AppraisalPort Poll Results – 5/14/12
In the past 6 months how many appraisals over 50 miles away from your office have you completed?
0 to 5, 3377 votes – 62%
6 to 10, 539 votes – 10%
11 to 15, 296 votes – 5%
16 to 20, 245 votes – 5%
More than 20, 985 votes – 18%
Total Votes: 5,442
My comments: Very interesting results!! Although the poll is for only over 50 miles, I would expect that more appraisers are traveling 30 miles or more. I guess Chase won’t be lending in rural areas or parts of large counties. I am 32 miles from the farthest city in my county. I am in the San Francisco Bay area, and most appraisers who work multiple counties travel over 30 miles one way regularly. Of course, the more time you spend driving, the less appraisals you can complete. Cutting driving time is the best way to increase productivity.
The Chase geographic restriction is a bit absurd, impractical and appears to be solving a problem which doesn’t exist. How about restricting the performance of appraisals to licensee’s that produce professional work. At least THAT would improve the quality of their reports. But Chase would be hard pressed to prove that this mileage restriction improves anything.
Two different rules: one for the Vendor, a different one for the Client. The profits related to the economies of scale enjoyed by Chase and their Origination and Servicing pipelines would not be achievable if the same arbitrary distance requirement existed for the Lender’s Headquarters, Branch Office, Loan Officer, Loan Underwriter, AMC, Appraisal Department, etc. This is another example of a Client pretending proximity ensures professionalism and competency. Why not 29 miles? Why 30 miles? Being located 31+ miles from a property does not make an Appraiser less competent than an Appraiser located 29 miles from a property just as the cross-country and off shore locations of this Lender’s support staff does not influence their competency.
We have a policy of not accepting appraisals from lenders located 30 miles from the subject. If a borrower can not find a lender within 30 miles of their home there must be a problem. Just eliminating our risk.
I wouldn’t mind the 30 or 50 mile radius limitation if they would provide 5-10 orders per week within 10 miles. I have gone over 100 miles from my office, but it was for clients who were willing to pay appropriately because they know my work and did not want to deal with an unknown appraiser closer to the property. Fortunately, I have been able to reduce mortgage related appraisals to about 10% of my volume and mostly for community banks who do not use AMC’s.
Who would work for Chase anyway?
Chase has just effectively said that they will not write loans in Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas or Oklahoma unless those properties are within urban areas.
Chase has just effectively said that they will not write loans in Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas or Oklahoma unless those properties are within urban areas.
Ann: Thank you for running this article. I wrote about this and how it applies to geographical competency just last week on my blog. http://www.theappraisercoach.com/?p=870 In a nutshell, distance may have little or nothing to do with the competency of the appraiser. Chase has not really thought this one through. I know what they are trying to avoid (small-time appraiser trying to scoop up any work anywhere no matter how far they need to drive to obtain it), but in a rural area like mine, driving is all in a normal day’s work. Also, I will disagree slightly with your comment about how driving reduces the number of appraisals you can do. When you get smart and hire a driver, as I do, you can complete quite a few appraisals as the white line rolls along. http://www.theappraisercoach.com/?p=744 Keep up the good work, my friend. Love your articles! -Dustin Harris, The Appraiser Coach
I’ll take a good Appraiser that covers over a 100 mile distance over a bad Appraiser that covers a 5 mile radius anyday.
Chase with their large black list of good appraisers soon will not even have appraisers within 30 miles to do their work, Chase is a rotten company for appraisers they buy cheap reviews and stick to the the appraiser even when they are proven wrong.
I hope this rule will also apply to “Review Appraisers”. I recently had an appraisal I did over 18 months back, of a townhouse in Baltimore City by a “reviewer” who was from rural North Carolina.
Out of state Review appraisers is a very controversial topic. Some states require that AMC review appraisers be licensed in the same state as the subject. I’m working on an article on review appraisers for my paid Appraisal Today newsletter. Very controversial!!
Chase scope of work is longer than my report!!! what is that saying!!! I quit doing chase appraisals about 4 months ago and have never been happier 🙂
Chase isn’t the first lender to have a requirement like this. It’s just like the Fannie and Freddie guidelines (comment if comp is over a mile, net over 15%, gross over 25%). All lenders want the appraiser to be as close as possible to the subject…it’s common sense. However, there are times where this will be impossible and I’m sure Chase will approve appraisers traveling further with a good explanation.
I have no problem wiht that requirement…Realtors should be held to the same standard as well.
I had a local lender ask me to call Chase to be placed on their list. The lender was upset because Chase would only send appraisers from a city about 60 miles away from our area. When I called the contact at Chase, the man was very rude and told me that they already had enough appraisers on their list to cover our area. I explained that I had been told that there was no one local on their list to serve our area. I also explained that I have 35 years of experience and have an SRA designation. At this point, the contact at Chase screamed at me, said that he TOLD me that he had enough people on the list, and hung up on me.
And so the pendulum swings as major lenders play the numbers and contract their market areas to match statistically reliable available sales data. Look to smaller community lenders for this outlying business and charge unabashedly for complexity and mileage. Interest rates say, we’re in
for a good ride!
If you only travel once a week and incorporate all of your inspections in the same day over a 75 mile radius than its less time traveled as well as minimal car expense . So actually it allows for more appraisals that you can complete since you would have the ability to cover a larger geographical area.
Wow I wonder if a professional athlete, attorney, sales rep, computer technician, etc would be considered incompetent to perform their work if he or she had to travel more than 30 miles from their house.