I was at the FREAB meeting
I attended the FREAB meeting on Tuesday, Feb 6, 2007 and again, abundant accolades to Frank and every board member for their dedication, patience and endurance.
I've served on city planning, zoning and code enforcements boards for over 18 years and even with the best of staff, the time spent on reviewing the case packets can be overwhelming. Frank, great job in chairing and your command of Roberts Rules and dueling attornies was impressive.
I also had the pleasure of meeting our own Pam Crowley and some other stressed out brunette who's appearance kept changing throughout the day. They are both delightful!
And now, for those who care, here's the inside story on the appraiser that unsucessfully argued that the review of interior photos met the legal definition of an interior inspection. Yes, you heard right.
His shop's MO was to send out solo trainees to the appointments to do the field inspections while the three 'certifieds' sat in the office all day writing up reports and
signing on the left side as personally inspecting the interiors. In this case, the trainee was never mentioned in the report. In fact, as it turns out this trainee wasn't even licensed in any capacity when he did the inspection!
How do I know all this? Because the trainee explained to me in detail as to how his shop operated AFTER I handed him my combo appraiser/Realtor business card. He further advised me that it wasn't his job to pull comps because he worked for a quality appraisal firm and his supervisor had many years in the business. In fact, that was why he was taking so many pictures. I motioned to my business card that he held in has hand and said..."you know, I'm also an appraiser". He smiled and suggested that I should already know this stuff. He told me not to worry and assured me that I was in good hands. I slept better that night. :new_sleeping:
I have long suspected that many appraisers / trainees operate this way in the Central Florida area (because I've gone behind them and checked with homeowners during reviews), this was the first one I was able to prove with such a degree of certainty. The owners were in Alabama for an extended period of time. I had removed the multi-lock and I was the only person with a key. I lived two houses away and had the stay-at-home moms in the neighborhood on a 24-hour watch. There was no way that supervisory appraiser was getting into that house without going through me. Oddly enough, he never called.
While on the one hand I feel justice was served, I couldn't help but feel sympathy for this guy. Call me a bleeding heart, but the look on his face when the board lowered the boom was heartwrenching. I genuinely couldn't help but feel sorry for him.
That said, I couldn't get over some of his defenses during the mitigation segment. He made the comment that the initial complaint didn't even take issue with his final appraised value, so why was he even there? I can never quite get over appraisers like him who just don't grasp the whole picture. One has to ask why so many are clueless. Something is seriously wrong.
My emotions were somewhat offset when I was told that his two former colleagues continue to operate in the same way. I see many other shops operating this way; they simply never get caught.
If the lending industry, the State of Florida, FNMA etc., really wanted to put a stop to this kind of fraud, it's easily done. Maybe it's just me.
