Today our appraisal firm had a typical request from a client who happened to be a mortgage broker. We had submitted an appraisal that was performed by a licensed assistant in our firm. The report was reviewed carefully and the lender that received the report said it was fine except for one thing, they didn’t accept a licensed assistant as the signer. As it turns out, the mortgage broker had submitted our report to a different lender than we had been told, at the last minute. In the competitive world of interest rates, this is a common occurrence.
The call goes like this [names withheld to protect the guilty?]:
Mortgage Broker: The appraiser that signed your report is not approved by the lender we are submitting the report to. [because he was a licensed assistant]. The report looks fine but we need the appraiser’s name changed.
Appraiser: What do you mean?
Mortgage Broker: Just have another appraiser sign the report.
Appraiser: Do you mean, claim that they inspected the property and performed the analysis?
Mortgage Broker: Yes, all of the other appraisers we use do this.
Appraiser: No, we can’t do that. We did complete the report in compliance with the lender you indicated you were sending it to. However, we can send a certified appraiser to the property again quickly and do the report over at a discounted fee since the research has been done. The appraiser needs to verify the research and may or may not agree with the original result.
Mortgage Broker: Oh, ok. That’s fine. But please hurry.
Note: This client is one of the good ones – they will try to ask for this sort of thing but accept our logic and keep using us, indicating there is hope for humanity, or at least wholesale lending.
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I think they also keep using your firm because they respect your integrity. I may be be a bit of a pollyanna but It has been my experience that most people gravitate towards the best in life not the worst. And those who don’t you don’t need.
There need to be more appraisers like you in the industry. I think alot of times what happens is that appraisers are afraid that the lender/client wont give them any more work if they dont comply with their requests. When in actuallity the more honest and consistent you are the more lenders will trust you in their appraisal needs……….We cant really do much about it though, theres too much greed amongst the loan officer. On average they make a five figure salary on one deal, and if an appraiser doesnt do what they want they will look through a list of hundreds of appraiser untill they find one that will make the deal go through, so the loan officer can get their paycheck.