Many Don’t Fully Understand An Appraiser’s Role And Many Appraisers Don’t Understand TAF’s Role In The Appraisal Process

July 17, 2024
  • TAF Was Created To Maintain The Appraiser Licensing Nomenclature
  • Created By Congress, TAF Is A Not-For-Profit Without Oversight
  • TAF Failed To Protect The Public Trust, Causing Appraisers To Disappear Soon

Since the dark days of the pandemic, I’ve been calling out the hypocrisy and grift of The Appraisal Foundation (TAF) which has hampered the professional lives of appraisers. For more than three decades, this not-for-profit created by Congress morphed into a monarchy without supervision.

TAFs’ key responsibilities are to manage the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) and protect the public trust. They’ve utterly failed at both, causing appraisers, an industry of lone wolves, to be exposed to potential demonization by the public. And when the opportunity to change the direction of the industry appeared with the retirement of its only leader, that leader lied in a public hearing to keep the grift going with his successor. And the new leader speaks of “leading the industry” when that is not their role whatsoever.

A few months ago when I pivoted Housing Notes to a Monday-to-Friday effort from an every Friday effort of nine and a half years, something had to give for me time-wise. I opted to remove my Appraiserville weekly column from Housing Notes and relocate it elsewhere. It’s been like a vacation, taking a break from railing against The Appraisal Foundation and the damage it has done to my profession. But that hasn’t stopped me from keeping the conversation going.

I was speaking with a reporter from Bisnow (that’s the news site founder’s last name!), Sasha Jones, about my then-recent Washington DC 3-hour testimony to the Appraisal Subcommittee (ASC) in the second of four “Appraisal Bias” hearings that was televised on CSPAN. I’ve spoken with her many times over the years when she worked for other news outlets. During my moment on CSPAN, the Appraisal Standards Board (ASB) chairman who was on my panel, mentioned me by name and my public commentary about her inherent bias of being married to a top executive of McKissock, an online learning platform that has a financial relationship with TAF. She portrays a stunning lack of self-awareness of behavior that any U.S. corporate board would see as a massive conflict of interest. Because of the moral corruptness of TAF, their need to have sycophants fill their leadership roles has been well-documented.

My conversation piqued her interest and Bisnow with a team of reporters proceeded to write a four-part epic series on the industry and TAF after months of interviews and research. I’m rooting for them to sweep the NAREE awards next year and hopefully earn other journalism recognitions.

Here is my May 2023 testimony at the Washington, D.C. appraisal hearing on CSPAN (and one of my granddaughters was born during it!)

As my friend and appraiser colleague Phil Crawford pointed out to me, the image used in the header of the Bisnow episode 4 was described as AI-generated, probably after being fed keywords about TAF from the coverage. It also sat on the home page of their website all Tuesday. You literally get the picture.

I strongly encourage all my Housing Notes readers to read through this extensive Bisnow series to be better informed about the appraisal industry. Especially real estate agents, who interact with appraisers the most. The industry is tragically misunderstood and is disappearing quickly.

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UPDATE 7/18/24 6:23 AM ET – Bisnow created a cool landing page for the series.

New Landing Page (Parts 1-4) Appraisal Is At The Root Of CRE. There Are Deep Cracks In The Industry’s Foundation

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Part 1 – Commercial Property Appraisers Are Growing In Influence As Market Morphs

Part 2 – The Average Appraiser Is Aging Out Of The Workforce. A Crippling Labor Shortage Looms

Part 3 – The Bible For Appraisers Is A Cash Cow For Its Creator. But The Industry Is Losing Faith

Part 4 – The Power To Define Appraisal Rules For U.S. Real Estate Belongs To TAF. It’s Desperate Not To Lose It

TAF Continues To Lie About The Damage They Caused To Appraisers

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) finally ended its investigation and settled with TAF. I was interviewed last year as well as many of my appraisal colleagues on the problems with TAF. Here is TAF’s to-do list from the settlement with HUD.

The onerous requirements to become an appraiser have stifled the growth of the industry and that is why it is aging out. It’s a mentoring system long championed by TAF, that effectively takes a company like mine to get a person entering the industry 2-3 years to get online, and once they get their license, they are likely to go off on their own. Who wants to mentor anyone anymore? TAF fought PAREA for years but pivoted a few years ago when they became isolated by the industry. This agreement probably helps PAREA move forward.

Adopting and promoting a new, technology-based pathway for aspiring appraisers to obtain experience credit towards fulfilling the experience qualification criteria for becoming an appraiser called the Practical Applications of Real Estate Appraisal program (“PAREA”)

HUD

Of course, TAF issued a press release that suggested HUD didn’t find anything wrong with them and listed all the busy work they have done since 2020, without mentioning the massive list of things they are required to do by HUD in the settlement. It’s just more of the same disingenuous TAF bureaucratic gobblygook, the standard of TAF’s public messaging.

The reason TAF has been so despised by the industry is they have solved criticism by creating lists of committees and councils that never do anything on follow-up but it enables to former king or current queen of the monarchy to portray a sense of action. Well, they are doing that again in their press release exercise but hopefully, HUD will hold their feet to the fire even though the appraisal industry is in grave danger.

Here is Bisnow’s clear take on what the settlement means: Appraisal Industry Rulemaker Reaches Deal To End Discrimination Probe

Final Thoughts

I recently heard from a credible source that the Government Sponsored Entities (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (who are still under federal conservatorship) remain oblivious to their risk profile and are going all in on AVMs, which we know are wildly inaccurate. They want appraisers relegated to data collectors, effectively making about $20 per hour. This GSE pivot will mean a 90% reduction in the need for bank appraisers nationwide within a year or so (Fannie’s words, not mine). Now try to square this with TAF’s desperation for fees from appraisers and money-only focus. Think about the users of appraisal services for other purposes besides conventional lending such as private assignments, tax purposes, matrimonial appraisals, and even jumbo lending after the industry collapses.

Access to appraisal services is going to get a lot more difficult going forward and probably more expensive as a result.

I’ve been enjoying my respite from the slog of fighting the problems of the appraisal industry via Appraiserville. Perhaps I need to restart my Appraiserville column on Beehive sooner rather than later.

Did you miss yesterday’s Housing Notes?

July 15, 2024

World’s Worst Kept Housing Market Secret: Real Estate Reality Shows Aren’t

Image: Chat & Ask AI

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