Will I Get Sued

[eric cogswell]

I had a quality AMC contact me to say that I've been noninated to serve as a reviw appraiser.. I'm fairly new.... I disagreed with one recently a multi-Unit. and my recommendation was to have another appraisal done.... They just called saying that I needed to supply new comps and place a value.... I told them I do not feel comfortable. I told them to use the original appraiser. I told her that I am fairly new at this ...They prefer to have 5 yrs. experiance ..I told her I dont. She said I wasted their clients time.... I told her that they do not owe me any fee and I told her that she can remove my name off their list. My question is...an I at any fault.. Thanks to all Good spring

 

[Randy Beigh]

Eric

No, you won't be sued.

 

[Anthony Blackburn]

You may have an issue in accepting an order and not being competent to complete it. It may even be a USPAP violation if you accepted the order under thier terms and were unable to fulfill those terms. If they gave you specific instructions and you accepted the order on that basis and now you are not doing the report to those standards, you have an issue. Appraisal reviews are extremely time sensitive. If they have to go back anbd have someone else do the Field Review, an escrow may expire on that time period, or an owner may lose a rate lock. In both instances, they may lose significant money, as will many other people in the chain of the transaction, and they will look for someone to pay for that and it may be you.

Your best bet for the future is to know what your clients needs and expectations are, make sure you are competent to address those issues, and take work only on that basis and decline anything that falls outside of that.

 

[eric cogswell]

Thank you Randy.

Eric

 

[Jerry Bone Jr]

Eric, I think you did the right thing. They ordered a review, you gave them a review. If they wanted a value, they should have ordered an appraisal.
Now tell me they didn't order a review with an opinion of value.

 

[Alvin Michael Cooper]

First, Randy, one can ALWAYS be sued. Who wins is another question. I would avoid making blanket statements like that.

I agree there might be a competency issue if you did not have the experience to complete the assignment. Read Standard 3 on reviews, the lender can ask for an opinion of value as part of a review and if you agreed in accepting the assingnment, I would say the lender could push the issue of a USPAP violation on two counts. Most likely is they'll cut thier losses, but you never know.

 

[Mike Garrett RAA]

Most likely you will be removed from their list of "preferred review appraisers" and that will be the end of it.

As I see it, the entire industry needs to re-think the review process. A review should be a review, not another appraisal. A reviewer needs to be very experienced, it is not something for "new" appraisers to do. I, personally, would like to see at a minimum, a requirement for at least an equal license level for the reviewer.

I know of Registered Appraisers (Trainees) doing reviews of appraisal reports on properties the trainees are not even permitted to appraise per our license laws. The company they are doing these for is located in another city and demands 24 hour turn-around times.

In today's market... a review is ordered in place of a 2nd appraisal because it is usually cheaper. Too many reviewers see this as an opportunity to "eliminate" the competition. One once told me...."I have yet to do a review of an appraisal report that I didn't send to the state".

Perhaps the solution is a separate license for reviewers. How about special training in this discipline that would lead to a designation as a reviewer. Anthony Blackburn is a good source for information on reviews as his company does a lot of them.

 

[Stone]

Originally posted by Mike Garrett, RAA@Apr 8 2005, 09:45 AM
As I see it, the entire industry needs to re-think the review process. A review should be a review, not another appraisal. A reviewer needs to be very experienced, it is not something for "new" appraisers to do. I, personally, would like to see at a minimum, a requirement for at least an equal license level for the reviewer.

I know of Registered Appraisers (Trainees) doing reviews of appraisal reports on properties the trainees are not even permitted to appraise per our license laws. The company they are doing these for is located in another city and demands 24 hour turn-around times.

I agree, Mike. When I was licensed I turned down several reviews because I felt I should be certified before accepting them. I firmly believe the reviewer should be at least equal to the appraiser being reviewed in terms of licensing level. Granted, higher license levels do not mean you are automatically more qualified, but it does mean you have at least completed a lot of appraisals and have completed the states requirements for testing and education. Also, I would like to see people turn down reviews for different types of properties that they do not have much experience appraising. I would personally not do reviews of income properties, since that is not a strong point of mine.

 

[Ross (CO)]

Both the Mike's are correct about the misperception among so many clients for the true nature of what that review should be and would require. They will pose the order as a Technical Field Review, expecting one to not only scrutinize every element of that original report, but then to augment those findings by offering another (new) opinion of (differing) value. All this to be done in too-fast an expected turn-time and for a fee NOT reasonably complimenting the work of EITHER one of those two distinctly different assignments. How much more in-your-face could questions 2 and 3 be on page 1 of the 2000 Form ? What's the easy way to accept a review assignment for their low-fee offer ?.......would be to rubber-stamp the original report.....and keep your fingers crossed. That could assure one gets plenty of new work !

If the future evolution of Scope of Work wants a good testing ground then the arena of reviewing is a good place for client and appraiser to discuss many such details......provided the client rep can actively participate in such a discussion. I often may ask a client or prospect if they "need review help" in my market area, and nobody seems to need any ! Where do you guys find review work ?......even though I am sure I would have difficulty forging client agreement on acknowledging two assignments within one order, and getting a fair fee as well.

 

[Walter Kirk]

What is a "Quality AMC" I think it must be like a unicorn. How can any person or organization select a reviewer without a thorough understanding of the reviewer's background and experience.

It seems to me that this AMC cares only about speed and the bottom line number, not the quality of the report. Don't worry about being sued, you did your job, don't worry about loosing the AMC as a client, there are lots of AMC's out there trying to impress the same lenders.