Appraisers - HVCC (Home Valuation Code of Conduct)

For every one of the Real Estate Appraiser Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) enumerated prohibitions, you must ask yourself how or why did all these rules and regulations get codified or put into practice? Why ? Because the appraisers and lenders were in collusion in driving up the price of real estate and "rubber stamping" or inflating home values on appraisals and for making loans they had no business making in the first place. That's why !

The present recession we are in now and the housing market bubble burst which began to unfold and unravel in 2005, like a car being driven off the cliff with a brick to the accelerator pedal, can be traced back DIRECTLY to the appraisers. Remember the steadfast rule; always follow the money [to uncover corruption].

Even if a lender was coercing or influencing an appraiser by the promise of more business referrals, or conversely the threat of not giving them any more business; they had the power to say NO, to be professional and ethical in their standards of conduct and code of ethics -- but they didn't ! So even though this "RICO" operation (Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization) that the mortgage lenders and appraisers ran, I blame the appraisers more since they could have stopped all this. Then of course there was Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae condoning and encouraging this whole scam. Then when they ran into problems... you guessed it ! TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) or BAIL OUT with taxpayer dollars to the rescue.

From my professional view as a Realtor, appraisers were highly uncrupulous and highly unethical and were DIRECTLY responsible for the mess we are in now with the housing market. Of course, they'll say Realtors are unethical or unscrupulous too, but a Realtor cannot make a penny in commission (whether as listing or buyer's agent) unless the buyer can first obtain financing, can go through lender underwriting, and the lender accepts a "satisfactory appraisal" of the property as a condition of the mortgage financing. Although Realtors obviously stood to gain also in a sales transaction; you will note that the Real Estate Appraiser and Home Valuation Code of Conduct linked above makes no mention of influence, coercion or collusion involving real estate brokers or agents with appraisers. This list of "Commandments" or "Thou Shall Not's" points the finger directly at mortgage brokers/lenders and appraisers...