I attended the recent conference of the Association of Appraiser Regulatory Officials (AARO) in New Orleans to participate on a panel discussing the need for consistency in appraiser discipline across the states. AARO’s membership consists of the board members, appraisers, administrators and attorneys who work for the various boards and agencies regulating appraiser licensing and discipline in each state and territory. During the discussion, I shared the following statistics:
For 2008, our records show the following regarding state disciplinary complaints:
38% were filed by borrowers or property owners
38% were filed by lenders (nearly 100% of whom complained the appraisal was too high)
11% were filed by other appraisers (peers or review appraisers)
4% were filed by property sellers (100% of whom complained the appraisal was too low)
9% were filed by other parties (state boards, gov. agencies, assessors, ex-spouses)
And, 40% of all complaints filed by lenders in the last six months of 2008 and first part of 2009 were filed by one lender.
