I know this article is dated 4/14/2011, but I haven’t seen anything to change its timeliness or accuracy. The policies are still in place by the lenders and the AMC’s that have resulted in many appraisers, myself included removing themselves from being involved in that segment of the appraisal market.

Sadly most home buyers and their Realtors don’t have an option of opting out of the system. I am still reminded of a conversation I had with a Realtor in Danbury when I was calling them to verify some information on a pending sale. The first words out of his mouth was that I don’t like appraisers anymore. Well after that delightful opening we got into his reasons for it. It seems that the appraisers he didn’t like were the ones hired by AMC’s who had no knowledge of his market and had no time to learn about it because of the time restraints put upon them by the AMC’s. So consequently they were grabbing the first three comparables that looked good not knowing if the property had been distressed or had some physical problems and consequently coming in with a lower then warranted appraisal. Even in the buyers market that we have all been involved in some how these appraisals said a lot of his sales were over priced. I kidded with him that they must have thought him a great salesman, probably not one of my better jests.

I could feel his pain and understood the problems he was having. Unfortunately it didn’t make him feel any better to let him know I agreed whole heartedly with him and that I didn’t think it would get any better as the management groups typically only had two qualifications for assigning appraisals. Can you do if for a fee that is between 1/2 and 2/3′s what the appraisers used to get and often half what the borrower is being charged for the appraisal. And can you do it in two days time.

As a result of these two questions the more experienced local appraiser’s often declined to do them and found more lucrative work, leaving it to inexperienced appraisers, trainees or those that were under so much pressure to complete higher volumes of work to survive and to complete them in a time frame that is not always possible to do a reasonable job. Thus the very legislation designed to insure better appraisals has resulted in inferior ones, but at a much higher price.

I am curious if the Realtor’s that read this have found any improvements over the past year. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

{ 0 comments }