Front Page Wall Street Journal 12-13

[Travis McGee]

It's Friday the 13th and appraisers are to blame for all bad loans. Read the front page of today's WSJ.

 

[Bemis Pownall]

http://online.wsj.com/public/us


Investigators Eye Home Appraisers

In a time of rising real-estate prices, how could Danny Ruiz's home have lost so much of its value? Prosecutors across the country have a theory: appraisal inflation.


THATS ALL THE ONLINE VERSION WILL LET YOU SEE FOR FREE..

:morning:

 

[Steve Owen]

This is great! Now maybe something will be done. My favorite quotes:

...with the economy stuck in low gear and sales slowing, many experts fear home prices could soon drop. If so, substantial blame may fall on the nation's 40,000 residential appraisers-- much as Wall Street securities analysts are being criticized for hyping over-priced stocks before the Internet bubble burst.

Another good one:

But Congress hadn't reckoned of a major shift in the lending industry: Few of the people involved in making mortgage loans these days have a long-term interest in them.

The petition is mentioned in the article. P. E. Turner, Jr. an appraiser quoted in the article says, "The truly sad part about this is they are going to find some ***** appraiser to do this when I tell them no." (referring to LO's demanding value in advance). This stuff is great, count on the WSJ to get it right while all the other media hems and haws around the edges!

 

[Travis McGee]

This stuff is great, count on the WSJ to get it right while all the other media hems and haws around the edges!

Unfortunately, the WSJ doesn't lead with the problem (lender pressure) they lead with the bad appraiser. People who read the article on the fly walk away with the impression that the problem is bad appraisers.

 

[Mike Simpson]

Great opportunity to write a well written response...or 40,000 of them!

By the way, I haven't done the research myself, but I've read on this forum that there's 250,000--80,000, and now 40,000 residential appraiser's in the U.S.--anyone know?

-Mike

 

[Randy Beigh]

linasnor

From an ethical position, I don't think lender pressure means diddly squat. The appraiser is responsible for his/her own ethics but has no control over the lender's ethics. Each of us is reponsible, only, for our own actions, not the actions or requests of others.

I have always been disturbed by an appraisers rationale of providing an inflated appraisal at the lenders request. That is not a good reason, but says everything about that appraiser's ethics and moral character.

I have not seen the article, but am inclined to believe that appraisers need to take responsibility for the appraisals they provide and not attempt to blame the big bad loan officer or some other mysterious offender. We are responsible for what we apply our signatures to.

Having said all that, I agree that lender pressure is an issue that should be dealt with, but I don't agree that it is an excuse for an appraiser to provide a faulty appraisal.

 

[Michael Reilly]

I keep an updated list and there are just under 80,000 which include all license types. These lists are free to anyone who want's to dig for them through each individual state.

Mike-NY

 

[Mike Simpson]

Thanks Mike-

Lets take the 7,000 (I'm an appraiser so I round up) petitioners / by 80,000 appraisers nationwide--that give us ~9%. Does that 80,000 include General Certs? I like the Journals # better! 7000/40,000 = ~18%.

So 9% of appraisers have signed the petition, many don't want their names on the internet for their clients to see, and some may be sheltered and just don't know it exists.

I've heard more than once that for every petitioner there are 10 people in the silent majority who feel the same about a particular issue. Anyone else hear this? If true that's roughly 90% of appraisers who've either experienced the same things written about in the petition--or feel they're in need of some protection from lender pressure.

Although I've written this tongue-n-cheek, it may have some validity.

-Mike

 

[Stephen J. Vertin MAI]

If someone could post the entire article it would help. Many do not want to pay the money for a subscription just to read one article. Thank you, it is really appreciated.

Steve Vertin

 

[Carol]

I have the entire article (7 pages) printed to PDF but do not know how to paste it to this area. Any suggestions?