Feb 19, 2017
Fannie Mae made an announcement recently concerning unsupervised inspections by trainees. Actually, it was not a new announcement, but a clarification. What does this mean for the appraisal profession moving forward? Craig Morley is here to walk us through it.
Per the governments own data, the actual number of individual appraisers who work in the residential mortgage market (as measured by the collateral underwriter portal / keeps track of who does what), is ONLY AROUND 50% OF ALL LICENSED APPRAISERS. The issue is not about licensing, or who can or can't do inspections, but why do 50% of already eligible appraisers choose not to work under the current environment?
Find and correct those other issues (fill in the blank), and overnight the working appraiser population could double over night.
Seek the truth.
I would really like you to consider that the quest to have unlicensed trainees do inspections could be a red herring that keeps us from solving the real issues to move this vocation forward into a profession. Education requirements are also a red herring. Fees are the real issue. Until fees rise dramatically where this can be a profession and not a vocation, then the rest of this will just keep supplying cheaper labor and keep fees low at the benefit of the banks and mortgage companies of which some have nearly 1B in profit each quarter.
When an appraiser can be a true professional and earn $250+ an hour, like other professionals, then all of the other stuff will work it's self out since the pain will be worth it in the end. This will only happen with a reasonable bar for entry and a good balance of available labor - lowering requirements will saturate the labor market (again) and keep fees low which can hurt everybody. I don't think that it is all that unreasonable to make entry a bit challenging - it is hard to be a doctor, lawyer, accountant, vet, etc. and they have a very healthy supply/demand for labor because they never sold their profession short to make it easier for the people not in the profession.
BTW - I have no issue with trainees doing inspections. It is more than reasonable that they could do them quite well with a bit of training. After all, it seems like I might be the only one who had a supervisor follow the rules since a great many that I have spoken with just sends their trainees unaccompanied on the vacants, new construction and where people won't be there and this has actually been going on for years and years. ...so what is new?
The supervisory can sign and check the box that says the supervisory did not inspect the property. Not sure what the issue is if the state allows a trainee to inspect alone?