I Think We Are In Trouble

[xmrdfghap]

<span style='color:brown'>In any profession where money is a motivator (and which profession isn't?) there will be those who are in it for a short term "killing" and are willing to sacrifice whatever reputaion they have as well as the reoutation of the industry/profession. An excellent case in point is Arthur Anderson and its fast and loose audit proceedures which all but guaranteed the "insiders" at Enron an exagerated profit. You see, on a regular basis, attornies, CPA's, Stockbrokers and others being reprimanded, censored, and expelled from the profession. The appraisal field is not far behind in being regulated in that manner, and the appraiser which loses his/her license will certainly have it coming.

There is no shortage of unethical people in the world. Lots of them are Loan Officers, Appraisers, Lenders, Bankers, Brokers and Lawyers. But if you retain your ethics and integrity, it doesn't matter too much what the others do. You will be in the business making a decent living until you choose to leave it, and I, for one, will not leave it until I can no longer function......so, as I am only 53, put me down for another 30 to 40 years ......maybe more......three out of four grandparents lived into their late 90's.

Regardless of your profession, you will have the opportunity to steal, lie, cheat, misrepresent, commit fraud, extorsion, and accept bribes. I know a convienience store clerk who was caught taking payoffs for letting a friend of his drive off without paying for gas. If you are willing to sell yourself, the opportunity will exist wherever you are. If you aren't, those that DO sell themselves will resent you and not do business with you.....which, as I see it, is a good thing. NOT doing business with a crook makes me smile. Seeing crooks get caught makes me smile and makes them not smile. I look forward to the day when there is a whole lot of not-smiling going on among my competition.

In the meantime I expect to find more than a few members of this profession who, like me, are willing to make less and sleep better. Folks like the ones I have learned to respect on this forum......even some I have learned to not respect, but know to be honest anyway.
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[Wally Jones]

bb in texas,

Good job on being diligent in turning those in that deserve it. Please take a moment to do a search on past posts by Ms. Crowley and you'll discover she has been one of the most stalwart advocates of cleaning up any dirty doings in Florida, including filing complaints and taking action when appropriate. From what I've seen, she has no reason to have a guilty conscience insofar as the appraisal profession is concerned. I could be wrong. In case I'm not, most Texas gentlemen I've had the pleasure of knowing might offer an apology to a lady about now.

Wally

 

[Bemis Pownall]

I TOTALLY AGREE with you Pam

I did one last December. Showed up home owner invited me in , handed me an old appraisal(3 months, for his first mortg).
he said "my L/O expects to see this on his desk tommorrow morning and he/she expects to see itr at $xx value"

grumble grumble(laughing inside) "we'll do what we can.." I tell him.
I had to beg him to tour the house and check the sketch..

well dont you know appraisal given me had comps much larger(all 3, over 20%) comps with superior views, walkouts etc. But the sketch was the most detailed I'd seen in ages. I used 3 sales, one listing and one under contract, 2 of which were the same MODEL and all had similar amenities, very minimal sf adjustments, very few adjustments period. My value was considerablly lower, and it didnt hit the L/Os desk the next morning.
oh well

Homeowner calls yelling at me says he "will file a complaint if I dont upgrade the value" I laughed and told him his old appraisal was a joke. Oh he also told me he had taken appraisal courses and and knew all about it.

Well a month passes and I get a call from the Real Estate commission about this file. I know them well, always call when I m in a pickle and I worked with this investigator 13 years ago. I told her Id fax her my report and the other report which was a joke, she told me she had both and agreed but had to make the call anyway.
Talk about pressure....being turned in for writting honest reports??
We dont have time for that do we????

 

[bobburnitt]

bb in texas,

Good job on being diligent in turning those in that deserve it. Please take a moment to do a search on past posts by Ms. Crowley and you'll discover she has been one of the most stalwart advocates of cleaning up any dirty doings in Florida, including filing complaints and taking action when appropriate. From what I've seen, she has no reason to have a guilty conscience insofar as the appraisal profession is concerned. I could be wrong. In case I'm not, most Texas gentlemen I've had the pleasure of knowing might offer an apology to a lady about now.

Wally

To Wally and Pam,
I MEANT appraisers in general who don't file complaints might just suffer from a guilty conscience. I have seen so many "good ole boy" appraisers who "go along to get along" that I believe that they are in the majority. I have no knowledge of ANYBODYS activism in Florida. Almost NONE of the appraisers I know in Texas will file a complaint, if you are different from them, you are very different indeed. If you feel that I was saying to you directly that you have a guilty conscience then please accept my apology. I like people who do the right thing and turn crooks in. If you are one of them, I'm on YOUR SIDE. If you are one of the crooks well........

My comments in this forum are ITENTIONALLY brief. Therefore tone doesn't always make the trip.

BB in Texas ( the BB stands for blackballed by the crooked a** lenders in my area)

 

[Wally Jones]

Bob,

And if I'd taken more time to think about your post, I would have figured out what you meant. Please accept my apology for jumping the gun. I'll try to keep my boot outta my mouth in the future.........prob'y won't happen, but I'll try!

Man, I miss Texas sometimes..............

Wally

 

[Pamela Crowley (Florida)]

Wally,

Thanks for such loyalty when I haven't even met you, yet.

Bob,

I understand. Your post sounded personal but, I felt that I'd read enough of your previous post that I didn't take it personally.

Most on this forum are the good guys. We need more of the good guys to file complaints with proof.

 

[Restrain]

You can complain to the authorities but generally they don't have time to deal with "overvalued" properties. Sure, it was overvalued 10-20% but the authorities don't care. They're 2 years behind dealing with gross fraud by appraisers on one hand and appraisers who don't have a clue on the other. The "Let's Make A Deal" appraisers can keep on appraising without worrying. And Thats Life In The Big City.

 

[Leon Stewart]

The problem will never be eliminated until the Lender is removed from the appraisal process. The Lender selects the appraiser and assigns the work, what do you expect?

Some appraisers want's to indicate how straight-up they are, if they were, they wouldn't be getting any assignments. If the deals don't fly, the Lender don't make a loan, and the next time around he'll select an appraiser that will allow him to make a loan and stay in business.

If the Lender has a problem later on down the road, it's the appraisers problem, and the Lender can just start all over again with another appraiser, and the same basic principle will apply, that is, the appraiser has to "hit the number".

They know how to solve the problem, but why don't they? Just to discipline one or two appraisers from time to time is not intended to solve the problem. The intent is to trick the general public into thinking they are doing something to solve the problem, but it's just a smoke screen.

So if they are not going to separate the Appraisal Process from the Lender, the problem will always be there, and they don't have to spend a lot of money to hire investigators to check up on the thousand of appraisers functioning at this business, that wont get it.

There seems to be an indication that there is a shortage of Appraisers, but I would venture to say that there are only about 50% of the Licensed Appraisers who are working full time and earning a good living. If this is true, this could be an indication that certain Appraisers who do the type of work that Lenders require are the ones getting all the Assignments.

Those are also the ones who are trying to use trainee's to function as full Appraisers without any supervision and having their Reports signed without the Supervisor inspecting the property.

The way the system is setup, this problem with quality is widespread, and there is nothing they can do about it, but checking one report out of two or three thousand is not a solution. The whole system is flawed, so maybe Fanny and Freddie is right, and they should convert to a machine system. At least they would eliminate the current system of using the Appraiser as the "whippingboy".

leon

 

[slacker]

Quark,

Quick! Run to the Panic Room!!!!

 

[Joe Birrell (NY)]

At least you apparently live in a state that is somewhat progressive, here in NY we never hear from the state (which could be a good thing at times), unless it's time to renew license. They are asleep at the switch
and have been since 1989, not even a newsletter, nothing, zero, nada.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.