Plagiarism! What should I do?

[Jo Ann Meyer Stratton]

I blithely email my templates to anyone that requests them. I am always looking for feed back to improve my reports. However, every one of my comments in my reports has come in part from another appraiser that I worked with or another report that I reviewed or a comment I read in a letter from my E & O carrier or a comment I read on a chat room some where. I have taken all these various comments from various sources, rearrange, reword, use verbtum, etc, etc and placed in my templates. My master addendum is now about five pages long. But as I write up a report, all those sentences, phrases, situations, etc remind me my subject has that--so I need to comment. And if my subject doesn't then I have the fastest delete key in the west. So I do hope all the appraisers I have plagarized for the past twenty years feel complimented and are not mad at me!! Because if I didn't think their comment or a verision of their comment wasnt' good I wouldn't have used it!!! So here is a big thank you to ever appraiser I have plagarized in four states and through the internet from all the other states! Thank you--all of you have made me a much better appraiser than I would have accomplished on my own!!!

 

[xmrdfghap]

Looking at it another way, what kind of trainer would you be if, as soon as the guy goes out on his own, he changes everything he does? Wouldn't you be MORE upset if he found NOTHING of yours worth copying?

I am like Jo Ann, I happily and freely plagerize, beg borrow and steal good quotes and comments. The only things I attribute are those things that are factual. I would never presume to know the statistics of an area, so I freely quote and attribute the Census bureau, the Chambers of Commerce, and the historical societies, State Departments of whatever etc......other than that, no problem.

How about posting the offending comments so we can evaluate them? They may be better than what I currently use.

 

[Jo Ann Meyer Stratton]

Greg:

If you ever read one of my reports, a few sentences might sound familiar. I am still quoting Bob Sands from 20 years ago, and I am sure you are familiar with some of his work! He was an excellant mentor the two years I was in Hobbs.

 

[Dee Dee]

Dave,
In some ways I can understand your angst, but I share the opinion of most in this thread. You taught the guy, your choice of words seemed to work well enough that you stayed in business, so why not?

In a somewhat similar situation, one of the trainees that my husband worked with for about a year at his small business decided that he would break away and start his own business. He copied my husbands advertising brochures EXACTLY, the only difference being his own business information, then went to all of the business locations where my husband would dispense his brochures, took my husbands out of their holders and put his own in. Only after my husband noticed a slowdown in work and checked his brochure distribution points did he find out what was going on. Even the salespeople at his distribution points hadn't noticed the swap because they were identical in every way. Needless to say, hubby was more than a little furious.

 

[Richard Carlsen]

Dave;

They say there is no higher compliment to a teacher than for the student to emulate the teacher. I did it. I still do it. Some of my verbiage is nearly the same as that of the guy who was my mentor 9 years ago.

Part of it is that there is just a limited amount of space to say these things and over the years we evolve into saying them in the most economical ways. When we find something that works, we tend to stick with it. I have two that pop up in nearly every appraisal I do. These two sentences were originated by my mentor and myself nearly 7 years ago to explain site value adjustments and the fact that our comps were scattered all over the place in our low density rural market. Five will get you ten that he is still using something like mine today.

Take it as proof of a job well done and that he respects your work. Otherwise, he would not have used it this long.

Regards

 

[Anonymous]

Dave,

Did her ever sign a report with that verbage in it when he worked for you? IF he did, than how could it be plagerism? His name was on it too.

 

[Ted Martin]

Keep in mind that they don't pay us for writting original works of art.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

>>First off, a newly licensed appraiser has no business appraising vacant land without some help or supervision, unless its a simple finished SFR lot. Doing one correctly involves too many variables and there is too much to know for the average rookie. Hopefully, this assignment doesn't rise to the definition of "Complex" as defined in FIRREA.

In my area a vacant land appraisal would be the easiest to do. Secondly, if you read the enabling legislation, it can be the lender who determines if a property is "Complex" or not. Few lenders view vacant tracts as complex, in fact, few think anything with a LTV ratio of under 80 % is complex.

Defining "complex" is another area of USPAP and FIRREA that was not well thought out, because it gives few concrete guidelines to defining it. YOu could argue anything but a new cookie cutter house is "Complex"

 

[Farm Gal]

Dave:
While I agree with all the posters above about the fact that begging, borrowing and stealing good phrase is SOP in this and most other businesses, I do understand your feeling of outrage that s/he didn't at least make some effort toward modifying your skull-sweat to the point that it was not a full cut an' paste....

Over the years in my local market I have found more and more of my signature phrases found in other's reports. I only object HIGHLY when they are misused, or as in your case lifted in entireity.

I tend to agree with at least one of the above posters that a quiet suggestion that he not lift word for word is appropriate (even if spoke through gritted teeth) while you thank him for the compliment :x

Otherwise my advice is not to get your nickers in a knot, It's darn uncomfortable to sit on while forming other words for the lazy to copy :roll:

 

[George Hatch]

Terrell,

Responding to your post above about complex vs. non-complex. I would agree that vacant land can be very easy. It can also be extremel;y difficult. The problem is that the difference between the two extremes involves an awful lot of information that may not be readily apparent until the appraiser is halfway through the assignment. And when things go south, they tend to do so in a hurry. A simple finished lot with all utilities stubbed to the site and SFR zoning in place is one thing. Rural land, commercial or industrial zoned lots, even multi-family lots are quite another.

In my state, the state board has held that an appraiser at the residential license or certified residential levels can appraise a site only if they could appraise what would normally go on that site. So if the site were worth $300,000, but the highest and best use for the site involved a high-dollar horse ranch, that would exceed the limitations of a residential licensee and possibly even a certified residential.

USPAP doesn't define complex assignments; FIRREA does. FIRREAs definition of complex includes a transaction where the property to be appraised, the form of ownership or market conditions are atypical. I would agree that an extreme interpretation of that would exclude all but the easiest of SFRs for a residential licensee. As it possibly should for an appraiser with limited demonstrated appraisal education and experience.

It is also true that FIRREA is aimed specifically at federally regulated lending institutions, not at appraisers. Just as USPAP's Competency Rule is applicable only to appraisers. Both sides have a responsibility to determine competence and authority to perform assignments, within their respective abilities to do so. You wouldn't recommend a ResLicensee take on a commercial appraisal for a bank just because the bank hadn't figured out they needed a GenCert, would you? That's why we need to be aware of the requirements, so that we can help our clients stay abreast.

I know you dislike form appraisal reports, particularly for vacant land. The vacant land form is one of the oldest and least USPAP-compliant report formats we have. It was never intended for any but the most simple appraisal assignments involving single residential and small commercial lots. Defnitely not intended for timber, agricultural, subdivision or other large scale land appraisals. I suppose one could write one up and add the appropriate documentation if they were desperate enough (I wouldn't). I would suggest that if a land appraisal assignment is too complex for the form, its probably too complex for the average residential appraiser.

How would you define complex?

George Hatch