AMC terror (AMC's)

by Bruce Dilgard , San Francisco Bay Area, Tuesday, August 04, 2009, 21:25 @ Michael

Michael, you are completely correct. In a phone conversation with a rep from an AMC, I asked whether he didn't feel that what he was doing by taking a portion of the appraiser's fee was, in fact, parasitic? I indicated that if he believed that his AMC was adding value to the process of providing the lender/client with appraisals, he should simply charge the lender an additional fee over and above the appraiser's fee (typically $350.00 to $500.00 in my area). I asked why he felt justified in taking a significant part of the appraiser's fee, since the appraiser is "doing all the work" (with regard to the appraisal itself). Talk about GREED! His response to me was simply that the reason AMC's take as much as half of the appraiser's normal fee was "because we can". He stated his opinion that appraisers are wusses, and that they have no organization and therefore no power to resist. Although I was astounded at this forthright, candid response, I felt that he was wrong in believing that. That, collectively, we would never prostitute ourselves by accepting work at such a low fee. When I started working as an appraiser, in 1986, the fee for an appraisal was $250. Now, with all the added costs of software (includes mapping, sketchware, etc.), tech support, E & O, licensing, continuing ed, increasing licensing costs, data, etc., a fee of $350 is really too low. There has been very little profit in this business (maybe 15%). But the fact of there being very little profit appears to be completely overlooked by the AMCs. By cutting our income by $50 to $175 per appraisal, not only is there no profit for the appraiser, but there's clearly no logic in being an appraiser any more. Trust me, appraisers are not typically spoiled little rich guys. My fear is that with all our griping about work conditions and fees, the lenders (and our government) may just decide that the time is right to just go with AVMs and, depending on factors specific to a particular property, just build-in a "risk factor %" for each. Then appraisers won't be needed except to take pictures of a property when/if necessary. What's weird, is that up to now, many of the principals of the AMCs were appraisers themselves. As appraisers, they certainly held the belief that the fees were too low. As far as I can tell, the only appraisers who will accept work at the fees being offered by the AMCs are the appraisers who provided shoddy, "quickied" reports; appraisers who have no sense of the value of their own work (since their reports probably weren't worth anything to begin with) and desperate individuals who haven't yet figured out they're losing money with the new low fee structure. Many of us are reluctant; afraid to change our line of work, especially now, during the current depression. Or we feel we've invested so much in time and money into our careers that we have to plod relentlessly onward despite the horrendous conditions. Many will slog onward having decided to provide the cheapest, fastest, poorest quality work possible and justify that by virtue of the scant pay. Moreover, these poor-paying AMCs have the unmittigated gall to demand/require the highest level of performance and quality ever produced by appraisers. Such as, constant updating of the process, fast turn-around, constant harrassment from the AMC, broadcasted orders, etc. Despite demanding fast turn-around, comically, the AMC usually wants to pay us from 30 to 90 days after the appraisal has been delivered! And they see nothing wrong with that!! Am I missing something here? The worst part of all this, for me, is that I'm beginning to realize that the rep from the AMC was generally correct in his assessment of appraisers. Most, I'm seeing, will bend over and quietly take the abuse without too much complaining. In fact, we'll be quite hospitable about all this. In that event, I guess we deserve what we get. Turns out we ARE a spineless bunch apparently. Who woulda thought it?