Meetings: Impacts of predatory appraisals

October Research Corporation will be hosting a Mortgage Radio program entitled "The Impact of Predatory Appraisals on the Lending Industry" on December 15. Panel member Vicky Cassens Zillioux recently gave us the low down on this event.

It is largely a discussion of the Center for Responsible Appraisals and Valuations that was set up by NCRC recently, and the work that they are doing with regard to responsible valuations.

David Berenbaum, who is the EVP of NCRC has been working with lenders, AMCs, mortgage brokers, and real estate professionals in the industry to come
together as a group and participate in a best practices agreement. It has been a topic under discussion at most of the large lending institutions as well as the GSE's and now also with the other groups who are concerned. Both sides of the discussion are
interesting, although everyone agrees that something needs to change.

With a few of the large lenders currently under scrutiny regarding their lending and related valuation practices, the timing for this group is interesting. To some extent, it is a politically charged issue - do lenders and others in the valuation related business need an organization to determine best practices? Is what they are doing enough? Is not signing up with the CRAV perceived as being uncooperative or unwilling to implement best practices? What about CRAV publishing a list of non-signatories? How will the appraisers perceive this organization? Will the arbitration process make closing the loan more difficult?

I think these questions and more will be answered during this session. It's an excellent opportunity to hear the pitch from the person in charge of the project at NCRC. There are lots of questions out there.

I used to participate in these radio programs when I was editor of Real Estate Technology Insight. They are well produced and informative. To find out more about this program, check out the company's website.