I have always known the that NAR (National Association of Realtors) was a force to be reckoned with but as an Appraiser I just wanted to personally thank all the Realtors out there that have put their foot down stating that they are tired of deals dying because there are way too many appraisers coming into areas to appraise homes that they have no clue about.
Appraisers who are working for AMC's (Appraisal Management Companies) for 1/2 to 1/3 of their fees and who are traveling over an hour or more to get to the property and who are not familiar with the the market dynamics and trends in the various neighborhoods, usually produce poor appraisal reports both under and over-stated values will occur.
FHA/HUD listened to the NAR .... as of February 15th as dictated in one of their recent mortgagee letters, appraisers must be paid their usual and customary fees for their appraisals. This does NOT mean U & C fees that AMC's define as hard as they have tried. HUD did define U & C as that which the appraiser would normally charge, which has NOT been discounted for an AMC.
Realtors and Borrowers are actually not worried about appraisal fees being too high, rather they are concerned about low fees and they SHOULD be! I am a firm believer you get what you pay for and if an appraiser is forced to take a pay cut in order to get work and they have only a few days to get that report back to the AMC, guess what happens...YES....Mistakes, oversights and SHORT cuts are taken....NOT GOOD for anyone.
So NAR thanks for making your concerns known. Maybe we will finally get seasoned appraisers who know the areas well, who are paid for their expertise and who are also not coerced into obtaining a certain value (all part of the HVCC lingo) then all will be sane in this crazy Real Estate World.
Now Fannie and Freddie should follow suit!
Have a great weekend everyone!
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