Friday, October 29, 2010

Ken Harney Weighs in on the FRB Interim Final Rule (TILA Section of Dodd-Frank)

If there is one national columnist with his ear close to the ground and regularly checking the pulse of the real estate and real estate appraisal professions, it's Ken Harney, of the Washington Post. In his latest column, Ken examines the Interim Final Rule released by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The rule provides the implementation language for Appraiser Independence standards and Customary and Reasonable Fee requirements included in the Dodd-Frank Act amendments to the Truth in Lending Act (TILA).

Ken interviews a few appraisers, including Pat Turner (VA), Leslie Sellers (President of the Appraisal Institute) and yours truly. Although none of us talked with each other prior to the interview, it looks like we share the same concerns. Consumers, borrowers, and real estate agents should be concerned as well.

So what sort of changes are you likely to see? Experienced appraisers say probably not enough, at least in the proposal's current form.

"It's just a rehash of the [code]," says Pat Turner, a Richmond area appraiser and critic of the Fannie-Freddie rules.

Leslie Sellers, president of the 26,000-member Appraisal Institute, a professional group based in Chicago, says the Fed's proposals include important core principles of freedom from coercion and outside influence on valuations but don't lessen the current system's tilt toward cut-rate fees and short turnaround times over appraisal quality.

Frank Gregoire, past chairman of the Florida Real Estate Appraisal Board and incoming chairman of the National Association of Realtors' appraisal committee, says that "until the federal banking agencies decide to enforce some of the words they're putting on paper, the public can expect business as usual."
There's more, so please CLICK HERE and read the whole thing.

I've got more to say, but it's Friday night, and my wife, Fran, and I are headed out for some seafood ;-)

2 comments:

Edd said...

OK, it's now Sunday morning, the sea food is digested (I hope0, I'm listening to Candy Crowley and I'm ready to hear more about your take on financial reform.

But first;

The only person regularly involved in the usual home transaction that I have been able to identify who can really benefit from an honest appraisal is the buyer.

The rest have already figured out that at the transaction level an appraisal is of no value to them and therefore unnecessary.

Since protecting the home-buyer is sort of in the genre of protecting the consumer or taxpayer, what, if anything, in the last 50 years or so of history indicates protection of that segment of society will actually be enforced?

The "consumer" is supposed to be exploited. Right?

Anonymous said...

"Leslie Sellers, president of the 26,000-member Appraisal Institute, a professional group based in Chicago, says the Fed's proposals include important core principles of freedom from coercion and outside influence on valuations but don't lessen the current system's tilt toward cut-rate fees and short turnaround times over appraisal quality."

What else would you expect? By altering one small portion of HVCC (bank ownership of AMC) the future of the appraisal profession(or lack thereof) was written. By altering one tiny portion of it they were allowed to create a billion dollar profit center off of the sweat of appraisers. Now that HVCC is gone nothing has changed.

Check back in 10 years from now to see if appraisers are beginning to figure it out. Highly doubtful.