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Editor’s Note: Check out the latest edition of Working RE Magazine, HVCC/AMCs - Change Equals Opportunity, now mailing! If your magazine hasn’t arrived yet, you can access it online (PDF) now by clicking the cover image at left. By including your mailing information on the registration form, you can opt out of future print editions in favor of online- go green!
HVCC
Appraiser Talkback Survey: What’s Really Going On?
by David
Brauner, Editor, WRE and Senior Broker, OREP
The HVCC Appraiser
Talkback Survey has been posted about two weeks and so far you’ve provided
some pretty interesting results (see below).
We plan to collect survey data all year and hope you have much to share, post
HVCC, about the state of the profession from your perspective. We will collect
and share the data openly with you and with regulators and other interested
parties. It’s a chance for appraisers to come together as a group, speak with
one voice and be heard.
Our Survey Says (so far)
In our Working RE/OREP Appraiser Talkback Blog (and
elsewhere), many appraisers predict that the profession can not continue to
attract competent professionals, capable of producing reliable reports, given
the relentless pressure for lower fees and faster turn times from appraiser
management companies (AMCs): the most competent and talented will migrate to
professions that are more profitable and satisfying, goes the prediction. Do
most appraisers really believe that there is no future for them in this
profession? And if so, what does this portend for the future of honest lending?
Just 57 percent who responded say they expect to
be appraising full time five years from now.
What do you say?
Questions about working with AMCs also reveal interesting results.
Over 65 percent respond that they are satisfied
working with appraiser management companies (AMCs) at least some of the time (35
percent respond “never” satisfied). Interpreting survey results is tricky but
could this mean that those who are surviving are picking and choosing the AMCs
they work with and firing the others, just like they did with mortgage brokers?
Might it mean that AMCs may have to become more appraiser-friendly to compete?
Over 79 percent of respondents report that, at
least some of the time, pressure for a fast turn around time results in a
product that is less reliable for the end user, compared to a report where
adequate time had been allowed (only 21 percent say this never
happens). What’s your experience?
Complete the survey and let us know.
Lenders, as well as the regulators who are charged with protecting the public,
might be interested to know what percentage of appraisers feel that low fees and
fast turn times make their reports less reliable. Discouraged appraisers might
be interested to learn whether a silent majority of their colleagues have
figured out how to make a profitable and satisfying living from AMC work without
the hassles associated with mortgage brokers. Maybe we all can learn something
from the survey and follow up stories in Working RE Magazine.
Eighty-five
percent say being able to copyright or register ownership of the intellectual
property contained in their appraisal reports is an important issue.
Isn’t
this interesting?
Coming Together
Working RE
mails to the entire profession and is therefore a natural vehicle for gathering
appraiser survey data nationwide. Why is it important for you to participate?
First, the absence of comprehensive survey data makes it impossible for industry
leaders to formulate and promote the appraiser-friendly agenda that is
long overdue. Lobbyists will tell you that finding a consensus on anything among
appraisers has long been a stumbling block to progress. A much stronger case can
be made to regulators with hard data in hand.
The absence of feedback from colleagues also makes it impossible to assess your
own experience relative to others and to learn from their mistakes and
successes. Fill out the survey and we’ll bring you the stories.
Finally, there is this: appraisers predicted the lending collapse years before it happened; those who complained about reckless lending, inflated values, lender pressure and the imprudent use of AVMs, were labeled anti-progress, shortsighted, incompetent…and worse. No one paid much attention to the “Chicken Little” appraisers, except to mock them, but this time, the sky really did fall. Here’s a chance for appraisers to come together as a group, speak with one voice and be heard. If you've already taken the survey, you may want to go back to weigh in on several new questions suggested by readers (Additional Questions Suggested by Survey Takers).
You can find a link to the HVCC Appraisers Talkback Survey at www.orep.org or www.workingre.com or click:
www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=1drQU6WrYbQ73E4wH2vKVw_3d_3d
Visit our blog at http://www.orep.org/wordpress-2.7/wordpress/.