Letter From FNMA 'Baptist' can't be in report...

[Sadie]

I am far more likely to be turned into my state board for NOT disclosing that a property was within one block of a university...not for discrimination, but for omitting that fact and related analysis which has a profound impact on rents and income trends.

When the men in trench coats come for my license, I will just remind them that I can't talk about the colleges because it is racist and I even have a letter directly from FNMA I will wag in their face.

Well, you have to mention it, but maybe not by name?

 

[Sadie]

Its not the 'legitimate' interest of any client (which implies a human being), its a computer...which I can discern easily, because I have intelligence.

I do not believe that FNMA regulation pertaining to racism or prejudice is meant to be misconstrued into indicating an appraiser can't name a college or university by its actual name, within a report. Yet FNMA computers are churning out letters threatening us for doing just that. So I don't understand why anyone would defend it.

Its a joke and should be mocked by all of us as such.

You may not like it and think its a joke, but you still have to deal with it. No diferent than any of the other dumb things we have to do to stay out of appraiser jail.

 

[Sadie]

I’m of the opinion that you can easily comply with this. However, I think we should question whether this actually reduces liability for anyone. When norms like this change - when we decide perfectly acceptable words are now unacceptable - that creates retroactive liability. Attorneys must love this.

Let’s say they start saying “school district” is a proxy for race, and that school district boundaries perpetuate redlining. They’ll argue, It was never ok to reference schools, it was always coded language. It was never ok to use district boundaries for market areas.

So the GSEs start to flag references to “school district” and now every report you’ve ever done up to that point doesn't comply with the new norm. You get sued and as part of discovery, now they want every appraisal you completed from the beginning of time so they can compare how you are treating people differently.

This seems to be where we are headed.

I think we get creative to describe what ever it is that is offending the word police. Because you can't ignore it and do your job.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

better converted for tax revenue.

You are not very bright are you? Who is going to replace all those church groups who donate time and money to disaster relief, provide canned goods for the poor, clothing for the poor. The Amish and Mennonites are well known for their building skills and often help rebuild homes after hurricanes, floods and tornadoes. There are churches who provide transportation for the sick and elderly. They serve Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. The Salvation Army kettle ringers are out now. Cheapskate you are, I am confident you never give a dime to the red kettle.

The Mormons alone gave $1.3 billion to charity. Worldwide the Catholic Church spends $170 billion. It is harder to gauge Baptist because there are numerous denominations - the largest is the Southern Baptist Convention. It is estimated the members give about $660 a year on average and about 60% goes to maintaining their building and salaries. With 14 million members or so the SBC that adds up to considerable giving. Other Baptist groups "associate" but are operated separately perhaps giving to a centralized charity, or maybe not. Ditto most other protestant churches. Few are as centralized as Mormons and Catholics. But the bottom line is without their charities, you the taxpayer would be on the hook for a lot more, billions and billions in fact.

 

[George Hatch]

you just compared a mcdonalds workers to a independent licensed appraiser....

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Only to illustrate the point. If they can act professional for whatever passes for minimum wage - and similar applies across almost all other occupations and pay grades - then expecting the same from professional appraiser is definitely not too much to ask.

No matter where someone is on the political spectrum, half of everyone else opposes their politics. There is no utility to be gained in antagonizing people for no good reason.

 

[George Hatch]

There's one more angle to this situation that I think bears some serious consideration before taking this topic personally. Which is that appraisers are already locked into the existential struggle for their REL, and their primary competition doesn't get emotionally triggered. The box cares even less about your feelz than do the facts.

You can bet your last food stamp that CoreLogic's Vic-the-Appraiser-AI isn't having any problems with the verbiage it's using in any of it's valuation outputs. If you're going to issue the ultimatum you might not want to completely overlook the possibility of them responding with the pre-programmed "Suit yourself. Challenge accepted."

 

[George Hatch]

But does the actual name of the school or place of worship make a difference. Does St. Mary's school support a different range of prices than St. Agnes' because of the name of the school or does where they are located make the difference

I actually appraise churches and I never mention the name. The occupancy is irrelevant to the valuation.

 

[djd09]

Only to illustrate the point. If they can act professional for whatever passes for minimum wage - and similar applies across almost all other occupations and pay grades - then expecting the same from professional appraiser is definitely not too much to ask.

No matter where someone is on the political spectrum, half of everyone else opposes their politics. There is no utility to be gained in antagonizing people for no good reason.

like a said before...there is no safe space big enough...there words hurt my feelings woke joke

 

[Surf Cat]

I’m of the opinion that you can easily comply with this. However, I think we should question whether this actually reduces liability for anyone. When norms like this change - when we decide perfectly acceptable words are now unacceptable - that creates retroactive liability. Attorneys must love this.

Let’s say they start saying “school district” is a proxy for race, and that school district boundaries perpetuate redlining. They’ll argue, It was never ok to reference schools, it was always coded language. It was never ok to use district boundaries for market areas.

So the GSEs start to flag references to “school district” and now every report you’ve ever done up to that point doesn't comply with the new norm. You get sued and as part of discovery, now they want every appraisal you completed from the beginning of time so they can compare how you are treating people differently.

This seems to be where we are headed.

Agree with your sentiment. I find it very easy to comply with describing a neighborhood without using trigger words.

Having said that, I have in the past based my whole search criteria to be in a certain school's boundaries area as those sales best represented the subject property's market value.

But I guess now that means I was appraising with unconscious bias and should have the book thrown at me.

So, it's okay to identify as a female, when you're actually a male and compete against actual females in competition. Yet, it's not okay to describe a neighborhood's factual attributes to ascertain the subject property's most probable price.

 

[Fernando]

Agree with your sentiment. I find it very easy to comply with describing a neighborhood without using trigger words.

Having said that, I have in the past based my whole search criteria to be in a certain school's boundaries area as those sales best represented the subject property's market value.

But I guess now that means I was appraising with unconscious bias and should have the book thrown at me.

So, it's okay to identify as a female, when you're actually a male and compete against actual females in competition. Yet, it's not okay to describe a neighborhood's factual attributes to ascertain the subject property's most probable price.

Why you need to describe school boundaries?
Just use comps which are in school boundaries if schools are important criteria.