Here we go again. Excerpt:

“We strongly believe continuing to allow ‘broker price opinions’ in the property valuation component will not adequately protect the public interest (consumer, borrowers, etc.) or the interests of the various parties to the loan (lenders, loan servicers, etc.) and is likely to exacerbate mortgage fraud,” the appraiser organizations said in their letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.


http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=235651

I fixed it.



Anytime someone uses the words "public interest", "public welfare", or "greater good" it raises a red flag. It's about them and their personal interest, the least they can do is be honest about it.

As long as the banks want BPOs to be used, I feel the niche is secure. They are the ones with money to influence Washington, not the AI. AI can boo hoo hoo all they want; BPOs are an inexpensive alternative to fee appraisals. Just my $0.02

I responded on an appraiser on one of our threads (I do not remember which one) that "our lobbyists can beat up your lobbyists".

The appraisal institute is implying mortgage fraud by brokers to a tax cheat?

Wouldn't it be nice if NAR advocated for us in this way! I supposed we should feel fortunate that they arnt one of the sponsoring groups of this push or are they?
The NAR approved trainer that I took the lame certified shortsale foreclosure course from stated that Realtors who do BPO's produce inaccurate values which are thrown together in a few minutes due to the low rate of payment. Attempted to redirect him a bit but he wasnt listening. He laughed at Realtors doing BPO's for free and low rates thinking they were going to get listings!
He did the big pitch for how bad the appraiser banks are working and how we all need to lobby against the changes. He asked how many in the room has lost a deal cause of the changes and no one commented. it's happening..it's happening everywhere he said..havnt seen it
Not worried about this groups push on Washington-obviously self serving..like Brad said..banks support the BPO system..and banks rule

"... broker price opinions... likely to exacerbate mortgage fraud..." Seriously?? BPO's dont lead to fraud any more than appraisals do. Heck, utilizing their logic, one could make the argument that since a significant portion of fraudulent mortgages had bonafide appraisals in file, that the use of Appraisers is conducive to mortgage fraud. See? It's silly and i dont buy the argument either way. It's not the product, it's not BPO vs appraisal. It's "honest conscientious guy" vs "my-ethics-can-be-bought-guy". Same as it ever was...

The banks would never:
1. Pay the price for an appraisal
2. Wait the week to 10 days it's taking to get appraisals back

NAR ISSUED AN OUTSTANDING LETTER IN SUPPORT OF BPOS IN HAFA. READ TODAY'S WASHINGTON REPORT (NAR) SPOT ON RESPONSE TO THE APPRAISAL CAMPAIGN!
WE ALL NEED TO EMAIL NAR..THEY GOT IT RIGHT! I DO PAY MY DUES FOR A REASON!!

http://www.realtor.org/wps/wcm/connect/1...ES&CACHEID=

The only problem though is our lobbyist have been very slow to react. The NAR is just now starting to send in the guns.

^ This

I would venture a guess if most **R members knew how N** was structured and what it takes to motivate them to respond to our issues - many would stop paying dues.

If *A* responds to something, it is because there has been overwhelming voices telling them to do so, not because they weren't aware of the problem when they could have preempted the problem, but because of their total lack of involvement in the problem finally ticked off enough people that they needed a little grease to quite the squeaky wheels.

If you're a franchise player - you're in pretty good hands - if not - you need strong legs to make it up the hill

But I am glad that *** finally took a position - and I am grateful to all the people it took to get them to do so.

Expect to pay the surcharge for this soon - lol

Excellent and insightful post, Pine. Your point has other supportive evidence, too; one being the SFR course discussed on another thread. N** was late to that party, also. And when they finally got there, all they brought was lip service.

Emailed the contact on the letter expressing thanks for the support and got a personal email thanking me for the kind words..
I'm sure every one of the 40,000 appraiser members contacted him with a different viewpoint.

Maybe someone within NAR is actually one of us! Anyways, I take back all those negative comments I previously posted.

Mortgage fraud is distorting the market with an 8000 tax credit.

...just a side note on this. To my knowledge, the bulk of bpo's are done through 3rd parties ( mills ) that outsource to multiple agents typically, getting several broker price opinions vs 1 appraisal. Wouldn't that diffuse the "fraud" part of their arguement. It's not like bpo agents meet in a dark alley twice a week to match up our bpo orders and fix prices. You guys aren't meeting some place without me, are you?

We were wondering where you have been. Remember you have to use the decoder ring to get the GPS locator data from the hidden messages that you have to read backwards.

*** has been at the front of this all along - but remember *** has an appraisal division as well I guess it hard to play both sides of an issue, well at least *** was smart enough to wait until annual dues were collected before remembering who puts the meat on the table.

As far as appraisers being concerned about fraud - I would challenge them to prove it is any worse through bpo then by appraisals. I mean how many times do you see the appraisal come is at $2000 above contract price.

I wonder how many times a deal has fallen through with a matched appraisal on a property, and then sold and closed with another offer and appraisal with completely different numbers, but with the appraisal then coming in at $2000 over that OPC.

I'll take the old wait and see about *** support. It still can be smoke and mirrors, as a PR campaign to its members, and I hope this is not the case.

ROFL!!!

I've seen too many appraisals "hit the number" to believe they're believable.

I bet that an appraisal would match my BPO price - I lost the bet because they IGNORED the FLIPPED house NEXT DOOR with a POOL that sold recently and instead they went out to find comps that were 20yrs older/farther away.

NAR supports BPO YEAH

http://www.dsnews.com/articles/nar-supports-use-of-bpos-in-hafa-program-2010-03-17

from the article above:
“Generally speaking, real estate agents and brokers are not independent or properly trained valuation specialists,” the letter said. “They have an inherent bias towards quick results and actions which produce a fee for themselves, irrespective of whether the lender, servicer, investor, property owner, and/or borrower gets a fair return on the short sale.”

There's a chick in my territory who brags she can do 10/day. From my past reconciliations with "prior BPOs" I'm pretty sure its she who grabs just any old comp and plugs it. I've been FLOORED by her comps -- absolutely ridiculous and wrong in so many ways.

Agents must know valuation to price a property else they can be deemed incompetent. However, what do appraisers know about selling real estate and market forces? Do any of them have the experience to sell property?

If you're an appraiser, that's called appraiser independence. Shows you how much the appraisal institute knows about short sales. The agents completing the BPOs for the bank have no interest in the sale (or at least they shouldn't) just like an appraiser (who shouldn't have an interest, either).