Ever Wondered Who's Selling Us Out?

[Karl]

This is a very sad thread cause I seen high priced Apprasisals that are crappier than the E Appraise It appraisal. On the same property, It is NOT the cost of the Appraisal it's the ethics iof the Appraiser. (Unfortunately Ethics do not cross over in how to be a profitable business) We ourselves have no one to blame but ourselves for the mess we're in. Wasn't too long ago on this forum when folks were bragging about ALL the trainees they had & how they were working 24/7 & all you needed to do was put in a time adjustment & BINGO you'd make any client happy. Or of course my favorite "IF you have a willing buyer & willing seller who am I to say that it's not worth that??" This from a CERTIFIED Appraiser.

Course those that had ALL those Trainees would take time out & slam the "Black Helecopter Pilots" for trying to "Mess Up the Deal". Pam who started out as a trainee pilot she moved up to top pilot. But now that we're in a dog eat dog battle for self survival Appears her claim to fame has even vanished.

My how times have changed!! My question for those that were "Buried" with work during the BOOM what did you do with your money?? Cause many of you that bragged are now on here crying, where's the money you made. OH NO!! you didn't cut the rates during the BOOM to feed all those trainees, did you??

 

[Kevin Mc]

Wendy. ..I share your pain with AMC's. The way I deal with them is this:

I keep it easy in my market, I don't deal with them. There are plenty of bottom feeders out there to do the fast,cheap,garbage reports (please don't rant about fast and cheap can be good, I did portfolio review for quite some time. Rare is the quality fast and cheap appraisal, very rare). That is what AMCs want, their clients typically don't care everyone wins except the imbecile doing it $175. My clients aren't concerned about 24 hour turn time(although they typically get done that fast in these slow times), reduced fees or any other nonsense. They want a well developed credible report, nothing more, nothing less.

I don't mind when asked about other appraisers that are lower fee. It gives me a chance to market myself.

Good point. Nor do I. My clients don't ask about others lower fees but occasionally I will deal with it on the phone. I don't view them as my competition because I have no interest in serving clients that use such tactics. Unfortunately many put themselves in a position where they are forced to service these types.

Bottom line: rather than complaining about appraisers with lower fees ask yourselves: "Why should the customer use me over the other guy". Then market yourself to the customer as WORTH the higher fee.

Here is where we differ. When someone advertises the way the person did that it the subject of this thread, it kills credibility. Yours, mine and every other appraiser out there. It is cheap in more ways than one.

 

[CURT VAN HOOSER]

I was looking at calculators with my step daughter the other day. There were some pretty fancy, big named brands going for about $90. So we turned them on. They spit and sputtered and displayed a lot of technical terms and licenses and finally got to the point where we could use them. We tried out a few calculations and they worked just fine. Pretty impressive I thought. We walked around a little more and found a couple "lesser known" brands in the $10 to $20 range. We turned them on, and they came right up to the ready screen--no spitting and sputtering. Again, we tried a few calculations. You know, they came up with the same results as the more expensive ones. Now I don't know if the quality of the less expensive one is inferior, but I do know it came up with the same results as the more expensive one. And, if it ever fails , I can buy several more for the same price I would pay for just one of the more expensive brand.

Something from the junk drawer?

 

[Kevin Mc]

some folks drive Yugos, some folks drive BMWs. One is much cheaper and less reliable. While they will both get one from point A to point B, there is a good chance if there is an accident you will get killed in the less reliable, cheaper one.

 

[Penelope X]

This discussion about "price fixing" and/or sharing industry opinion about appraisal fees will soon be a moot point. Once the AMC-way of running things becomes standard practice and "indy" appraiser's whining about dwindling fees are ignored by the lenders/processors/underwriters who have throngs of "newbie" appraisal graduates that'll turn tricks to get work (and hours), folks in the industry will be wondering why the idea of unionization or "price fixing" wasn't insisted on. There's no difference sharing your opinion about how much a fee appraiser SHOULD charge (USPAP notwithstanding) and posting your fee schedule on a publicly viewed website for all to discriminate and discuss.

Go ahead folks, talk about it...it's about time appraiser's worked together on some common ground we can all agree on and benefit from. I don't think we're gonna get much help from PC from what I've heard. The push to throw a wedge between the appraiser and the lender/processor/underwriter (albeit well intentioned) has worked to strip autonomy and integrity from each and every one of us (although, some never really had the later). Anyone who has had to work for an AMC knows what I mean. There's just as much pressure on the appraiser with an AMC (in turn-time) as there was from a lender/processor/underwriter, it's just in a different form. The addition of insult to injury by taking a percentage of the fee by the AMC is just a slap in the face. Some say a deserved one due to the amount of fraud committed day in and day out in our industry.

I, for one, am baffled that so many "professional" appraisers haven't unified to thwart this threat to our industry a long time ago. No one saw this coming when the AMC's first started up? When Zaio started sending out their literature...didn't those who attended their meeting see the similarities? Companies who take any portion of an appraiser's fee without accepting any commensurate portion of their liability and risk are thieves. They don't offer anything to an appraiser that any savvy appraiser schooled in marketing techniques couldn't have done for themselves. So why were we appraiser's so caught up in "hiding" these trade marketing secrets from our peer "competition"? Guess that answer's a moot point now too, because the AMCs have figured it out (due in no small part to their own staff appraiser/reviewers) and their exploiting that knowledge and our appraiser fees as well. So, either put up or shut up...it appears we've made our beds and now, if it's not too late, we'll need to drum up some constructive ideas about how we can take our industry (and our freedom to choose how to run our own business) back and restore the public trust, so they will be willing to pay us when that time comes.

 

[Wendy]

Comparing mechanical/electrical processes to appraising makes no sense. What I produce is the result of human thought to an individual problem and not the crunching of 1 & 0's or the dragging of film through chemicals.

The only bit of appraising that can be equated to a calculator or photo machine is an AVM.

 

[Wendy]

Good post PenelopeX!

 

[Karl]

Good post PenelopeX!

Agree & lets take our fight to those with the most to loose the general public. I don'rt think it'd be very hard to get them on to our side.

 

[TN Pro]

Agree & lets take our fight to those with the most to loose the general public. I don'rt think it'd be very hard to get them on to our side.

Even when they find out just how much faulty inflated appraisals had to do with them losing their house?

 

[Couch Potato]

Agree & lets take our fight to those with the most to loose the general public. I don'rt think it'd be very hard to get them on to our side.

Sure, easy sell to the public. "You need to pay more for appraisals to be sure you're not allowed to borrow too much money." Everyone will get behind that.


After all, appraisers are such honest people and only want to protect the public. :new_all_coholic: