Effective on May 1st of this year, it is said that lenders, mortgage brokers and the like will no longer be able to utilize their own pool of appraisers but that they will be required to pull from a general pool or “collection” of them. Of course we can see why it has come to this with so much weighing on a good appraisal that meets or beats the home’s sale price HOWEVER what concerns me is the number of horrible appraisers that are now going into the pool for business that in all honesty aren’t good enough to even dangle their toes in the water. The really good appraisers are now being lumped in with all the “leftovers”…
Somehow this reminds me of when I worked in administration for OHSU years and years ago… I worked harder, smarter, quicker than those around me…. (subjective but true) but because I worked in a system where promotion was only based on seniority and not performance (pay equally so) I found myself quickly looking elsewhere for employment where my hard work would be noticed and rewarded justly…
For instance, I had an appraisers round “down” the square footage per room instead of “up” as the county tax records does and it threw off our numbers by over $5,000; it almost cost us the home. The appraiser didn’t feel he needed to reconsider re-writing because his contract allowed for a percentage of error and/or variance. Because every appraiser appraises differently you never know what will happen or what you’ll get.
My fear is that pulling from a “general unsanitized pool” we are going to see more dregs out there with the ”hall monitor” mentality….. I fear the more faceless some of them become the less accountable they will be.
(“hall monitor mentality”… you remember in grade school when your best friend was suddenly put in charge of monitoring the hall for a week… how quickly his authority and control turned him to an unrecognizeable force…we see it today with parking meter patrol downtown).
Anyhow, enough commentary… I’m just glad I’m still in a business where my clients get to chose who they work with! -Kristie McD.
Tags: appraisals, appraisers, Lending, pool, square footage