Help for appraisers who have been kicked off the FHA Roster
Awhile ago an appraiser who had been removed from the FHA Roster contacted me. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any advice at that time except to google and see if anything turned up. I told him that when I was on the old FHA panel in 1986-1988 I heard about appraisers who went to court to be put back on the panel. Since I was new to FHA then many of my appraisals were reviewed by the local FHA regional office, so I knew if I was doing them correctly. VA still has a policy of reviewing.
I don’t know if FHA regularly reviews its appraisers now. There are many, many more appraisers since the Roster was set up, open to all licensed appraisers. Only certified appraisers are eligible now.
This is much more important now, as FHA will be suspending or removing appraisers from their roster.
Fortunately, the National Appraiser Association
http://www.naappraisers.org contacted Ted Whitmer, a Texas MAI and attorney, who defends appraisers. On June 26, he filed an Amicus Curae brief for NAA in support of reversal of appraisers who had been removed from the panel. Link to the brief posted on the NAA web site: http://www.naappraisers.org/HUD-AMICUS-NAA-6-14.pdf
Here are some excerpts from the brief:
Our organization is (National Association of Fee Appraisers) concerned that The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), by its own admission, was removing appraisers from their roster from 2001 until 2012 with no “due process whatsoever. HUD only started “due process” of removing its appraisers after appellant filed a lawsuit in Federal Court in 2012
By HUD’s own admission they failed to provide any “Due Process” to appellant from January 2010 until April 2012 when he was simply deleted from HUD’s approved list of appraisers in January 2010. The District Court omitted from its opinion an explanation for the lack of any “Due Process” provided to
appellant from January 2010 until April 2012. Depriving an appraiser of his FHA license can be devastating to his livelihood.
What do you think? Post your comments below!!
I can only hope, pray and believe FHA is finally going to start trying to fix the mess they created when they went to the Lender Select process of case assignment and review.
I was the FHA Field Review Appraiser for 83 counties in Illinois from 1992-1997. For the most part the appraisers were compliant and competent. There were a few that you could tell they were going to great lengths to ‘make the deal work’ only to assume they were garnering favor of the REALTOR or lender. One appraiser made up all the sales, that I confirmed by interview of the owners who had responded ‘I built this house 10 years ago’.
I believe it was around 1999 that FHA turned over the appraiser select and review process to the lenders, who then would select the reports they knew were completed correctly and competently for review, to this day, EVERY report I do for a certain lender is ‘randomly selected’ for review.
Obviously we watch the sales in our MLS and it seems that the ones that draw questions in my mind sell with FHA financing, especially after I did the assignment for the VA following my training and Appraiser Certification point #7-“I selected and use comparable sales that are locationally, physically, and functionally the mot similar to the subject property”. Now the 900 sqft house that I used all 900 sqft houses for comps sold for more than 1400-1800 sqft homes and with FHA financing. Better yet was doing a 12 year old 2 bedroom only to be questioned as to why this FHA appraisal (completed after they were disappointed in my report) is $100,000 higher than the report I completed, my response was ‘I stayed in the neighborhood and all the comps in the FHA report were new construction, 3 or more bedrooms and from a new development area of much higher values’.
Those of us who have been doing these correctly and by following the ‘rules’ could go on and on. It comes down to FHA/HUD needs to get control back from the lenders, or it is going to be the lenders who are selecting the appraisers for removal and I suspect those will be the ones who don’t ‘make the deal work’.
The ‘push’ may be on for the VA to cower to the lenders and REALTORS, based on tactics experienced. Time for HUD/FHA/VA to get their spine back.
If you have Ted Whitmer on your case, you have the best in the business. If you ever hear of him teaching or giving a talk nearby, drop everything and sign up immediately. He is amazing, for a Texan. I was privileged to attend his “Attacking and Defending the Appraiser” seminar, years ago.