"The pressure on appraisers to "make loans work" -- the industry parlance for hitting the number that a lender wants on a closing contract -- has been ratcheted up as U.S. home sales and mortgage refinancing have tumbled. By law, appraisers are required to render impartial judgments."
"Federal and state authorities are now pushing for tighter regulation, licensing standards and criminal penalties to keep all players in the real-estate transaction process on the level", according to the recent article by Chris Pummer of MarketWatch .
Even in the face of this mounting evidence of appraiser pressure, two of the largest real estate trade organization representatives appear unaware of this growing problem.
George Hanzimanolis, president-elect of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, says: " . .. some of the perceived intimidation may just be brokers challenging appraisers' findings in a market where setting values is made tougher by fewer and more erratically priced sales."
Pat V. Combs, president of the 1.3-million-member National Association of Realtors, was "surprised to hear appraisers reporting undue pressure from real-estate brokers. Realtors routinely provide appraisers information to support the list price they assigned to a pending-sale property, including comps they used, and would be violating NAR's code of ethics if they pushed for a value to support the offer price", Combs says.
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