Interesting interview yesterday

[Wayne Tomlinson]

I had an interesting interview yesterday.

I have an assignment to do an appraisal on a new grocery store. It is located in a nearby county. This county seems to have quite a number of appraisers. However it seems that the level of mentoring is somewhat below what would be expected.

I have done several appraisals there over the years, and I have done some for this bank.

When the banker called to request the appraisal, we discussed it, then I asked if he would send me a written request, which he did, signed by a secretary,

When I arrived, he seemed real glad to see me. He asked if I had time to talk a little. I agreed that I did. He first asked if the order request was ok. I said that it was, and if they ever needed something beyond the ordinary, that would be the place to request it. We talked a few minutes, then said that there was someone else he wanted me to meet,

He brought in a lady, and introduced her as their Compliance Officer. We shook hands, then they together asked me a lot of questions.

1. Do you do evaluations? No no appraiser can do them. An unlicensed person in Illinois can as long as it is not called an appraisal. ( I knew that for years a local real estate broker has been writing Evaluations for them for years for residential.

It went from that to appraiser limitations, qualifications, and the whole field of regulations of what we do.

We discussed bank examiners, the 12 USPAP requirements for an appraisal and a whole line of enquiry. They asked if I would be willing to be called when they have questions of that sort.

Then, the conversation turned to appraisal quality. I told them that it was a good practice to send questionable appraisals for a review. I told them that I don't do reviews, but I could recomend soomeone. There is no MLS in this area.

I asked, Do you have some appraisals that are questionable? He acknowledged that they do.

I told them how to submt them to the state if they thought that they warranted it, but a review first would be adviseable.

Next question. "If we have an appraiser on our approved list are we alllowed to just drop them or is that illegal? I assured them that they were within their rights to stop using any one that they wanted to.

There was a lot more. It will be interesting to see just how this all plays out in the long run.

Wayne Tomlinson.

 

[Brian Weaver]

I'm impressed that a lender is paying THAT much attention to their appraisers/appraisals. Currently we're in the midst of a CE audit and we're still doing random experience audits. During a recent Ex audit, a newly minted CG sent a report over that was done on a commercial property back when the CG was still a CR. Plus...there was no CG co-signer. When I asked this licensee about that...they wrote back that "the lender knew what my credential was when they accepted the report."

Here's the deal...Illinois does NOT care what your clients agree to...know...don't know...whether they care or don't care what your credential is. They are not the ones holding your license.

This little exchange prompted opening a complaint that is already with prosecution. That took exactly two days.

One way or another...this individual's CG credential will change. It will either be downgraded...or revoked. It depends upon what the Board thinks at a Settlement Conference.

I have two more of these cases pending.

It's not fair to everyone else who upgraded the right way to let a few others skate by with not so much as a look in their direction. Trust me. We're looking.

 

[Wayne Tomlinson]

Brian this is an old line bank established in 18++ something

I just looked over their business cards. He is the First Vice President.

He left the interview after several minutes.. He apologized, and said "I left a client sitting in my office and I need to get back to him.

I like that they are starting to look for the good way. I think that a lot of other local banks anyhow will begin to ask.

As I have told you before, the regular banks in my town use mostly CR's or all their loans.

OH well

Wayne Tomlinson

 

[Brian Weaver]

Wayne;
Unfortunately the banks that use CRs for everything will need to answer to their own regulators. The appraisers need to answer to the State. I never underestimate the foolishness of any lender. As so aptly stated in the movie Wall Street; "A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place."