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Customary and Reasonable Fees Survey Results Now
Available.
Click to Download.
I save your magazines and reference them when
issues arise within the industry or my residential
appraisal business. I find your publication to be very
informative and worthy of archiving for future
referencing.
-Edward Rossi, State Certified Appraiser
Working RE
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cost-effective choice for reaching appraisers.
"Working
RE is one of the best sources of contemporary
information available to appraisers. I look forward to
receiving it and digest it from cover to cover. Most of
the appraisers feel as I do, in that your work does us a
great service and is sincerely appreciated."
- Paul J. Caristi, SRPA, SRA
"Thank you so much. I
really love these magazines." -
Tina Lee-Swafford
New:
Customary and Reasonable Fee Survey:
The OREP/Working RE survey now has over 12,000 responses. You can
add your fee data here: www.surveymonkey.com/s/YZWHYT3.
Find a link to initial results
in sidebar. (Closed)
Challenging Low Fees Blog:
Post experiences and knowledge about filing a complaint
regarding low fees from AMCs.
Take our other surveys:
HVCC - One Year On(Closed)
HVCC Appraiser Talkback Survey(Closed)
Editors Note:
Learn more on how to challenge low fees below and find a new blog to
exchange information on the topic called the Challenging Low Fees
Blog. Also, the OREP.org/Working RECustomary and
Reasonable Fee Survey has reached 13,000 responses.
More "How to" Challenging Low Fees by David Brauner, Editor
The following note sent by appraiser Frank Giordano is one of many
received in the last few weeks with a similar theme, AMC's are
still not paying customary and reasonable fees in my area. Can you
assist me with filing complaints so we can stop the madness?
As
the April 1 implementation date of Dodd-Frank comes and goes, and
with many appraisal management companies (AMCs) announcing that the
status quo is their response to the customary and reasonable fee
provision of the legislation, more appraisers seem ready for battle.
Meanwhile, the OREP.org/Working RE Customary and Reasonable Fee Survey has
reached the 13,000 response threshold. In the last few weeks,
several more AMCs have requested nationwide fee results from the
survey, as one put it, To integrate
survey data into our appraisal management platforms. No
doubt many others, searching for middle ground on the fee issue,
have downloaded survey results directly from WorkingRE.com.
Some appraisers do report that there are AMCs paying what they
consider to be
fair fees.
David
Brauner Insurance Services/ OREP/Working RE Magazine
David
Brauner Calif. Insurance License: 0C89873
(story
continues)
Challenging Low Fees
To help appraisers through the appeal process against those who are
not paying fairly, OREP.org/Working RE has established the
Challenging Low Fees Blog
as a place to exchange information. It is where trailblazers can
share what they learn about the new processes.
Last issue (Challenging Low Fees)
we learned that the where to report low fees (which agencies) is
included in the language of Dodd-Frank and depends on the type of
transaction. Once you determine the appropriate agency (i.e. the
Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Deposit Insurance Agency
(FDIC), or Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System), the agency website should have a
place to file complaints. Several appraisers have indicated they
received prompt and helpful responses to complaints filed by email
or phone in the last week or so.
Here are links to three agency complaint forms we believe are the
correct ones:
According
to Dodd-Frank, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency,
(is the regulating agency) in the case of (A) any national
banking association; (B) any Federal branch or agency of a foreign
bank; and (C) any Federal savings association;
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (is the
regulating agency) in the case of (A) any State member bank;
(B) any branch or agency of a foreign bank with respect to any
provision of the Federal Reserve Act which is made applicable under
the International Banking Act of 1978; (C) any foreign bank which
does not operate an insured branch; (D) any agency or commercial
lending company other than a Federal agency; (and more).
The Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (is the regulating
agency), in the case of
(A) any State nonmember insured bank; (B) any foreign bank
having an insured branch; and (C) any State savings association;
Note
that the OCC recommends that you attempt to resolve your complaint
with the financial institution first.
Information Sharing
If you discover a more efficient place or process to
file a complaint, please post it to the
Challenging Low Fees Blog.
You can also post responses from AMCs there and other
related documentation. A number of appraisers tell WRE
that they have upcoming meetings with members of
Congress to discuss the issue of customary and
reasonable fees and are requesting documentation to
present, especially pronouncements from AMCs whose
position is the status quo.
As noted in earlier stories, this process may be just
the beginning: a fair reading of the Interim Final Rule
seems to allow for the status quo but the document is
ambiguous enough and so obviously contrary to the spirit
of Dodd-Frank, that the issue remains open to further
interpretation by regulators or the courts. Under
Dodd-Frank, the penalties for lenders and AMCs in
violation of the Customary and Reasonable Fee Provision
are stiff: $10,000 for each day any such violation
continues and $20,000 civil penalties for subsequent
violations. It is important for all parties- AMCs,
appraisers and the public, that this issue be resolved
quickly and equitably.
Just Saying No
While one response to low fees is filing a complaint
another and not mutually exclusive response is to settle
on a fair fee and then not settle for less. This is the
strategy many appraisers have used since the rise of
AMCs, including a group from Arizona. The following is
from a recent press release by the Arizona Association
of Real Estate Appraisers (AAREA): It has been
determined through a survey conducted by the largest
Arizona based appraiser association, the Arizona
Association of Real Estate Appraisers (AAREA),
that the Arizona customary and reasonable fee for the
basic residential appraisal report used for lending
purposes ranges from $350 to $375. This fee applies to
the basic residential report for a single family home
and does not apply to complex properties, FHA reports,
VA reports, or other report forms or assignments.
This fee is also supported by various national surveys
that have been conducted since the passage of the
Dodd-Frank financial reform act which includes the
survey published in Working RE in January of
2011.
The
AAREA press release also includes a list of best practices
including turn times, which is also surveyed in the OREP.org/Working
RECustomary and Reasonable Fee Survey.
About the Author
David Brauner is Editor of Working RE magazine
and Senior Broker at OREP.org, a leading provider of E&O
Insurance for appraisers, inspectors and other real
estate professionals in 49 states (OREP.org). He has
covered the appraisal profession for over 16 years. He
can be contacted at
dbrauner@orep.org
or (888) 347-5273. Calif. Insurance Lic. #0C89873.
