The appraiser's job is to justify the purchase price or value needed . . . . NOT The appraiser's job is to use the experience, anaylysis of the market data to determine the most probable sales price of the property - as of the valuation date, in the terms of CASH.
The borrower is the appraiser's client . . . . NOT The client is the lender and the appraiser owes a responsibility to the lender who makes the loan and whoever owns the loan until it is paid off.
There is no charge for the appraisal if the loan is not made . . . . NOT The appraisal fee is paying for the appraiser's time, expertise and opinions, and in order for the appraiser to do their job correctly - they can not be punished because the results are not what everyone wanted.
Appraisers are part of the home selling team / loan making team . . . . NOT The appraiser is part of quality control and their (probably) most important function is to prevent a bad loan from being made.
All appraisers are equal and they all work from the same adjustment playbook . . . . NOT There are good appraisers / bad appraisers and regular appraisers that have good and bad days - and there is NO adjustment playbook.
Appraisers are overpaid . . . . NOT The actual time, expenses and experience of doing quality work - is not compensated adequatly by standard appraisal fees, and appraisal management companies actually grossly unpay appraisers, while charging the borrower often above the going rate for appraisal fees. Because appraisers can be held financially accountable for misvaluating a property where the client lost money - appraisal fees need to be high for the appraiser more inclined to make valuation mistakes.
The appraisal fee pays for the appraisal report . . . . NOT The appraisal fee is paying for the appraisal process and the expertise and opinions of the appraiser - the report is just the method of delivery.
It is an acceptable practice to ask the appraiser for the property value prior to ordering an actual appraisal report . . . . NOT. This is not acceptable, but is common - the new "Home Valuation Code of Conduct" being considered by Fannie Mae - at the request of Andrew Cuomo - will make this illegal!
A good appraiser can determine value without actually seeing the property - just from public records . . . NOT An appraiser can guess at a value prior to seeing the property, but the value after inspection is more likely to be superior.
A good appraiser can and will tell the homeowner / real estate agent the value after finishing the property inspection . . . . NOT First the client is the lender and the appraiser can not discuss the appraisal with anyone by the lender; and there should still be work to do and data to analyze before a "resonasible" appraiser comes to a valuation conclusion.
A preliminary value guess in not an appraisal . . . . NOT Any reference made by an appraiser as to the value of a property is a legal appraisal. And that reference could be as benign as "ya its worth at least $300,000".
Beverly A. Bayer, SRA
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