UT Advises “Refusing” Low Appraisals

[RottedOak]

In today’s “Real Estate Mailbag,” San Diego Union Tribune writer Robert J. Bruss responds to a seller’s complaint about a “low” appraisal. According to the seller, the lender supposedly asked the appraiser to come in low. “If enough borrowers like you refuse to accept low appraisals, lenders will stop their illegal tactics,” says Bruss.

During the boom it was common for lenders to press appraisers for high appraisals. There were stories where appraisers complained that they would be boycotted if they didn’t agree to “hit the number” supplied by a lender. Now, according to Bruss, the opposite is happening.

I have a couple of questions for other readers here:

1. Do you think this is true, or is it propaganda designed to put upward pressure on appraisals now that lenders are becoming more cautious?
2. For those who read the UT regularly, has Bruss ever complained about the common, well-documented pressure for high appraisals mentioned above? Or does he only mention appraisal fraud when it pushes prices down?

Personally, I tend to doubt the whole story. The upward pressure on appraisals was documented in multiple articles over the last couple of years, and I’ve heard it from the horse’s mouth as well. Now we’re supposed to believe this has turned in the opposite direction based on one anonymous letter. I just don’t buy it.

[Bugs]

Rober Bruss is well known as basically hating appraisers. Some appraiser must have come between him and one of his flips at some point. He regularly says some pretty dumb things and gives dumb advice about how to deal with appraisers. His understand of what we do is very superficial.

If a bank wants to reduce their exposure to bad loans, they don’t need to lean on an appraiser to do that – they can simply cut their maximum LTVs – problem solved. What’s more likely happening is that now the lenders are actually doing their jobs and preventing the fraudulent loans from getting booked; and its starting to cut into the champagne wishes and caviar dreams of these RE flippers.

Bottom line here is while Bruss may be knowledgable about a lot of other areas in the RE business, he is an idiot about appraisal issues. I recommend you completely ignore him – I do.

[calidesigner]

Bugs,

Good advice. Thanks.

calidesigner

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