Closed for business! Sorry Folk

It feels good to be back. Thanks for all for waiting. For those who aren’t familiar with what an AMC is, its short for Appraisal Management Company. After the 2008 crash they were installed to be the order manager for the lender and ensure appraiser independence. If you’ve already read “what’s not in your wallet or round and round” go get a little more familiar before reading this.

Amcs are to manage the orders. They find the appraisers to give the orders to and then through quality control are supposed to help facilitate the process so that the lender can make a lending decision. These AMCs are then the ones to pay the appraisers for work done.

Over the course of the past 10 years we have seen many AMCs collect the money you pay to them to which they are to pay the appraiser they hired. Now many AMCs do a good job at paying appraisers however there are many that do not or worse, they leave appraisers in pain and suffering wondering what the hell just happened.

See there were companies like Appraisal Loft, a big AMC who pocketed millions of dollars from consumers only to never pay the appraisers, close their doors and leave appraisers without compensation for their work. JVI AND ES. Companies like Newtown AMC, Maverick AMC, Nationwide AMC who did the same, made money, never paid appraisers and closed their doors but were all owned by the same guy who once again formed another AMC called Atlantic 1 who well you guessed it, isn’t paying appraisers. Valuation Concepts as well as COESTER VMS are the newest additions to this trend. Not answering calls or emails leaving appraisers without their hard earned money. Some AMCS are closing down and are trying to settle for pennies on the dollar with appraisers. This is a major concern. Hard working appraisers not getting paid for their work. I’m sure you would be upset if your company didn’t pay you. So here is theQuestion?? Where’s is your money, the money owed to appraisers going? Good question. I’m sure some of these current and former amc owners are living much better than all of us.

Under Dodd frank lenders are supposed to be responsible for the third party amc they have chosen to work with. However that’s not the case. Many lenders simply say sorry, or if they do do anything many will get you some sort of compensation. However that’s not good enough. You the consumer paid for a service. You paid for the product and the person who supplied this gets 0? I’m sure you wouldn’t be ok with this. Refer back to my blog post “what’s not in your wallet.” Revisit how it used to be. I’m sure your mechanic, plumber or your lawyer isn’t doing work for free or allowing anyone else to collect it for them before they release your product. So why do independent appraisers have to abide by different rules than anyone else? Why do we have to wait 30-60-90-120-600 days to get paid and risk another company going out of business never to see our hard earned money? Why do independent business owners have to have someone else collecting their money and determining when they get paid. Why does it take 30 days+ to get paid when it used to be at the door when we did the inspection? If you have paid for the appraisal up front before it’s ordered then why can’t the appraiser be paid the moment he submits the report? I know when I do work for the consumer directly they pay me before I leave the site. Independent appraisers are subcontractors NOT employees. This system is broken. It needs to be fixed.

Anything can happen. Maybe one day you will have to fork over money you already paid.