Typically when you sell a service, you include an invoice to the buyer or consumer for the services you provided. This invoice lays out the products sold, the quantities, and services provided as well as the price or fee charged.
The invoice is a vital part of any business. It is an official document that businesses use to show the terms of the agreement, it specifies the buyer of the product or services, and it documents the terms of payment. An invoice allows businesses to keep track of payments made or outstanding payments due. Some business will even tack on fees if the invoice is not paid within a proper amount of time stated on the invoice.
As a Real Estate Appraiser and business owner, I always include an invoice to my clients for their records, and mine as well, and that invoice is always attached to the appraisal report—my product—when I deliver it to the client. When I say ALWAYS I mean my private clients. (“Private” means consumers hiring me directly or a direct lender who does not use an Appraisal Management Company or AMC).
You see, there is an issue with AMCs and the process of using invoices which we will get to in a bit.
For those unfamiliar with AMCs, they are the appraisal middleman companies put in place after the housing crash of 2008. Their intended purpose was to serve as a firewall between appraisers and lenders. They were to manage the appraisal ordering process by assigning orders to appraisers, doing some quality control before the report is delivered to the client (the client being the lender), and paying the appraiser for doing the appraisal report. While this sounds like a good idea, it has turned into a mess.
The mess I speak of is this: The AMCs make their money by tacking on a fee beyond the appraiser’s fee or they simply bill the lender and then take a portion of that stated appraisal fee.
For example: A lender is told the appraisal will cost $600. The lender agrees and the process begins. The AMC then does two things. First, they take the portion they claim for their services out of that total fee. Second, they set out to find an appraiser willing to accept the assignment for the lowest fee possible so that the AMC can make a larger profit. What they don’t tell the lender is how much of the “appraisal fee” the AMC keeps versus how much the appraiser is actually paid.
Some states like Georgia have laws requiring that the appraisal report specify both the AMC fee and the fee paid to the appraiser. While this is a good thing, without reading the entire report, the lender/borrower may not see where the fee actually went. It gives the impression that the AMC is the entity that developed the appraisal and wrote the report.
This brings me to the whole point of this post and one word: TRANSPARENCY. Where is the invoice that would break down the fees paid and to whom? Where is the invoice that states the terms of payments? It’s missing from the report. Why is that? I’ll tell you why. Most AMCs specify in their engagement letters that the appraiser is NOT to include an invoice within the report. Some will have the appraiser upload it separately and some will bypass an invoice altogether. Why is that?
It’s part of business right? You get an invoice for your lawn service, from your mechanic, from other businesses that you order products from online and so on. So why are appraisers not allowed to send an invoice attached to their appraisal product with the stated fees for their service? The answer is simple… AMCs don’t want to make it easy for you the lender or the borrower to know where the money went and for what. It makes it easier for the AMC to take more of the fee they quoted for the appraisal and pay the appraiser less. Imagine being charged $600 for an appraisal. The appraiser would normally charge, say $350, for that service. You’ve just paid $250 to a middleman to manage an order. Did you know that? As a lender or a borrower, are you being told the appraisal would be $600 or are you being told it will cost $350 with a $250 fee to the AMC for whatever they do? Are you aware of the breakdown of the costs? Probably Not.
Another aspect of the problem is this: The Bid Request Are you aware that many AMCs broadcast bid requests to many appraisers at once? Specifically to find the cheapest so that they can retain more of the total fee? Probably not. The AMC sends out requests for bids on a job, although they’ve already charged you $600. If they look long enough, they’ll find an appraiser who will do the appraisal for $250, and the AMC has a minimum fee of $100 per order. They charged you $600 for the Appraisal. That leaves $250 left over. Shouldn’t the borrower be given a refund for that $250.00? I would think so, however it’s my guess that $250 will go into the pockets of the AMC. Are you okay with this? I know I wouldn’t be.
This is where transparency comes into play and the invoice breakdown will show just that. To be fair, not all AMCs practice this behavior. Some actually only take a set fee for their service, pay the appraiser customary and reasonable fees, and they disclose to the appraiser the fee breakdown. But there are very few of these reputable AMCs out there. Ask any appraiser.
This practice of not including an invoice needs to stop. Consumers have the right to know where their money has gone and for what.
A recent House bill has been introduced and assigned to the Financial House Committee, which is a positive step in the right direction. In short:
The bill states that all fees SHALL be stated on the settlement statement and broken down into appraiser fee and AMC fee. Now lets take this one step further and start allowing appraisal business owners to include an invoice with the fee breakdown in ALL reports. While the AMC may not be able to hide this from the consumer, they are still hiding it from the appraiser. Why?
It’s time for another change. It’s time to allow all parties involved in the process to know who is charging what fees and for what. Is there some big secret the AMCs are hiding from appraisers? Will allowing the appraiser to know what the AMC is making be an issue?
The solution is simple: Separate the fees paid to the AMC and the appraiser. Allow appraisers to include an invoice on every report that breaks down the fees for services. If this practice of AMCs charging a fee then paying a separate fee to the appraiser is to continue, then its only right that it be disclosed on an invoice for all parties to be in the know. Then again, AMCs need not take money off the top of the appraiser’s fee or add money to it to make a profit. This fee should be paid to them separately. If lenders want to use an AMC ( which they are NOT required to do) then the AMC and the lender should have an agreement in place regarding the AMC fee to be paid per order. The Appraiser fee should be what the lender/appraiser deems acceptable in their market for the scope of work and service provided, and should be paid directly to the appraiser from the borrower or from the lender, NOT THE AMC. AMCs should never have to touch any money owed to an appraiser and if the reason is unclear, please see these two previous blog posts:
https://thepeoplesappraisalblog.wordpress.com/2019/02/12/planet-of-the-cheapskates/