On October 7, I presented a 4-hour class entitled “Appraisal Discrimination Investigation Training” to state appraiser regulators (board members, administrators and counsel) at the Association of Appraiser Regulatory Officials (AARO) meeting in Salt Lake City. My goal was to offer Read more…
Updated to reflect new “guidance” from the Appraisal Subcommittee on September 27, 2023. What if a state dropped its appraisal management company law and no longer regulated AMCs? That’s exactly what’s happened in Hawaii – maybe by accident. The state Read more…
How many discrimination cases have been filed against appraisers? What’s really happening in the courts and in investigations with respect to alleged bias? Those are questions I cover in my presentations and classes for appraisers. But, I will tell you Read more…
When a mortgage lender seeks to make a Veterans Administration-backed home loan, the lender requests an appraisal from the VA’s appraiser panel by using a form entitled Request for Determination of Reasonable Value. For many years, until it was revised Read more…
Under California appraiser law, does an appraiser have to use an engagement letter for each appraisal assignment? The answer is “no.” A California appraiser is not obligated to use an engagement letter or other agreement for any kind of assignment (lending or non-lending) Read more…
Appraisal management companies (AMCs) and appraisal firms with independent contractors in Michigan: it would be wise to pay attention to Michigan House Bills 4390 and 4391. These bills seek to bring California’s famous “ABC test” to contractor classification in Michigan Read more…
In 2020, a California certified general appraiser filed a lawsuit against Wells Fargo in state court under a special section of the California Labor Code called the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). Essentially, PAGA enables private parties and their attorneys to Read more…
I am offering my new 7-hour CE class Appraiser Law in the Real World on April 21, 2023, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm at the Coast Inn at Lake Hood in Anchorage, Alaska. The offering of this class is specifically and only for Alaska and Washington appraisers. The Alaska Read more…
I had the pleasure to do an impromptu interview of the CEO/founder of one favorite clients about the subject of non-USPAP evaluations. Deb Clark, MAI is the CEO/founder of Eval.com. What she’s done is crack the code on how appraisers and Read more…
California’s AB 5 – the anti-independent contractor law – was “overturned” for appraisers by a new exemption created under the fix-it bill AB 2257. It went into effect last September, but . . . the problem is that many appraisers and Read more…