That's It! I Have Had It With Lenders.

[Austin]

The local real estate market is running 150% above last year. I received about five calls this week from MB's.

MB: "What is your fax number so I can fax over an order so we can get the ball rolling?"

Me: "Sorry, I don't do mortgage loan appraisals. That ball ain't going to roll."

MB: "Huh?"

I use to put up with their crap until the late 1980's. One day I drove 150 miles to take three comp pictures and never could found one of the properties. That was my last one. No Realtors, no MB's, no trainees, no hired help, machine screens incoming calls, no problems. Life is good. Just me and the dog three days a week fat and happy. Been playing with grand babies all day. Babies are taking naps now so I did an inspection and came by the office to check the mail. Had 35 calls on the machine. Deleted them all. Never heard of any of them.

 

[Tim Hicks (Texas)]

I have had a few minutes to contemplate my smart *** responses above.

Everybody here has pretty much chosen to be an appraiser. The issues with lender pressure is not a new issue. It has pretty much always been there. I really don't think it is worse or better than it has ever been.

If you really like being an appraiser and you want to continue being an appraiser, you need to be able to deal with these issues and move on because they are not going away. Nothing has ever been done to deter it.

It seems that the only thing we can control in this business is ourselves. We can not control the lenders, our peers, our competition, the AMC's, AVM's or anything else.

All we can do is do our jobs to best of our ability and hope that it is recognized by our current and future clients. Some of us will get lucky and find clients that will appreciate our work, some of us will seem like we never find good clients.

When we do find good clients, other issues will come up that make them not appear so great. Some will switch to AMC's. Some might try something like Appraisalport. Some might be bought out by another lending institution that has their own preferred appraisers or a staff of appraisers.

We will have to make sacrifices some times to survive. We may have to accept some of the changes that are forced upon us (read AVM's, AMV's, etc). It all comes down to whether you want to continue being an appraiser or not.

I have been a member of this forum for a long time and I have seen many members come and go. Lately, it seems like the forum has turned into a whine fest. I am not above a little whining myself. I would just like to see a little proactive posts, ideas and actions. If we just sit around and complain all the time without looking for solutions, we will surely die out and we will deserve it.

So, bring on the new forms, I will embrace them because that is what I am, an appraiser. You give me the assignment and the form you want and I am your man. I am about to test some of the forms for one lender, just so they can have input on them.

So, bring on the changes to USPAP, I will learn them and adapt my way of business to the new rules. We should have learned that over the years by now.

So, bring on those underpaid field reviews, I will sacrifice a little in fees if it will help eliminate the bad elements in this field. Which is better, pride or nailing the skippies?

So, bring on new any new ideas that the lenders will come up with. I will help them realize how important we are over their new concepts like AVM's.

That is what I do, I am an appraiser. I choose to roll with the punches and move on.


rah, rah, rah...yada, yada, yada

 

[Tina]

some of us will seem like we never find good clients

Ray???

TB

 

[TEL2002]

I have told a coule of LO's that I am like a doctor. When you come to me with a problem, I am going to inspect you and run several tests. After I inspect you I have my thoughts...but they are NOT backed up by solid facts (the lab tests). Over the next couple of days the results of the tests return from the lab. When I look at every thing I find you are one very sick puppy dog.

:question: Should I have stopped after the inspection and before everything was confirmed?
:question: Should you only pay me for the inspection and not the lab tests?
:question: Should I only give you good news?
:question: If I LIE about the lab tests will you get well?
:question: If my results are worse than what the doctor said last year, are you going to go find a doctor that will tell you only what you want to hear?

 

[Doug in NC]

Tell JC to send copies of both appraisals to the "appropriate agencies" and ask him to let you know the results.

That is basically what I did tell him, and added that he would be the one responsible for getting his usual appraiser in trouble for pushing value (not to mention, getting himself and his company in trouble for pressuring an appraiser for value).

I also told him if he or his "regular" appraiser wanted to provide me with better comps, I would consider them. The thing that bugs me is why did he need my appraisal if his other appraiser was so great at getting values for him? Why not just get the other appraiser to do the job again, they were paying for a new full appraisal anyway. Skip might have even done it for half price this time around. Shopping for the highest bidder I guess.

 

[aprazer]

Ted-Your comment about no lender wanting an accurate appraisal is not true. I don't mean to offend you, but I would guess you do more work for MB's than banks. In my experience, it has always been this way-banks typically have much more oversight and do care about accurate values. Mortgage bankers do not as there is less oversight and they don't hold the loans.

I think this has become a greater problem because the banks are using AMC's to a much greater degree. The independents I know say that it has been increasingly difficult to get any business from traditional banks. By default they have been doing more business with mortgage firms. I don't know anyone who works for MB's on a regular basis who hasn't had to deal with all the usual BS they pull and has a pretty negative opinion of them as a whole. But-they (the MB's) have gotten used to getting the numbers they need on a regular basis.

I met an MB a few months ago at an event, and while we were talking I asked him who he used for appraisals and he indicated that his favorite appraiser was the one who needed his business the most. "the smaller the firm the more leverage I have." As you can guess, he was a jerk.

I have been working for the last 12 years on staff for 3 different nationals. Prior to that I worked on staff at banks, independents and solo. I currently do appraisals for large national lenders only. I haven't done an appraisal for a local or small MB in years. I know some of you are going to choke on this-I haven't been asked to push a value or hit a number in 13 years. I am very fortunate and realize that for a lot of you that is not the case. The furthest any value dispute has gone is my response/review of submitted comparables.

I just wanted to give some of you a different perspective. The current situation reminds me of the last time the market tanked and the volume of orders decreased sharply. This was prior to AMC's being on the scene and the banks did the same thing the AMC's are doing right now. Put the screws to anyone who wanted work-reduce your fees or we will go elsewhere. Or in the case of the MB-hit the value or we will go elsewhere.

 

[Willie]

Originally posted by Greg Boyd@Aug 5 2004, 10:39 AM
I inspected a property for a purchase appraisal yesterday morning. As soon as the tenant opened the door, I knew the appraisal would not support the contract price.

I drove off the "yuckky" comps and one of the "good" comps to use for bracketing.

It's a 10 year client. Should I call him and let him know the situation? Or just surprise him with the appraisal?

You should have pre comped that sucker. :rofl:

 

[Will43]

1% might want a real appraisal but I doubt it.

I have dealt with hundreds of loan officers and very few have wanted a real appraisal.

The big banks are just as bad. They are extremely pushing. They are looking for Skippy just like the mortgage companies. We are talking about commissioned sales people. Why in the hell would they want any honest appraisal? I got news for you they don't.

If we don’t hit the number, they don’t get their $2000+ commission check. Do you see why they prefer Skippy? There may be a few clients that want an honest appraisal in the mortgage business. However, you have a better chance of hitting the lottery than finding one.

 

[Willie]

Originally posted by Austin@Aug 5 2004, 02:52 PM
Had 35 calls on the machine. Deleted them all. Never heard of any of them.

Now that's my kind of customer service. :rofl:

 

[Lonny Hogan]

The frustration expressed in this forum discussion is precisely why my prior discussion on how to end number hitting should be looked at in a new light. We need to go after the lenders with the same outrage that they express to us when the appraisal isn't what they need. There's backwards thinking out there that got created because a pattern of poor behaviors by lenders and tolerance from appraisers got engrained until it became habit. Replacing habits is hard but doable.

I'm telling you now, appraisers need to unite and shout in one voice that appraisal orders are not to have any attached target numbers, estimated values, and that any anger expressed over a number that was reported by the appraiser will not be tolerated. If they can proved incompetance, let em. These loan officers fall into one of two catergories. Either they are really clueless that our job is not to hit the number or they know that what they are doing is unethical and wrong.

There's only one reason that they do what they do, BECAUSE THEY CAN. We let them, and we can stop letting them anytime we want, but enough of us need to unite and take action first.