Tell us how you really feel about appraisers ...

[alebrewer]

If a property is selling for $400,000, the brokers take home somewhere around $20,000 and they typically need months to get the property from listed to closed. The bank might charge $2,000 and they have their own underwriting delays.

If the appraisal fee is $500, we get the smallest piece of the pie and only need a week or two for most residential reports. The timeline isn't any less than the other cogs, the perception is just that there is the least value added in this service, so everyone is trying to figure out how to "streamline" the process by getting rid of the appraisal. It also goes to show what stage of the market we are in, as I recall a USPAP teacher saying that people are interested in knowing our outcome in bad markets.

Can't argue with any of that. I was just making the point that public perception is that Zillow can do what we do. In which case, $500 seems costly and unnecessary.

 

[alebrewer]

If only I could work a little harder restoring that public trust... maybe they wouldn't think Zillow can do what we do.

 

[J Grant]

If a property is selling for $400,000, the brokers take home somewhere around $20,000 and they typically need months to get the property from listed to closed. The bank might charge $2,000 and they have their own underwriting delays.

If the appraisal fee is $500, we get the smallest piece of the pie and only need a week or two for most residential reports. The timeline isn't any less than the other cogs, the perception is just that there is the least value added in this service, so everyone is trying to figure out how to "streamline" the process by getting rid of the appraisal. It also goes to show what stage of the market we are in, as I recall a USPAP teacher saying that people are interested in knowing our outcome in bad markets.

The complaint is not really about the appraisal fee, which the borrower covers. Now I will say that borrowers "feel" the appraisal fee when they write the check, because it comes out of their funds, ullinke the RE commission or Loan points and fees, which get financed./rolled into the loan. The buyers of course, pay dearly for that convenience

What the parties are really impacted by is the appraiser's ability (some are so beaten down by pressure they hardly exist it) their ability to "kill a deal" if the appraisal is "low." Of course, low means market value in most cases rather than an inflated value needed to hit the target amount.

Many deals with a so-called " low "appraisal go forward when parties renegotiate a price. And yet, there are deals or refinances that simply die. But since RE agents and loan officers are salespeople, every killed deal is a $ loss to them. I understand it from their perspective. The more professional ones understood it too and continued on with reviving the deal or admitting it was a loser and going on to the next one.

Over valuing properties eithe rby an appraisl or WAIVERS or AVM;s affects markets and can put buyers under water on loans and lead to losses and desablibing hte concomny.
A small price to pay $500 a pop to prevent that.

 

[George Hatch]

You say this all the time, endlessly, as if it were some god like edict. Your stance on this undermines appraisers, by calling them hypocrites, even if you then claim it was not your intent.

A fee is part of appraisers' ability to survive economically, and real appraisers face a unique problem with fees impacted by regulatory issues and the HUD-bundled fee that AMC fee predation stems from. You're trying to equate an appraiser's concern about fees as meaning it is all about the money, and everything else is just an excuse is sickening. An appraiser can care aobut their livelihood and about the public trust at the same time. Who are you to declare that the two items of concern are mutually exclusive?

Who do you think you're talking to? I'm not some random 23-yr old journalist trawling for content for a piece they want to get published.

If appraisers were getting their fees and their volumes that "AMC predation" wouldn't even be a topic of discussion. Everyone knows this, including you. There's nothing presumptuous about taking note of the obvious.

 

[J Grant]

Can't argue with any of that. I was just making the point that public perception is that Zillow can do what we do. In which case, $500 seems costly and unnecessary.

Let them think that. When they apply for the loan, they need to pay the $500 for the appraisal, and so they do. Zillow isn't giving them a loan with a 30-year term and low rates, is it? Their loan office does that, and the reason mortgage loans have long repayment terms and reasonable interest rates is because they are backed by the collateral value of the property.

Boo hoo, poor borrower, getting a loan to leverage a property purchase has to pay an appraisal fee, the lowest fee of them all. It is so sad....( sarcasm). They ***** for a minute, write the check, and forget aobut it. Buyers are under huge stress if moving with lots of things to think about, and refinancing people will benefit, and the appraisal fee is the price of admission.

 

[George Hatch]

If only I could work a little harder restoring that public trust... maybe they wouldn't think Zillow can do what we do.

Unlike appraisals, Zillow and others don't spell out the assumptions and limitations they're using. That's what makes people think they're doing the same thing we're doing.

 

[alebrewer]

Let them think that. When they apply for the loan, they need to pay the $500 for the appraisal, and so they do. Zillow isn't giving them a loan with a 30-year term and low rates, is it? Their loan office does that, and the reason mortgage loans have long repayment terms and reasonable interest rates is because they are backed by the collateral value of the property.

Boo hoo, poor borrower, getting a loan to leverage a property purchase has to pay an appraisal fee, the lowest fee of them all. It is so sad....( sarcasm). They ***** for a minute, write the check, and forget aobut it. Buyers are under huge stress if moving with lots of things to think about, and refinancing people will benefit, and the appraisal fee is the price of admission.

You get 'em, J! Get out there and restore that public trust!

 

[J Grant]

Who do you think you're talking to? I'm not some random 23-yr old journalist trawling for content for a piece they want to get published.

If appraisers were getting their fees and their volumes that "AMC predation" wouldn't even be a topic of discussion. Everyone knows this, including you. There's nothing presumptuous about taking note of the obvious.

AMC predation is about the fees we always agreed on that. You are changing the narrative. You conflate the appraisers' concern aobut fees with being not sincere about public trust or other issues. r

 

[alebrewer]

Unlike appraisals, Zillow and others don't spell out the assumptions and limitations they're using. That's what makes people think they're doing the same thing we're doing.

That's because individual appraisers aren't working hard enough to maintain public trust.

 

[J Grant]

You get 'em, J! Get out there and restore that public trust!

Well I don't pee on the lawn or park crazy on the curb so there's that !