"HUD asked to oust Appraisers"

[Red Blumenstock]

The following was in the inman News this morning. I am posting this in case some of you are not aware of it and are interested.

Red

HUD asked to oust appraisers

Appraisal groups call for removal of ‘unqualified’
FHA appraisers from roster

Thursday, January 31, 2002

Inman News Features

Two national appraisal associations have asked the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to remove hundreds of appraisers they consider to be "unqualified" from the Federal Housing Authority’s single-family housing appraiser roster.

Appraisal Institute President Thomas A. Motta and American Society of Appraiser President Michael L. Austin pointed to an internal HUD analysis indicating that 330 of the appraisers on the FHA’s roster don’t have state licenses that conform to the standards issued by the Appraiser Qualifications Board, the appraisal industry's qualifications setting body. The roster contains approximately 22,160 appraisers.

"Hundreds of unqualified appraisers have been accepted on the FHA appraiser roster and HUD should take steps to remove them," said Motta, speaking on behalf of the two associations. "To ensure the competency of the program, HUD should immediately remove the 330 appraisers not conforming to the minimum standards
issued by the Appraisal Qualifications Board."

A new rule proposed by HUD would require appraisers seeking acceptance to meet minimum standards issued by the board. But the proposed rule doesn’t set forth any course of action for removing currently listed appraisers who fail to meet this standard.

In a letter to HUD, Motta and Austin said an accurate appraisal is paramount to a successful and fair mortgage transaction, particularly in light of recent mortgage fraud cases throughout the country.

The letter stated that HUD should ensure that only qualified appraisers are performing appraisals for FHA and that improving the quality and accuracy of FHA appraisals can be accomplished only through higher standards for qualification and agency specific-specific education.

Copyright 2002 Inman News Features

Reach us at info@inman.com or 800-775-4662

 

[Joe Birrell (NY)]

Basically a good idea. However, HUD needs to be competent to begin with.
Who's taking measures to insure that ? Even if HUD were fully competent, they are so overwhelmed by fraud, it would take an army of honest, competent people to make it work. Better and easier solution is close it down, it is beyond redemption !

 

[Ruth Langkawel]

I believe this was a topic at the old forum. If my memory serves me correctly (not that it always does :wink: ), appraisers from states that do not have licensing requirements that meet AQA standards are the appraisers in question. AND, the individual appraisers may well be qualified - only the state licensing requirements are not qualified.

They are attacking the wrong set of people in this case. If this demand is met, the residents of the state will be unable to utilize FHA mortgage programs; and they are putting the pressure on appraisers who have no control over the legislative or regulatory process.

The mature way to approach this problem would be for AQA to provide HUD acceptable (if not ideal) licensing standards, and strongly recommend that HUD require the states to adopt and implement those standards within 12 months or their citizens will no longer qualify to utilize the FHA programs. This addresses the problem to the parties capable of curing it, and provides a disincentive for inaction.

Then 6 months before deadline, run a public service ad campaign briefly explaining the problem, the cure and the deadline, and recommending that the people contact their state representative regarding the issue. Then watch the scramble :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[jtrotta]

Ruth makes a good point, but so do the other posters; first things first and that is to revamp HUD and get some people in there that know what their doing, the ONLY problem with that is, it's politically driven and to that degree, it will never be run properly.

Unqualified; is relative to minimum standards; neither has any effect if the unqualified people running the show perporte to be qualified. :lol:
Peers are the folks who have their heads so far up ######## they become disqualified as peers. Self incriminating so to speak 8O

 

[Francois K. Gregoire]

Red and All,

Interesting take on the proposed rule by the AI and ASA. NAR took a less heavy handed approach.

Here is the NAR Comment Letter on the Proposed HUD Rule:

CLICK HERE

Before folks start jumping on NAR, you should know the letter was prepared based upon recommendations from the NAR Appraisal Committee. The Appraisal Committee solicited comments from REALTOR Appraisers across the country, saw the lay of the land and the way a majority of the responders would like things and wrote up a recommendation for NAR to submit. The President of NAR agreed with all of our recommendations.

 

[Blue1]

Hey, have you guys read the HUD handbook? (just kidding) :lol: One has to ask one's self why there needs to be an FHA forum on this site in the first place? Could it be that the HUD handbook is not very clear? Why does HUD have it's own appraiser's chat room? Just another example of the government over regulating in my opinion. Until HUD can come up with a reality based handbook we're all in the dark.

 

[Wesley A. Barkley]

It seems to me that I received an email stating that all "HUD Review Appraisers" had at least five years experience! Does this mean that they know what they are doing? If you are a "Review Appraiser", doesn't that mean that you are also a HUD appraiser?