New HVCC Regulation: Could it Put YOU out of Business?
April 29th, 2008 categories: Mortgage News
There is very little time to get your voice heard on this critical regulation that could have dire consequences to your business, and the housing industry as a whole.
In a call to action received from David Biggers, Chairman, a la mode, inc., “… a nearly silently adopted regulation which could very well be the most dangerous restriction ever placed on the mortgage industry. It literally threatens to eliminate mortgage brokers almost overnight.”
According to Biggers, the new regulations came out of a lawsuit brought by the New York Attorney General involving coercion of appraisers by large institutions. In the settlement agreement, the GSE’s (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac), and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) agreed to change national appraisal rules-in exchange for the Attorney General’s office terminating its investigation of the GSE’s.
He further explains, “Unfortunately, while we believe the agreement has the best of intentions, the hastily written embedded regulations (called the, “Home Valuation Code of Conduct”, or HVCC), do not solve the problem and in fact severely punish agents, mortgage brokers, appraisers, and ultimately consumers.”
“If there was ever a case of the cure being worse than the disease, this is it.”
Although, this issue deserves far more discussion and analysis, regrettably, in the interest in and lack of time to get your voice heard, I will simply provide two links that should further explain the proposed regulation and leave the analysis and any further input to you.
To have your voice heard by 5:00 PM CST today, http://www.alamode.com/HVCC-MB.
And, visit, proposal [PDF], to judge for yourself.
Shannon - thanks for heads up. Appraisals, and those that do them, do need an overhaul. Accountability and independence (from the lender) are something we can agree on. The intent of the new Code is admirable. Let’s hope those constructing/passing it also ensure that the actual practice they hope to correct is a remedy for what ails us, and not a poor imitation.
i lost indymac bank a $125,000 client and hsbc bank a 175,000 client to management companies who in turn said i can work for them for half the price. no thanks, im out of buisness.yes, management companies are the banks puppets without the liability.what would happen to us as appraisers if we did the equivilant what wamu did? thanks hvcc you really thought this out. good luck housing market over the next 5 years with the $175 fee appraisers.God save the queen.
The HVCC in it’s current format was either created by a group of extremely unintelligent people or a group that was undoubtedly on the payroll of appraisal management companies. I very much suspect it was the latter rather than the former. There are plenty of good attorney’s working for FNMA, Freddie Mac, & New York State’s Attorney General’s office. The AMC problem created by HVCC had to be intentional. Thankfully; a class action lawsuit will solve the problem once enough appraisers lose their businesses. I’m looking forward to participating in it and watching them back track to cover themselves.