George Hatch
Elite Member
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2002
- Professional Status
- Certified General Appraiser
- State
- California
Jeff,
You may well have a point about a state appraisal board possibly having more influence with a state banking board on an interagency basis than an individual or group of individuals. What I would anticipate is that regardless of the source of such a complaint, we aren't going to ever be taken seriously until our own house is in order. Of all the players in this game, only appraisers assert a certain amount of moral authority to disregard the personal interests of themselves as well as everyone else involved to develop and report unbiased appraisal work. Until we demonstrate that the vast majority of us are faithfully and diligently in compliance with our own ethics, we cannot expect our clients to do as well or any better. In that sense, we are our own worst enemies. IMO, this is one case where we are compelled by our own hand to set the example. That's why a knowledgable, fair and active appraisal board is crucial to the protection of the public as well as the members of our profession. An appraisal board that lacks any of those three attributes is going to represent a hazard in every way possible, because the end result will be good appraisers constantly looking over their shoulder and/or bad appraisers acting with impunity.
Which brings us back to enforcement of the existing standards. And by that, I'm not talking about the trivia of semantics or the nuances of filling out an appraisal report. I'm talking about the larger issues of observing and reporting those issues of relevance in an appraisal that include and even exceed the opinion of value by itself. Of denying an overly agressive client the plausible deniability of being able to weasel out of a bad decision by attributing it to the appraiser's failure to disclose.
Someone elsewhere today was advocating ditching our common appraisal standards and just focusing and limiting our work to producing the final number, everything else being irrelevant or just filler. If that's our future, we might as well just give it up now and sign up for IT classes to run AVMs and bundle services to a vertically integrated loan process online, because we have just defined our work on the exact same footing as with what an AVM does, and absolutely not one whit more. What appraisers do exceeds the final value opinion and includes giving the reader enough information to make an informed decision; and that in many cases the decision depends on a lot more than just the final number itself.
Long term, we need to hold the line and to continue our best efforts to exhort our peers to do the same. A unified front to our clients will go a lot farther than any new rules or regulations will. We need to be vigilant for those short sighted individuals that would treat our profession the same as any other retail business wherein the customer is king and the ends justify the means. In other words, just keep on doing what you're doing and use your knowledge to protect yourself.
You may well have a point about a state appraisal board possibly having more influence with a state banking board on an interagency basis than an individual or group of individuals. What I would anticipate is that regardless of the source of such a complaint, we aren't going to ever be taken seriously until our own house is in order. Of all the players in this game, only appraisers assert a certain amount of moral authority to disregard the personal interests of themselves as well as everyone else involved to develop and report unbiased appraisal work. Until we demonstrate that the vast majority of us are faithfully and diligently in compliance with our own ethics, we cannot expect our clients to do as well or any better. In that sense, we are our own worst enemies. IMO, this is one case where we are compelled by our own hand to set the example. That's why a knowledgable, fair and active appraisal board is crucial to the protection of the public as well as the members of our profession. An appraisal board that lacks any of those three attributes is going to represent a hazard in every way possible, because the end result will be good appraisers constantly looking over their shoulder and/or bad appraisers acting with impunity.
Which brings us back to enforcement of the existing standards. And by that, I'm not talking about the trivia of semantics or the nuances of filling out an appraisal report. I'm talking about the larger issues of observing and reporting those issues of relevance in an appraisal that include and even exceed the opinion of value by itself. Of denying an overly agressive client the plausible deniability of being able to weasel out of a bad decision by attributing it to the appraiser's failure to disclose.
Someone elsewhere today was advocating ditching our common appraisal standards and just focusing and limiting our work to producing the final number, everything else being irrelevant or just filler. If that's our future, we might as well just give it up now and sign up for IT classes to run AVMs and bundle services to a vertically integrated loan process online, because we have just defined our work on the exact same footing as with what an AVM does, and absolutely not one whit more. What appraisers do exceeds the final value opinion and includes giving the reader enough information to make an informed decision; and that in many cases the decision depends on a lot more than just the final number itself.
Long term, we need to hold the line and to continue our best efforts to exhort our peers to do the same. A unified front to our clients will go a lot farther than any new rules or regulations will. We need to be vigilant for those short sighted individuals that would treat our profession the same as any other retail business wherein the customer is king and the ends justify the means. In other words, just keep on doing what you're doing and use your knowledge to protect yourself.
) 'go there'.
