Real Estate Blog

Last year the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was written and passed into law. Among many issues addressed in this bill was Mortgage Reform. The Truth in Lending Act was amended to include ‘Appraiser Independence’ and ‘Customary and Reasonable’ fees to be paid to appraisers. Once again our ‘GREAT’ politicians and the Federal Reserve Board have written legislation that is full of loop holes and changes absolutely nothing having to do with appraiser’s fees in reference to Appraisal Management Companies. All they did is write a ‘feel good’ bill to appease the appraisers but would not take a stand as to what a ‘customary and reasonable’ fee is, so of course the AMC’s are going to continue status quo with their definition of ‘customary and reasonable’. This Government has done very little to protect the appraiser in the past two years and is on the path to phase out the industry all together. First the implementation of the HVCC written by Andrew Cuomo which gave AMC’s the power over the industry and disabled appraisers to market their business like any other ‘free American’ is allowed to do, and now this bill that does nothing but let them continue paying low fees, demanding more work, and in some cases requiring a quicker turn time (ie. 8 hours). I would like to see our politicians take a 50% pay cut and be asked to work twice as hard as they were before. That is exactly what has happened to the independent fee appraiser. With the low pay, increased educational requirements and increased liability, who would want to be an appraiser? Who can afford it? So once again, I thank our government for wasting our tax dollars on a bill that does not change anything for an industry that is slowly being phased out. If our appraisal reports were written like this bill, full of bogus and not taking a stand on anything, we would lose our license and be out of work. I am asking you to please stand up and define “Customary and Reasonable Fees”. If this was done in the beginning we would not be having this discussion now.