Using Collateral Underwriter to Turn Appraisers In

[Mejappz]

The C & Q ratings are garbage, like I said in the past.

 

[Mejappz]

She also mentioned previously being instructed on certain aspects of her assignments - specifically mentioning 2-4s, that she apparently didn't understand before and then setting out to learn more about what she's supposed to be doing as a result of this process. She walked away from this one without any discipline but has modified her work so as to avoid some of these problems in the future.

That was from HUD/FHA. They suggested she take some classes. Fannie went straight for the kill.

 

[shrubberyvaluation]

Why?
After all - if there is a relationship between age or condition, why doesn't FNMA not even mention age?

I miss the old Boeckh appraisal system. It classified houses by age from pre-war and post war for one. I can presume that a house (here at least) wasn't even insulated prior to the energy crisis of 1972-3. In fact, FHA didn't even require those little cookie cutters to have insulation until later. In 73ish, some FHA houses had higher utility bills than mortgage payments and as a consequence entire subdivisions of them went into foreclosure.

So this house, was built in its day as top shelf housing. And it has features no modern house of similar size (1,000 SF or so) has. Large pillars, wood trim, wood subfloor, wood flooring, 9' walls. The quality is almost always established by the COST and we don't know the original cost. But I bet if you did a comparison of appraisals you would find a correlation between the QUALITY RATING and the CONDITION RATING... a QUALITY house in poor CONDITION, will get downgraded from its actual QUALITY. Condition and quality should be separate items.

This house from a cost book rating has a substantially higher RCN than does most newer houses of its size. But even those don't account for insulation, nor plaster over sheetrock (plaster is more expensive but perhaps not superior although commonly though of as superior materials)

Curious what quality would you call a house if a lot of expensive materials that are not good building materials were used. I can understand differing opinions and I'm not for knocking people unless as long as they compare apples to apples.

 

[George Hatch]

Without knowing all the facts in play, it seems to me that the appraisers who are complaining about being unable to access or compare what they have on a property vs what other appraisers have reported have a very fair point. If Fannie wasn't comparing appraisers against each other but was using the info for other internal purposes that would be one thing; but by the time they're going back to the appraisers to tell them : "Surprise, your ratings don't match those of other appraisers" that amounts to an unfair gotcha after the fact; one the appraiser can't see coming until it's too late. It's even more unfair when it is one or more of the other appraisers who may have been wrong. It's no wonder appraisers feel like they can't win because there's always a potential surprise lurking behind curtain #3.

With that said, I can also see why Fannie wants to prevent appraisers from seeing what other appraisers have said so that they can do their own work independently of each other. If I could look at the prior ratings for a property that were rating it higher or lower than I intended to it would be only too easy for me to succumb to the temptation of taking the easy way out and simply agreeing with them so I wouldn't have to put any effort into explaining and supporting my different rating. Rinse and repeat and you end up with less independence among those ratings.

 

[shrubberyvaluation]

That was from HUD/FHA. They suggested she take some classes. Fannie went straight for the kill.

She said Fannie asked for a rebuttal. Can she provide a rebuttal to them since the lender is the client or did Fannie go through the lender?

 

[George Hatch]

That was from HUD/FHA. They suggested she take some classes. Fannie went straight for the kill.

After she rebutted and refused to submit to them. It might have been more appropriate for them to simply blacklist her or put her on probation/mandatory review rather than going straight to deeming her a threat to the public.

 

[shrubberyvaluation]

Without knowing all the facts in play, it seems to me that the appraisers who are complaining about being unable to access or compare what they have on a property vs what other appraisers have reported have a very fair point. If Fannie wasn't comparing appraisers against each other but was using the info for other internal purposes that would be one thing; but by the time they're going back to the appraisers to tell them : "Surprise, your ratings don't match those of other appraisers" that amounts to an unfair gotcha after the fact; one the appraiser can't see coming until it's too late. It's even more unfair when it is one or more of the other appraisers who may have been wrong. It's no wonder appraisers feel like they can't win because there's always a potential surprise lurking behind curtain #3.

With that said, I can also see why Fannie wants to prevent appraisers from seeing what other appraisers have said so that they can do their own work independently of each other. If I could look at the prior ratings for a property that were rating it higher or lower than I intended to it would be only too easy for me to succumb to the temptation of taking the easy way out and simply agreeing with them so I wouldn't have to put any effort into explaining and supporting my different rating. Rinse and repeat and you end up with less independence among those ratings.

I can only imagine if the first 2 appraisers have something in the database that is wrong and the 3rd or 4th one bucks it then are they in trouble? What happens after its like 10 just going along with the incorrect info and people really don't want to rock the boat anymore to get it right.

 

[ddnma]

Perhaps an effort to justify reducing the use of appraisers...?

please do not confuse hybrids on proprietary forms with the FNMA 1004 Desktop.

 

[shrubberyvaluation]

After she rebutted and refused to submit to them. It might have been more appropriate for them to simply blacklist her rather than going straight to deeming her a threat to the public.

The thing is we really don't know if there was something the CU wasn't able to see due to not understanding the market or she just dug in her heels.

 

[George Hatch]

It's all 100% supposition on our parts unless we can get both sides of the story. It's also possible that there is a review on this appraisal report at Fannie, and the appraiser simply isn't aware of it due to it being none of her business.

By her account she walked away from the situation without discipline, so whatever the allegations were they apparently didn't stand up to the State's scrutiny. That says a lot all by itself.

The knee jerk assumption a lot of appraisers have is that they can't prevail during such an investigation. But at my state for example, they turn something like 1/3 of the complaints down flat without even getting into an investigation because there's nothing actionable in the complaint. My point being that if she worked herself into a negative state of mind then part of that is her own fault. If you KNOW you have a defensible position then you understand that the state won't be able to meet the burden of proof it takes to conclude otherwise. It's when you DON'T know where those limits are that you imagine them to be endless.

Knowledge is power in our business.