Got a fax from some AMC we've never heard of, wanting a field review for $156. They have got to be nuts!! Who in the hell is doing anything for that?? Stop it, please... you could be making more cutting grass.

From an appraiser's point of view, appraisers want to show integrity in the field of business or study and follow all the guidelines and rules. If I know of certain appraisals that have been completed and submitted in the past and governing rules and regulations were not met, i.e. overvalued properties (which I do know is an opinion), false photos, etc., what would you do? Everybody wants to make a $, but does it have to be done by bending the rules? Any feedback?

Okay, that's weird...two different posts becoming merged together.

It sounds like you want someone to tell you to turn in an appraiser so you don't have to make the decision yourself. That's odd.

Sorry, you will have to decide for yourself.

Yeah, remember that you'll be putting someone's livelihood and his family's livelihood at stake and complaints are not anonomous. GREAB won't consider taking harsh action unless it's overvalued by at least 20%. False pictures...software messups happen and they happen often...mistakes happen. Sure, when I've reviewed appraisals and see wrong pictures in the comparables, I write it up in the review and let the lender deal with them. I do a lot of appraisal reviews and I've seen really crappy work, but I only turn them into the lender with harsh words in my review so that they would be either blacklisted or watchlisted. I've never turned in an incompetent appraiser, but I know several lenders who have.

Everyone is so quick to turn people in, but I agree with what Steve said. Do you really want to ruin someone and their family for a mistake. Unless you can prove that it was intentional, I would let it go. Otherwise, you just have a different opinion and that is not worth dragging someone's family name through the mud. I had an instance where someone was changing square footage of comparables and "hitting the number" of the lender even though it was lower than what I thought the value was. The lender does not accept reports from this appraiser anymore and this was all without me saying anything. Sometimes you just have to let it go bc its just not worth it.

Good grief, what's going on? This is the first time I have been impressed by the feedback on this subject.
It's usually burn'em now and draw your own conclusions.

Anyone changing square footage to hit a number does not need a license.

changing numbers is also in the eye of the beholder. I am not talking about the subject. Check out the info for the county, realist, redlink, et al., and each will give you a different number. Redlink will often give multiple numbers depending on the appraisal company. Realist is bad about including the garage or including the basement. It does read gross building and that's where our experience has to take hold. In a subdivision, is the garage being counted? is the two story foyer being counted? is the deck and patio being counted? I assume most of you are like me and make mistakes and are not committing FRAUD.

Needless to say, there is a lot of information that I'm not sharing on this public forum nor am I going to share it. Who knows who could be reading it? I will discuss it more later. All I'm saying is this - if you are going to do a job, do it correct and don't be pressured by the loan officer in doing something that shouldn't be done, i.e. making value. Don't send a representative out to go do an inspection or take pictures and then have somebody else do the final appraisal who is not present to visit the property. Don't take pictures of a property where they have purposely put up "fixtures" in the house and/or around the house to make it look like there is an additional room on the property. Based on rules and regulations - that is wrong or should I be so bold to say "fraud". I'm not looking to turn somebody "in". I'm just looking for some feedback or discussion. Furthermore, in discussing "family" and/or "hurting a family" - maybe the appraiser should have thought about his/her family prior do finalizing the appraisal. Now I wonder - who is really "wrong"? Something to think about.

And turning things in to the board doesn't mean anything will take place.

I have work reports that one of the board members has personally done in recent weeks and there are clear "errors" all over the place....big errors. Heck, I mentor someone that writes better reports than the person on our board.

Hard to fix that since they are on the board.

"Don't take pictures of a property where they have purposely put up "fixtures" in the house and/or around the house to make it look like there is an additional room on the property"

I don't understand that one. Isn't that what room counts are for? I might be misunderstanding but if someone puts in new fixtures around their home, I am putting it in the report and taking pictures of it. All you have to do is label the pictures. Are we to think the UW counts the number of pictures and considers that the number of rooms instead of the room count?

Also, all I was saying is, make sure it is worth it to try to turn this person in. It will take up alot of your time and theirs and it might all be for nothing but a slap on the wrist. Then you would have wasted time and money and just killed a person's way of living. If you feel so strong about it, TALK TO THE APPRAISER face to face and if he doesn't cooperate, do whatever you want. I am still missing the details of false photos.

Lastly, you are worried about who is on this forum? Are you the one appraiser in GA named Scott?

I understand what you were saying Marty. I am appraising some duplexes in Marietta and they are about 1600 SF. Previous data in Redlink shows 1900 SF, these are 60 year-old duplexes and have never been 1900 SF. The previous appraiser is on GREAB.

GREAB cases are available for review to the public. I have read several, these are not minor mistakes.

Well then he should go ahead and do what he wants

"Don't take pictures of a property where they have purposely put up "fixtures" in the house and/or around the house to make it look like there is an additional room on the property. "

Maybe this is what I don't understand. What does that mean? It sounds like so far, minus the details that you "cannot disclose", you do not agree with their value or the fact that they took pics of fixtures.

"Don't send a representative out to go do an inspection or take pictures and then have somebody else do the final appraisal who is not present to visit the property." Are you saying sending a runner out to do the inspection and the signer just sitting back to write the report? I think it was just the way you were wording things that confused me.

I don't think that if I go out and do an inspection and pick out comps and then give the information to my secretary to input the data is wrong. I know I'm not alone - I personally hate data entry work. As long as I come to the conclusion of value and review the appraisal to make sure that the information is accurate, why can't I have someone else type it up????

You can and if you are wrong, then we all get a new profession. This is not the issue, the issue is folks that don't leave the office and sign the report as if they did all of the field work.

MEP

thank you, looks like you are listening/reading the dialog.

Nice comments. I work on the South side of Atlanta and have a good idea of who we are talking about here. If not mistaken this appraiser is no longer licensed in the State of Georgia. I'm not 100% sure of what this individual is doing or where he or she is working. I do know this, she had a licensed appraiser's digital signature and was using that signature when signing off on appraisals, and the licensed appraiser was well aware of the situation and what was occuring. I do know a lot more of the situation but it is only speculation. Now tell me does that sound like appraiser integrity? I'm not getting involved but I don't approve of the behavior.

How can you know who they are talking about? None of the posts even mentioned a he/she specifically.

Bill is a spy

Bill can be a girls name also.

So can "aPPraiser" be a girls name.

Sure is a lot of talk about this GREAB member.

Do you think it is going too far?

Well there are two really big PP in my name you never know!