So earlier this month I attended a meeting held by the Colorad Mortgage Lenders Association (CMLA) in which they had 3 speakers discussing the Home Valuation Code of Conduct. There was an appraiser, an attorney and someone that works for a large brokerage company in the area.
I found the discussion interesting as that while they mortgage brokers didn't look forward to another piece of legislation they were willing to figure out how to best help people as they go through the largest purchase of their life - buying a home.
The attorney gave copies of the suit that was filed that basically states that the HVCC is capricious and that new laws should be established by Congress and the Attorney General of the State of New York doesn't have jurisdiction over the entire country which is basically what the code of conduct has given him.
As a consumer, a home buyer or someone refinancing their home will still pay between $350 - $450 for an appraisal. However the mortgage brokers have no impact as to who the appraiser will be and most will go through Appraisal Management Companies (AMC) which the HVCC basically forces them to do. The problem is the AMC takes 1/2 the fee and the appraiser than receives $150 - $200. At these financial times it becomes one of the "you get what you pay for scenarios." As an appraiser you must still follow USPAP as well as the Colorado guidelines to become an appraiser but are you willing to go to the indepth research in order to complete the order?
Colorado is also enacting new laws to ensure that appraisers can be fined and sentenced to jail. While I agree there were some appraisers that went way beyond the limits and guidelines of what is responsible, who many professional people want to work in an industry where you can go to jail for making a mistake.
I really love being an appraiser - I think I do a good job and to the best of my ability on every assignment I make sure that the reseach that I complete is thorough and ensure that I am making the best value opinion. So beginning May 1st, if the HVCC is not stopped in most instances I will lose the customers in which I built stong realtionships, have my income cut in 1/2 and have no control over who I do business with in the future. The customers that I have don't ask me to "inflate" appraisals they have too much respect for me to think I would do that....are there appraisers that do that - maybe but I haven't run into many of them.
I hope that someone in the legislature will take a look at the HVCC and try to figure out why the Attorney General of the State of New York is deciding laws and practices for the entire country. And remember the HVCC came into effect because an Appraisal Managment Company was asking their appraisers to inflate appraisals... why is it that the solution to the problem is to send more work to the people that caused the problem. And while I have been a fan of the work that Attorney General Cuomo and especially his father the former Govenor - I am disappointed to learn that he was an owner of an Appraisal Managment Company, this seems like a conflict of interest to me. And why does New York get to decide what is best in Colorado??