A few issues ago, Henry Harrison printed a letter from a congressman. He was the head, I think, of the Senate Banking Committee during the S&L crisis. That letter stated that they, the committee, understood the bulk of the problem was with lenders, coercion, and unethical actions on the part of lenders, originators and mortgage/loan brokers. The letter stated that they understood there was relatively little concern on the appraiser side of the equation. Yet, out of that crisis we got TAF, ASB, AQB, USPAP, state boards, licensing, etc. What happened on the mortgage side?
In my opinion, the best thing that TAF could do is hold up their model as an example of how to “fix” the other side. This is a supply and demand issue. In this case, the demand creates the supply. The lack of any real consequences from the origination side causes less than ethical people to make less than ethical demands on appraisers. Yes, there are many who just say no. However, as with any industry, there are those with lower ethical standards who will do anything to make a buck. There are those appraisers who got into the industry solely to cater to those demands. When the demand leaves, they will simply move on to find their next scam in which to make a lot of money in a short amount of time.
Once again, we are sitting here dealing with the appraisal side rather than addressing the problem. 800 pound gorillas may be big, but they are not invincible. Why are none of our industry “leaders” stepping out there, seriously identifying the problem, pointing the fingers where they need to be pointed and offering sound advice on how to fix it.
Are there bad appraisers? Yes, we all readily admit that. We will clean up this profession. The lending side needs to adopt similar licensing, regulation, and penalties and offer to clean up their side. They can no longer run around pointing fingers, unless they are pointing into a mirror.
