There may have been some “lack of oversight” but let us not forget the real cause of our financial crises was the huge Federal Governments push to make “Every Individual” a home owner whether they could afford a mortage or not.

The Federal Government forced lending institutions to give mortages to under qualified individuals. We can’t forget Freddy and Fanny nor all the political undertone, and pac money that was involved and is still involved.
Lack of oversight the major cause? Hardly!

But, over time, I figure that as long as the HVCC is in place, all lenders will shift to AMC’s (probably at the direction of the federal government) for all orders, so they can attempt to cover their rear ends. Just like FNMA and FHA/HUD do not require us to complete the Cost Approach (FHA does not require it on houses over 1 year old), 95% of all lenders/AMC’s I deal with want the cost approach. So once one group starts adopting one idea, others will soon follow. I know of one AMC that now requires all FHA approved appraisers (i.e. the federal government has said that this appraiser has the qualifications to perform FHA appraisals) to pass a test (written by the AMC) in order to be eligible to receive FHA orders through that AMC, regardless of whether you have one year or 20 years experience in FHA/HUD appraisal. Where does it stop?

It is funny and sad, that lenders/AMC’s now want appraisers to make determinations that only surveyors, structural engineers, home inspectors, title searchers, attorney’s, etc., are qualified to make, but they continually want to pay us less and less of a fee for our knowledge and time.

I think residential appraisal is a failing industry due to all of the unnecessary regulations placed upon us that have nothing to do with appraisal. Couple that with the fact that we are not allowed to charge for our time to investigate/analyze all of this info, it will only push more of us out of business. Maybe when that happens, that will qualify us for a government “bail out”. LOL

The HVCC has almost single handedly eliminated all personal business relationships that appraisers have developed over the years. Because thanks to HVCC, most all appraisals are required to be ordered through National Appraisal Management Companies (AMC’s). There are no personal business relationships with these companies. Appraisers are just a number to these companies. These AMC’s want shorter turn times, more information, and LOWER appraisal fees. The borrower may pay their lender $400 – $600 as an appraisal fee, but the appraiser may only get $200 – $300 of this, the rest goes to pay the AMC. When I started in appraisal in 1992 as a trainee, we charged $300 for a single family residential appraisal. Now in 2009, we are lucky if we receive $350. I am at a point where I cannot get more efficient and fees and volume of work are going down, while everything else in life is going up. This seems to be a recipe for financial disaster. I do not mind shorter turn times and additional info in the report, but I would like to be paid a fair fee for my time. There is a lot more to completing an appraisal that what the homeowner sees us do while we are at their house. It can now take 3-6 hours “work time”, sometimes longer in rural areas, after we have inspected the house.

Do not get too worked up about how far an appraiser travels to perform an appraisal assignment. Most appraisers I know cover multiple counties in order to have a chance and making a decent living. The guy from North Walton County that comes to PC Beach may be as much or more knowledgeable that a guy that lives in PC Beach. You cannot fault a guy because of where he chooses to live. Most appraisers that work in various different areas have access to the same MLS info, and many AMC’s only want comparable data from a MLS system. My state of AL license says that I can work in any county in the state of AL as long as I make myself knowledgeable about the market that I am working in. This knowledge can come from self study or associating yourself with someone in the area that knows the particular market you are appraising in. I am pretty sure FL is the same way.

No one seems to get to worked up over the fact that the people that order appraisals from us, for the local areas we serve, may be in Pittsburgh, PA, San Diego, CA, or other parts of the world. In other words, the people ordering appraisals now know nothing about these areas we work in, and in most cases have never heard of the cities we work in. One AMC I am associated with has a call center in India that orders appraisals. What kind of sense does that make? Needless to say communication with someone in India about a property in Alabama is a problem.
I am not sure where we are headed but I am sure that many residential appraisers will choose to leave the profession due to HVCC and the weak national real estate market. Many of the appraisers I suspect that will leave the profession will be experienced appraisers, not the new and inexperienced appraisers.

Anyway, just my two cents as a frustrated appraiser. Keep up the good articles, pcbdaily is the best site available for PC Beach info.