Well, what I bolded would have been enough for me to cut an run.
Many of you have asked why I resigned from the Appraisal Institute after 45 years, and I want to make it very clear as to why. It was not one incident – there were at least 10 reasons and I have provided them below. It took me years before reality decided for me. So many of you are younger (enjoy it while you have it, your youth, that is!), and you may not be aware of a lot of these items. I attempted to make a rough timeline of incidents.
1) AI – SREA Merger – I supported it. SRPAs were told that the MAI designation would be exchanged for the SRPA with very little or no effort. False.
2)
AI put FNC on the map which in my judgment was the beginning of the decline of the income and demand for residential appraisers.
3) AI denied, denied, denied any business relationship with FNC. For example: 2007 AI President Terry Duncan appeared in Richmond, VA at an AI dinner meeting. With John Wintrol’s letter in hand (A lawyer working for AI), I directly asked him: Does AI have any business relationship with FNC? He flatly said no. I then asked President Duncan if he would like to change that answer and he said no. I then read the letter from Wintrol outlining the entire deal and asked President Duncan who was lying – him or Mr. Wintrol. An AI board member in attendance jumped up and declared that this meeting was over.
Yet, 10-years later AI clears roughly only $350,000 out of a $475 million sale of FNC to CoreLogic. This suggests that AI can’t make a smart investment decision.
4) I attended the San Diego AI national meeting a few years ago. I was given the privilege to speak to various regions at the meetings. The idea was to implore AI to set up a competitive AMC because we had an instant national database of the best-trained appraisers in the country.
The board of directors voted to put this idea into a study, belatedly. 2012 AI President Sarah Stevens named a committee, but I never saw a report. Are there any MAIs that own AMCs?
5) The overseas effort has been and continues to be a drain on AIs efforts and finances. How many foreign members are there and what are the total dues derived from them?
6) Alternative standards. AIs own membership does not have a clear grasp of this concept.
7) AIs desire to damage or destroy the ASC and TAF. Who then would fill that gigantic void? The Appraisal Institute?
8) Governance. Demanding local chapter turn over their funds was a major faux pax. First-year board members do not get to vote or even speak at the Board of Directors meetings. Why?
Board of director members supposedly must agree that they serve National, not the regions or local members. Can you say top–down governance?
9) Major disconnect between National AI and its residential members. Earlier this year President Jim Amorin said there is a shortage of residential appraisers by quantifying it in a PowerPoint that relied on the most distrusted and disliked AMC in the United States.
10) The so-called “appraisal shortage” is a fabrication of the AMCs, so residential appraisers, with AIs help, are a pawn of REVAA. There is no shortage – check the number of licensees. There is a shortage at the AMC level of appraiser willing to work for half the customary and reasonable rate.
REVAA appears on a AIs website, and AI appears on REVAAs website.
Sincerely,
Pat