Exactly How Are Property Data Collectors Professionally Trained?
Somebody explain to me exactly how Property Data Collectors are “professionally trained” per Fannie Mae directives.
The fact is, Fannie Mae is explicitly working toward the elimination of appraisers for real property valuations.
This is in their latest Selling Guide Announcement SEL-2023-02 to the Fannie Mae Selling Guide:
- Value acceptance + property data is a new option that utilizes property data collection by a third party who conducts interior and exterior data collection on the subject property. To ensure consumer protections, the lender must verify and be able to demonstrate that data collectors are
- vetted through an annual background check,
- professionally trained, and
- they possess the essential knowledge to competently perform the property data collection.
It’s not just the PDC/Hybrid report process that affects appraisers. There’s more going on to radically modify the appraisal process and protocol for first mortgage loans.
This initiative to eliminate appraisers falls on the desk of Jake Williamson, SVP, Single-Family Collateral Risk Management, Fannie Mae. Mr. Williamson is NOT an appraiser, per examination of the ASC Appraiser Registry.
Here’s what I was able to find out about Mr. Williamson. He is currently 43 years old. From an article in HousingWire.com, this info was presented:
“Jake Williamson is a dynamic leader who is a driving force of new ideas and energy in the way he and his team work, benefiting both Fannie Mae and the customer.
Williamson’s current role is leading Fannie Mae’s single-family real estate team, but his unmatched commitment to all aspects of the single-family business have made him a valuable member of the company and mortgage nuance industry community.
Williamson was pivotal in launching Fannie Mae’s first repair recommendation decision support tool to help asset managers weigh the economics of rehabbing versus selling as-is on foreclosed properties – ultimately creating more consistency in decision-making and helping to improve the division’s return on investment.
Additionally, Williamson helped to bring digitization to property preservation by leading an effort to launch a mobile inspection platform.”
I’ve been writing about appraisal topics and counseling appraisers across the US since 2006 or so. I have always tried to encourage ‘us’ to keep our nose on the grindstone and keep pressing forward doing mortgage lending appraisals.
But, to be honest, my attitude and perspective is changing. Why should ‘we’ continue providing appraisal service to an organization which basically has a vendetta to shove us aside, and do away with appraisers? Meanwhile, the folks at TAF, etc., are pushing the PAREA process to get more people into the appraiser ranks. Our representatives in Congress are basically oblivious about what is really happening.
This is ridiculous. You cannot have it ‘both ways’ and be successful. People entering the back door via PAREA will not find enjoyment or viability in this work when one of the primary organizations acquiring mortgage loans is closing the front door.
I hate to be blunt, but what’s transpiring now is stunningly stupid and contrary to logic. It’s not backed by ‘public trust’ which we appraisers are charged with supporting.
I encourage all appraisers to take a very serious examination of their current business model. Shift NOW as much appraisal work as possible away from Fannie Mae. Because if the Fannie Mae trend continues, you won’t have any of that business in the future anyway.
Dave Towne on e-AppraisersDirectory.com
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After 40 years I have decided to leave this disaster behind me I will not be renewing my license at the end of the year. It was a good run, but I can see the writing on the wall, I am tired of all this nonsense. I paid off my house years ago I have money in the bank an IRA and no debt. I also found out my social security payment is a lot higher than expected so I will be just fine. I feel for others who did not plan ahead for what is happening and will try and stick it out in this dying “profession.”
Jesus Christ, He was 28 years old 15 years ago!!!!! Can you say history???? Do we learn from it??
I knew that this age bracket is probably typical for those who believe they can change the earth’s axis.
HMMMM>>>>are foreclosures increasing in your area? Are you hearing about mortgage backed securities again?
Hell yes, full steam ahead.
https://www.fivestarconference.com/FSC2022/speaker/552228/jacob-williamson?ref=web%3Fi%3D
https://themreport.com/featured/04-05-2022/can-alternative
Well that figures. Don’t you know it, a tie in to the reo market. We were just talking the other day about disproportionate benefits for wholesale purchase options given to hedge funds and investment firms for defaulted residential housing, which regular citizens are not able to access. If increasing home ownership happens by way of providing monolithic corporations first purchase opportunities upstream of the entire citizen base, artificially propping up unreasonable housing prices and rental costs… How exactly does that work again?
They can send a million third party inspectors with all their technology into any given property. I will not be relying on their data. For decades FNMA has refused to include actual home inspectors reports as an essential data point to review for appraisal valuation service. Now suddenly this is something we are supposed to rely on, from unlicensed bodies of quasi inspectors scurrying around with mobile devices pretending to be officially licensed persons, and we still won’t see the licensed inspectors report. And of course, this individual is another believer in appraiser bias. Someone send this dude the AEI report pronto. Another non appraiser big lender advocate dictating what is best for the licensed appraiser community in order to implement what many consider to be deceptively labeled as better consumer protection measures. Sure why not, what could go wrong?
“In today’s marketplace”, oh brother, consumers strike out in last place yet again. Save a few hundred dollars on the appraisal, pay everyone else a premium service fee, trust the lender to make sure you’re getting a fair deal from commission based realty agents and commission based lending agents. Equity!
https://appraisersblogs.com/aei-research-critique-of-freddie-mac-misleading-appraisal-gap-report
FNMA also just announced their new alternative to 1004D final inspections for new construction & repairs – they are going to allow the Builders, Contractors &/or Homeowner to sign an “affidavit of completion”. What could go wrong ? All of us doing new construction & finals have numerous times, after we’ve been assured by the Builder/Contractor/Owner that all is complete, gone to the Site to find health, safety, outright incomplete items.
How long before Owners are left with no one to actually complete their homes/repairs once these affidavits & closing papers are signed & everyone gets their money & walks? You think anyone will answer the phone/email?
Exactly. It’s because there are too many moving parts. There is a practical and sensible limitation to efficient process which FNMA with it’s utopian dreams seems to be disregarding. They may line up the loan closing, the appraiser is scheduled at the expected time frame after finishing, then something else runs long, something is delayed. Just like that closing rolls out another week and the appraiser is called out twice. If builders were able to complete that finished project paperwork before actual completion, they would do exactly that. Because the person in the office filling those forms will likely have more available time for paperwork than the construction workers do, incremental weather, supply availability delays, last minute change orders, all of that. FNMA appears to have really upped their game in a concerted shift away from sound consumer protection policies to that of advocating for increased lender profits and increased lender control. In house construction loans are going to get sketchy like never before. One can only imagine the conversations which will occur when the uber driver who’s also subbing as an FNMA third party property inspector swings by the sales office and asks for keys to that brand new million dollar home. He’s had his yearly back ground check, so it’s like cool and stuff.
Check out my video about the same topic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTeHg0XuDro&t=602s
Good article Dave.
Someone thinks that loan originators have suddenly gotten religion.
In 2033 that Fannie Mae SVP will become CEO of the future organization known as Clear-Solutions-Link-Logic, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of MetaZon, Inc.
That’s a lot to unpack! What does it mean?
Both FNMA and FHLMC have been in Federal Government Receivership for 15 years now with 5 more years to go. Why? For incompetence and failure to disclose the crazy lending policies of the mid 2000’s leading up to the 2007-08 mortgage meltdown. Yet the Feds are allowing more of their unsound lending policies? Crazy. The Foxes are guarding the hen house once again
This may sound like an ignorant comment and forgive me if that’s the case, but has anyone bothered to forward the appraisal industry complaints about these risky dangerous policy decisions FNMA Is making to the entity managing the receivership? Who is that again. I’d bet you that Jeremy Bagott guy would know all about it, he posted a call to write a comptroller person sometime last year in one of his original article posts.
In case anyone new is reading and wants a summary of the lead up to the 2010 era financial crisis, the great equity wipe out of home owners which appears to be gaining speed again. Which appears to be the exact reason FNMA is retooling the industry, for a more corporate friendly next round of residential home foreclosure activity. Sorry property flippers and desperate people whom can’t afford waiting for deals as irresponsible people go under, you’re simply out of luck this time, everything is moving to investment firms and hedge funds at special discounts you are not able to attain or compete for. The new FNMA management is on top of it this time.
https://files.stlouisfed.org/files/htdocs/conferences/gse/White.pdf
“Finally, the desirability of the public mission of funding home ownership is debatable. The United States has more programs subsidizing home ownership than any other developed country, yet (and, arguably, therefore) its housing bust was worse than almost anywhere else. These programs have ultimately failed to deliver higher homeownership or housing affordability, relative to other countries where government interference in housing markets is smaller. Fundamentally, these subsidies distort the relative price of housing and lead to over-investment and over-consumption of housing, ultimately subtracting from economic growth.”
Ummmmm, Didn’t I just post a picture of that exact same concept earlier this morning on this same thread…
Colorado is the worst lately, our over investment schemes are creating incredible inflation, people are going under left and right due to these radical progressive policies. Now we’re being hit with variable billing rates based on what time of day we use electricity and gas. We have had among the fastest rise of energy costs of any state in the country, it’s worse here compared to there. Excel Energy runs our public utility commission like a puppet, consumers have no say and no representation in the energy arena. I guess rising criminality is just the new normal, it’s present across the board extending all the way to our paper tiger PUC and corrupt energy companies whom steer the policies. Three unelected bureaucrats appointed by the governor decided we should all pay substantially more in energy costs forever into the future. This reminds me quite a bit of FNMA, with their consistent abuse of due process and steadfast adherence to industry destructive practices in order to pander continued favors to their preferred special interest groups. It always comes back to non profits and the fed, always without fail. We can’t successfully regulate away corrupt people and corrupt practices but for heavens sake we could at least limit some of the tools and financing trickery they rely on to run this schtick. We have a problem with this overly complex system becoming top heavy, unstable, as it crushes dreams of American citizens left and right and destroys the careers of hundreds of thousands of professionals whom could pull us out of this mess. Oh, well, the obvious solution is to remove checks and balances systems related to housing, put more power in the hands of big corporations, and just replace the non person appraiser professionals with disposable temporary workers. I can’t believe either side is actually buying into this. It takes a very special type of ethic and vanity to stand beside decisions this poorly conceived, this biased, and this reckless. Equity!
https://i2i.org/dr-polis-prescribes-even-higher-utility-bills/
https://i2i.org/occ-needs-fixing/
https://gazette.com/opinion/denver-columns/column-corrupt-crony-power-games/article_4ef6528a-b738-11ec-aa4c-37d72c9d4314.html
The first nail in the appraisal profession was the UAD; data that only FannieMae/Freddie could have access to. Now let’s have the agent tell us that all is fine, the homeowner tell us that all the repairs are completed per FHA guidelines, and the builder tell us that everything is completed per the local Codes Office, what could possibly go wrong? Those expensive, pesky appraisers are not needed anymore…until the **it hits the fan again. In the past 4 months foreclosure/reverse close-outs have been 80% of my business, it’s 2008 all over again people. I have been approached by several AMC’s with a “new & exciting” opportunity; they send me a comprehensive package of data & sketches gathered by a third party, who gets paid less than $100, so that I can assemble all the data into a 1004/70H form for as little fee as I will accept…all the while the AMC is still charging the borrower full fee and more. Our future is not looking very good, appraisers better diversify or retire, I give it less than 5 years for most if not all of the lending appraisal work to be gone, poof!!! Then the foreclosures will start again…
Appraisers had a decent run. Between government and technology…..another profession has been destroyed. Just remember…..not all technology is good technology. People need to work. Not everybody can be a neurosurgeon.
I guess any certified or general appraiser would be considered a “Professional Trainer”. $2,500 per year for an inspector license renewal. But the AMC’S will jump all over that.
Pertaining to Foreclosures being sold as packages to large corporate or investment groups!
Not that anyone gives a rip anymore, these entities are committing big sins. Isaiah 5:8 (NASB Version) “Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field until there is no more room. And you alone are the landowner in the midst of the land.” These property baron’s, their enablers, the conduits from the deeply corrupt lending/banking system; and governmental participants are artificially propping up property values so that a large segment of the population can no longer afford to buy their own dream of home ownership – and effectively are forced to rent. The baron’s in turn can charge rents way above what would occur if the market was truly allowed to operate in a just and normal manner. Take the word “Woe” seriously. Later verses in Isaiah tell us what is in store for your future. I would be very afraid in your shoes. So the average “Joe” like me, has to compete with: buyers from foreign counties with horrible and deplorable human rights histories; a corrupt/manipulative lending/banking system that either directly or indirectly hoards properties; and billionaires that are in bed with a largely corrupt government.
Along the way, nuisances such as appraiser’s are minimalized as non-essentials and wrongly demonized to the point of extinction.
Is this RACISM at its worst????
Maxine needs to look into this.
For what ever the reasons, here we are today. Years ago I was told by many that WE WOULD eventually be replaced by an AVM. It looks like that day has come. Except that its not by the so called traditional AVM. FNMA data base is rich and only needs to be updated as new homes are built and old homes renovated or torn down. Enter Harry the Aluminum Can Collector Part Time Home Inspector/Data collector. So I have questions: When they say Well Trained? OK. I can imagine what that means. Probably similar to what we do now. Interior/exterior. What measuring Standard will they use? Well for efficiency and cost, probably Cubicasa or some other app. So ansi is out the window or it is set up to include an average wall thickness. No natter what standard it doesn’t matter that much. Now here s the big Question. What is the Date of the Inspection? USPAP has that covered for appraiser sitting at a desk. That Date is when your creating your work file and then read, look over all the available data about the subject property. Just as you do with all the comparable sale. Here is the real Kicker. Harry the aluminum Can Collector Part time home Inspector is going to be a 1099 person. So if all inspectors are 1099, then work will have to be sent to them on a regular basis to make a living. If not then Harry is going to say Nope can not do that today or when ever. Harry will have to coordinate with home owner. Do you see the problems this will cause. This won’t even cure the Bias Problem! Why, easy Harry can be accused of being bias. He ignored my homes lovely something or another. Harry is a white guy or gal. Problem is Harry ain’t got no money nor Insurance. I could go on an on… Oh ya one more problem of many other potential problems. My State Licenses and Regulates Home Inspectors. Harry could have problems with my state, I could go on and on but this path their going down is not the Yellow Brick Road in the Wizard of Oz. I apologize for not being succinct or orderly.