It seems like every 2 – 4 months the great “what should appraisers wear” debate cranks up over at the appraisers forum; with all the legislation, restriction, and not being able to communicate with clients the chief concern should certainly be what appraisers wear.

“I’m wearing these dockers, $150.00 loafers WITH tassels and my superman tie because I am going to IMPRESS my clients that I have neither seen nor met and probably never will while I inspect this rat trap, foreclosure property that the previous owners made sure to smear with fecal matter and cat piss on their way out!”

You work in a medical office you were medical uniforms, no argument there. You work as a nurse in a hospital without a doubt you hop up and put your nursing scrub pants one leg at a time. It’s not hard to find cheap scrub uniforms and certainly your medical personnel have it easy in that regard.

A lot of appraisers out there have the fervent belief that we should all be showing up to work in suits and ties because that will guarantee us the respect we deserve in the industry.

And, if you happen to appraise in Beverly Hills or Cape Cod then you might want to suit up. But if you happen to work in every day, middle America where it’s REAL and homeowners aren’t just pissed they are vindictive and spiteful, with good reason most of the time – then showing up in your Sunday best isn’t going to cut it. Not when the lawns haven’t been mowed in months, the cockroaches and black widow spiders have been left to roam and produce unchecked, and the plumbing is leaking.

No, they aren’t all that bad. But, when you have to walk around a house with tremendous overgrowth and occasionally have to crawl UNDER the house – a suit and tie isn’t going to cut it. Add in the underwhelming amount of work and the underwhelming pay – and no appraiser can afford to wear their “nice” clothes to do inspection.

I think clean pants (jeans usually), collared shirt, shoes that cover and protect your feet will get the job done and considering that most of the properties are vacant? No one is going to see you anyway.

The subject was brought up the other day when an appraiser got a “dress code” from an AMC. Someone needs to get these guys in check and stop worrying about what they are wearing to do it. When the AMC joke came on the scene it was to provide a FILTER between the brokers and the appraisers to prevent undue pressure on the appraiser to hit a certain value. In short – a MIDDLE MAN to process orders and dole them out accordingly. As time has gone on the egos of these AMCs have grown exponentially and somehow they have it in their heads that the independent appraisers they farm work out to are actually under their employ.

We’ve got huge problem in the industry and the size of your tassels and your Donald Trump tie isn’t going to fix it.

A recent article in the Winter 2011 (Volume 26) issue of Working RE Magazine titled, “Appraising Faster and Better” by Todd Rasmussen lists numerous tips for saving time while compiling an appraisal report. Seems these days the focus is to cut time to make more money considering appraisers are being paid less than ever.

Then again, when you have Appraisal Management Companies that are owned by the very banks loaning on the properties being appraised – an appraisal report is nothing more than a bunch of red tape anyway, right? And, management at the good ol’ AMC are bound to encourage the type of tips Mr. Rasmussen provides in his article simply because it decreases turn around time.

“I also advise our appraisers not to print out all the data they are using. Printing takes time and uses a lot of paper and ink. It is more efficient to print data into a PDF format and save it in a digital file. There is another 10 minutes saved.”

Except, here in California OREA (Office of Real Estate Appraisers) doesn’t want your digital file when they are reviewing an appraisal you performed. They want the hard file and as in most legal cases he/she with the most paperwork often wins. A thick work file filled with data and notes, preferably handwritten, looks like someone did their due diligence or at the very least gave it their best effort. Sure, in a day and age when everything is going paperless it might seem archaic to suggest an actual work file should have actual paper and evidence that someone put a physical hand and pen to it, still one has to wonder if Mr. Rasmussen has ever been reviewed by a licensing board.

“I also encourage our appraisers to take full advantage of the programs available that will load comparable data from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and public records into their reports automatically.”

Of course, he does. On the surface this sounds like a great idea and it only further supports that notion that the most effort put into an appraisal is the initial inspection and the circling of the tape measure around the property. The fact remains that software can glitch on you. We utilized a data source that was compatible with our software and cost us roughly an arm and a leg monthly. Sometimes it put the data in the wrong field, sometimes it put in the wrong prior sale information.

How much more money have you made vs. time saved if you end up being reviewed by a licensing board and incurring a hefty fine for glitches your software or datasource made for you? What is really bothersome here is that Mr. Rasmussen doesn’t even suggest that maybe it’s a good idea to double check what your software is loading for you – you’d still save time and possibly avoid a fine.

Nope, that’s because the name of the game, boys and girls, is no longer accuracy and efficiency. It’s all about getting what you pay for and when many appraisals are going for $200 – for some it doesn’t make sense to spend the time performing a quality, well-researched and documented appraisal. Well, not if you are expected to turn it out in 24 hours anyway.

Hey saving time can add quite a bit to your bottom line, no doubt, just ask any popular fast food chain, right? Sure, utilizing a lower camera resolution for faster download times is a good idea. Dual monitors – check. We’re doing that around here, absolutely. But, there comes a point when shaving times equates to nothing short of cutting corners and AMCs can encourage these tips freely since at the end of the day the only one left holding the bag and cutting the check to pay the fine is the scapegoat appraiser.

We’re not so sure that faster does mean better.

If you want an idea of what HVCC has done to the appraisal industry just take a look at New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina blew through. The sad part is that HVCC was totally preventable and can be reversed if enough people just speak up.

The problem is that when people are “speaking up” they are so misinformed that they almost cause more damage than they do good. Take the article recently posted at SFGate (website for the San Francisco Chronicle) titled, “Appraisers give home-valuation reform low marks”

Under the reforms, when a home is sold, lenders must arrange an appraisal through middlemen called appraisal management companies, which hire the appraisers.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/21/MNJJ1C3DIM.DTL#ixzz0gPk0vPHP

Lenders are NOT required to use AMCs (Appraisal Management Companies) but the AMCs sure want you to think they do, don’t they?

Reading through the comments following that article is enough to make any decent appraiser’s blood pressure rise.

“They don’t want to put the time and effort into doing a good job (probably because they are mad because of getting ripped off by the Appraisal Management Companies).
Many appraisers are probably poor people who love to hurt those who are better off than them. How sad.”

While many comments seemed to be accurately focused more than a few contained sentiment like that quoted above. It amazes me how many people want to use appraisers as the scapegoat for the great bubble burst (and the boom) when appraisers are some of the FEW people in the mortgage process who don’t make commissions off the transaction.

Equally as amazing are the people who insist that appraisers are somehow beholden to protect the lender’s interest. It says a lot about our society when you have people who would rather skewer small business owners rather than the big business corporations who have proven time and time again that they will increase their profit margin through any means necessary.

You can HELP by joining the group, Reverse HVCC on Facebook, and signing the petition at the Reverse HVCC website!

We wanted to give you a head’s up on what we are doing to stay compliant with HVCC. Obviously, HVCC has complicated a lot of things and has certainly made things harder for the smaller appraisal companies, like us, who have worked hard to establish trust and a positive working relationship with our clients.

We have joined with ValueConnect.Com, this is a service provided by the same company who handles our E&O insurance (FREA) and one of our datasources (NDC Data) so we have a working history with them.

Additionally, we are active in promoting the petition to reverse HVCC. We ask for your support in signing the petition located at http://hvccpetition.com/ – click on Sign Petition.