Grants to Help Train Appraisers
To establish grants directly to supervisor appraisers to help cover the training costs for each Trainee…
Folks, this article appeared in American Banker on September 7, 2022. In my view, after reading it, the article appears to present a balanced perspective about what appraisers have been experiencing since the FIRREA law was mandated back in 1989. It also exposes problems with getting new people into the appraisal profession.
If you have been paying attention to appraisal related activities over the years, you will recognize the names of people quoted in this American Banker article.
One thing that has not been promoted well by anyone in this profession is how supervisor appraisers can be encouraged to take on trainees so that we can replenish our stock of appraisers. Presently, due to the way the system works, the enablement of training is discouraging to the majority of Certified appraisers due to the financial disincentive built into the training process.
It costs supervisors a great deal of money and the supervisor’s personal production time to train a new appraiser.
AMCs don’t make it any easier, when AMCs basically demand the lowest fee to award assignments, even though borrowers are STILL paying ‘normal’ appraisal fees to the mortgage lender when they apply.
So since no one else has offered any suggestions about assisting the training process, here’s mine.
The Appraisal Foundation is sitting on a boat load of cash, millions they have siphoned off of appraisers and others since USPAP was incorporated into Federal, State and Territory laws. This is due to TAF’s insistence (in the past) on “changing the rule book” frequently, meaning a new ‘book’ had to be purchased from TAF when changes were made.
TAF is a ‘non-profit organization’ by law; that means there is no reason for them to hoard so much cash.
Therefore, TAF should immediately utilize the majority of retained funds to establish grants directly to supervisor appraisers to help cover the training costs for each Trainee the Certified appraiser is supervising. This will help make up the lost income the Supervisor appraiser experiences.
I’ll just leave it at that for now; the actual grant amount and application process can be left for appropriate administrative oversight upon consideration of input from actual appraisers who do, or who want to, supervise Trainees.
Dave Towne on e-AppraisersDirectory.com
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Brilliant idea Dave but we all know that’s not going to happen.
There’s no money in appraising anymore. Furthermore too much liability for the amount we’re getting paid and that’s way no one wants to be an Appraiser these days.
Until the amc’s are forced to bill for their services separately, I’ll never train. If the amc’s were not involved, assignments placed by competency and quality not fee and turn time, I’d have such plentiful work and would have found a way to train many appraisers by now. Billions of dollars siphoned from this industry by amc’s, theft of all of our potential energy. Whatever TAF budget is there does not hold a candle to how much has been unjustly displaced. Although you may have something if we could redirect that budget to getting the Dodd Frank Reg Z Appraiser Independence C&R billing rule finally implemented, that would provide corrections to return a billion or so dollars to this industry in the future. We can not subsidize a loss this great, that’s how much the amc industry has taken from all of us collectively, roughly half of this entire industries collective income potential. As the amc companies bragged for all those years about record setting business growth and built up untold numbers of managerial workers without producing a single new licensed appraiser.
70% of appraisers are one person shows. Most don’t want or have time to train someone, let alone training a complete stranger to be your competition. So why not change the training to a college setting? My state used to be train for two years, 2500 hours of experience, appraisal classes and a two year degree in something or 30 college course hours. Now it’s only a year, 1000 hours, 10 appraisal classes and a degree or 30 college course hours. Make it an associates degree at these community colleges or tech schools to where a student can get all of the state required classes, do case studies both classroom and in field, get field work experience and other classes. Just like school teachers that have to do a semester of student teaching at the end of their degree (to which they had to pay to do) the degree will include apprentice experience with a trained local appraiser or appraiser firm. Part of the tuition is to pay the training appraiser to take on students. Then the Gov can throw all the money you want at people to encourage them in the field. Why do we appraiser get the blame for the current system?
Those are great ideas. What’s going to be difficult though is when the ethics professor and the business systems professor take a hard look at the exploitative practices of the amc industry.
Appraisal 101; How to navigate persistent and state sanctioned restraint of trade in the appraisal industry, and why NOT to work with amc’s.
We all get it. Baggins hates AMCs. But that has nothing to do with getting you license.
Hmmm, before HVCC and DF I had a firm with 4 Certified and 3 trainees working as staff and I helped 3 others get Certified. Since DF and 2009 – it’s just been me and an old car and I cant’ fathom HOW or WHY I would train anyone else and be able to support us both. Pray tell?
I hear ya bro. No more training for me and driving a 2008 Honda Accord. But somehow the problem to get new appraisers licensed is placed on us. Name another field that does this?
The radical changes the amc industry has wrought now basically requires us to shed about 40,000 appraisers if there is to be sustainable income. So yeah, it’s a relevant issue, siphoning billions of dollars from an industry which decimates the ranks of licensed personnel count. Next up is the AI’s support of an avm certification program to meet regulatory ‘appraisal’ requirements. No human or license will be necessary. This causes more harm and is not beneficial to the public in an over all risk vs reward analysis. Arguments dismissing legal principals don’t hold water. Lending regulation is there to protect the public, and was never intended as self asking regulation to monopolize the lending market. The AI and TAF were certainly never intended to be advocates for lenders or ancillary companies monopolization of the valuations industry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Antitrust_Act
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restraint_of_trade
For example, even if a restraint is necessary and ancillary, within the meaning of the Mitchel and Addyston Pipe cases, it may still be an unreasonable restraint of trade if its anticompetitive effects and consequent harm to the public interest outweigh its benefits. Thus, Judge Ginsburg opined in the Polygram case: If the only way a new product can be profitably introduced is to restrain the legitimate competition of older products, then one must seriously wonder whether consumers are genuinely benefited by the new product.[15]
Name one state required class that talks about AMC?. Name one question on the state exam that the answer is AMC? Name one standard in USPAP that mentioned AMC? A discussion about AMCs in training new appraisers to get a license IS irrelevant. Please stop. We get it. You hate AMCs.
Name 1 HUD-1 that states the fee paid to the AMC?? Truth in Lending? Nope. The AMC business model IS relevant in the demise of the industry and defrauding consumers of Appraisal products. But that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong
Excellent training and educational program suggestion. Leave all the students completely unprepared for the real world scenarios ahead of them.
Didn’t Fannie get 50 million from the Feds for this (minorities only)? Why don’t they purchase 100 appraisal companies with a 2 year training from seller and give them to trainees? Mine is for sale!
If anyone in this country is owed Reparations – it’s the Independent Fee Appraiser. We have been robbed like a liquor store on 137th street since HVCC and Dudd-Fwank. The AMC’s alone have pocketed enough off our backs to rebuild Ukraine.
Hey Yo! Yes! More! Refreshing. I don’t know how the amc people sleep at night, it’s such an unethical predatory business with a sole focus around exploiting people with more qualifications and credentials than them. I’ve talked to hundreds of ex amc workers whom attained better jobs at lenders somewhere or another. Every last one of them says they’re relieved to be out of the amc industry and were simply tired of being asked to push appraisers around. We have no protections. Where is our representation?
I have no complaints and voted with my feet years ago.
I no longer accept AMC or Direct Lender Assignments for Residential or C&I either.
That’s next level but many do not want to go that route. How insulated are appraisers whom opted out of GSE work, as if the events in ML will not eventually pervade other operational segments? As the pace quickens.
After 23 yrs… I am about to walk. AMC‘s ruined the business
The “Appraiser Mills” (you know who you are) who thrive off doing low cost AMC work will be THRILLED by this idea. Now they can make money off of the grants as well as AMCs.
Viva Dead Profession!
Agreed!
Government should have left the free market work and put the criminals in jail in 2008/2009/2010. Instead they shafted appraisers again after we were the ones shouting from the rooftops of the crimes occurring.
I got fed up with complaining, fed up with trying to turn the ship and left fee appraising in 2019.