.

You are 100% correct. I should have turned down the assignment right away, and in retrospect, I wish I did, but I didn't, but I sure as hell did not violate any laws or ethics rules that I am aware of. Throughout the course of are phone calls, he kept telling me that he doesn't want me to think that he is unethical. I am not going to bother reporting this person because I don't know what he is capable of with my personal information and like you said they will try to take me with them. Even if it is anonymous, the details of the complaint would make him aware that it was me that filed the complaint, unless I just call a while from now and keep the complaint very broad, even then he would probably deduce that it was me, unless this is how he acts with all of his appraisers, which honestly would not surprise me.

 

[CaliforniaSD]

Withdraw from the assignment. Bill them for the work you have already done and move on. Alternatively, though it's not worth the trouble and won't really accomplish anythin other than eating up your time, you can file a complaint with the AMCs compliance officer.

Too late, the assignment was submitted yesterday. I am not filling anything, I am not sure what this person is capable of doing, especially with all my personal information. I don't think this company has a compliance office, it sounds like it is a one man show of incompetence.