Saturday, August 15, 2009

HVCC Certified, and a Blog Award

One of the most popular accoutrement's for Appraisal Management Companies these days is a SEAL to bolster their claims of compliance with the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC).





















"Certification refers to the confirmation of certain characteristics of an object, person, or organization. This confirmation is often, but not always, provided by some form of external review, education, or assessment. One of the most common types of certification in modern society is professional certification, where a person is certified as being able to competently complete a job or task, usually by the passing of an examination." - Wikipedia
Interestingly enough, AMC's appear to be comfortable with "self-certification" and awarding themselves Seals and Certificates.

Appraisers, on the other hand, must meet the Real Property Appraiser Qualification Criteria developed by the Appraiser Qualifications Board of the Appraisal Foundation and their state's licensing and certification laws to become Certified. For instance, here in Florida, appraisers must comply with Chapter 475, Part II of the Florida Statutes to become certified.

Section 475.615 Qualifications for registration or certification, among other things, requires the applicant to be competent and qualified to make real estate appraisals with safety to those with whom they may undertake a relationship of trust and confidence and the general public. The statute also requires a fingerprint card to be forwarded to the Division of Criminal Justice Information Systems within the Department of Law Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for purposes of processing the fingerprint card to determine if the applicant has a criminal history record.

475.617 Education and experience requirements, specifies the minimum education and experience requirements to become certified. These mirror the AQB Real Property Appraiser Qualification Criteria. No self-certification here.

After all that, Section 475.616 Examination requirements states that an applicant for certification must demonstrate their knowledge of appraisal law, appraisal standards, an understanding of the principles of land economics, real estate appraisal processes, reliable sources of appraising data, and problems likely to be encountered in the gathering, interpreting, and processing of data in carrying out appraisal disciplines by passing a written examination.


After meeting the Character, Education, Experience and Examination requirements, the Certified Appraiser is subject to discipline by the Florida Real Estate Appraisal Board for misconduct, as specified in 475.624 Discipline.

The Florida Certified Appraiser is NOT awarded a seal. Sheesh!


Nevertheless, I found a blog award and I hereby bestow it upon Appraiser Active (h/t Iowahawk)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You state:

"Interestingly enough, AMC's appear to be comfortable with "self-certification" and awarding themselves Seals and Certificates."

I'm an appraiser, yet I realize that AMCs award the seal to each appraisal report, to certify that the appraisal was procured via an HVCC compliant process. They are not awarding themselves the seal.

I'm pretty sure you won't approve this post in your blog.

Frank Gregoire said...

No problem posting the comment. Folks are allowed to disagree. The only purpose in moderating comments to to screen out spam, vile language and meaningless rants. Your post is just fine.