Mary Cummins, Real Estate Appraiser, Real Estate Appraisal, Los Angeles, California, Mary Cummins.

Mary Cummins is a real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California with 38+ years of experience. Cummins provides real estate appraisals for banks, lenders, mortgage brokers, Appraisal Management Companies (AMCs), lawyers, Courts, factors and private parties for lending, lawsuits, probate, estate planning, divorce and all types of litigation. Cummins provides 1004, 1073, 1025 and other form reports, narrative reports and historical appraisals besides real estate research and appraisal advice.

Showing posts with label appraiser. Show all posts

Friday, June 2, 2023

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris Lie About Appraisal Bias to Get Votes by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

mary cummins, real estate appraiser, real estate appraisal, los angeles, california,joe biden, kamala harris, pave task force, real estate, appraiser,appraisal,income gap

The Biden Administration continues to promote the false narrative of the racist and biased appraiser to the American public. Yesterday the White House released an alleged "fact sheet" titled "Biden-⁠Harris Administration Takes Sweeping Action to Address Racial Bias in Home Valuations." This "fact sheet" basically states that Joe Biden has solved the wealth gap among whites, blacks and Latinos by "cracking down" on real estate appraisers. That is a total lie. The wealth gap is caused by the income gap and not appraisers. The wealth gap is wider today than when Biden Harris took office.

Research by American Enterprise Institute ( AEI Housing Center Response to Perry and Rothwell, 2021, https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/aei-housing-center-response-to-perry-and-rothwell-2021/ How Common is Appraiser Racial Bias https://www.aei.org/how-common-is-appraiser-racial-bias/ ) has shown using the government's own data that there is no racism in real estate appraisals. AEI has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the papers cited (Andre Perry) by Harris are fraudulent research with a false conclusion.

The real issue is income inequality and not appraisals. Whites make more money than blacks, Latinos. Because whites make more money they have more money (wealth gap) and buy more expensive homes in more expensive areas than blacks, Latinos. Home value is based on location. Appraisers are not appraising them differently! The data cited in the papers uses robot appraisals and not real live appraisers. This is all politics to garner votes from blacks and Latinos. FTR I'm a female Latino.

The "fact sheet" states the PAVE Task Force was announced on the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre. This news is released on the first day of National Homeownership Month after Biden/Harris announced their run for re-election. Clearly political staging and timing for maximum effect to reach target voters.

Biden stated the Task Force has been successful. In reality nothing has changed. Biden created a non-existent problem then stated he alone could fix it if elected. He was elected and now he claims to have fixed it in order to get more votes. Now he claims he's doing even more to fix the non-existent problem with new programs. Below are these "new" programs which are basically the same programs the PAVE Task Force, government announced months, years ago. He might as well add that he just ended slavery and just allowed women to vote.

1. Preventing algorithmic bias in home valuation.

The Administration has stated that physical living breathing appraisers are biased. They based this false conclusion by looking at valuations, not appraisals, made by robots who have never seen the homeowners or homes. The robots don't know the race, color, gender...of the homeowners. They also don't know the home's condition, true size, true bed/bath count, amenities, specific location in a neighborhood (on a busy road, next door to the dump) or if it even still exists.

Now the Administration states they will find a way to prevent these robots from being biased. The robots are not biased! They're robots. Homes are appraised by appraisers and robots using a math formula. They compare the subject property to be appraised to other very similar homes in the same exact area which have sold recently. That's it! No race is involved ever.

Some today feel that an older home in fair condition owned by a person of color in say South Los Angeles should be comprable in value to a new home in excellent condition in Beverly Hills owned by a white person. They feel that would be more "equitable." They have specifically stated they want to increase the value of lower valued homes owned by blacks by using home sales from different areas farther away in "white areas" which are worth more. This would make every appraisal as worthless as any loan based on that appraisal. The real estate industry, investment industry, stock market and our economy would crash if this were done. Even the Appraisal Institute which generally cozies up to the government said this makes no sense (https://mary--cummins.blogspot.com/2023/02/mary-cummins-comment-to-asc-bias.html ).

The best way to make sure AVMs aren't biased is to not use them for appraisals, loans or specific research. While they aren't biased against people they are biased against market value. The issue is GIGO i.e. garbage in, garbage out. In this case it's not enough data goes into the formula. They don't know or consider condition, view, upgrades, amenities, actual size.... This makes homes in inferior areas in poor condition worth more than market value. Homes with excellent views, upgrades, amenities...end up worth less than market value. All the AVMs today state they are never to be used as an appraisal. Then don't use them for an appraisal. Oddly enough the government is trying to make their own AVM but it's not accurate either.

2. Empowering consumers to take action against appraisal bias.

The PAVE Task Force announced months ago that they developed an appeal process for appraisals. This is false. Reconsideration of Value (ROV) has always existed. If you don't like the value of an appraisal, ask for an ROV. Give the appraiser three sold comparables of very similar homes in the same exact area which have sold recently and they will consider them. Based on my experience the borrower incorrectly thinks their home is worth more because one down the street or farther away sold for more. When they send me the comps they are either twice the size, in a totally different far away neighborhood or they never sold. A lot of this misinformation is caused by AVMs such as Zillow's Zestimate which is extremely inaccurate. Again, AVMs don't see the homes. We all know that Zillow is inaccurate.

Zillow over values homes in lower value areas. The problem is lower value areas have fewer sales. Zillow keeps going wider in their search to find recent home sales. They end up using higher value sales in superior areas farther away which have more sales. This is the cause of most ROV requests. This is also part of the cause of the many media articles about real estate appraiser bias. The borrower says "Well, Zillow said my home is worth x. You said it's worth less so you're clearly a racist who should be cancelled, sued and attacked!"

3. Increasing transparency and leveraging federal data to inform policy and improve enforcement against appraisal bias.

The PAVE Task Force released data on appraisals for government backed loans. The government has always done this and legally must do this. Now they state they're releasing more data. Most importantly this data has been used to show that appraisers are not racist, biased in their appraisals, see linked research above.

4. Breaking down barriers to entry into the appraisal profession.

Biden Administration likes to say there are too many white appraisers and he's solved that. Others like Cy Richardson with the National Urban League have actually said "appraisers are pale, male and stale" which is actually racism, sexism and ageism wrapped up in a pithy phrase. There is almost a similar amount of white appraisers as there are real estate agents yet no one complains about the agents. Biden states it's because it's too difficult to become an appraiser for blacks, Latinos. It's just as difficult for all appraisers who have also been complaining about the difficult appraiser trainee program for many years even before Biden was the President. Appraisers were working on a PAREA type program long before it was announced by the government.

If you want to be a new appraiser you must be a trainee under a licensed appraiser for many hours. While I agree that the experience is great it's difficult to find an appraiser to be your mentor. Appraisers have nothing to gain and everything to lose by doing this. I've written an article about this. PAREA allows new appraisers to use other experience to become appraisers. While I support PAREA this is old news previously released by various appraisal agencies.

Kamala Harris is the go to person on this issue because she's biracial and courted the black vote when she ran for President. Remember when she said she'd give $60,000,000,000 60 billion to Historically Black Colleges HBCs if elected? She was elected VP and could do that but she didn't. She's definitely not a real estate expert. After the fact sheet was released Kamala Harris released her version of the news to the media. “Home appraisals are meant to be fair and objective estimates of the market value of a property. However, far too often, they are not,” Vice President Kamala Harris said Thursday on a press call. “Black homeowners are more likely to have their homes undervalued than other homeowners. And homeowners in majority Black and majority Latino neighborhoods are almost twice as likely to be undervalued.”

What Kamala Harris stated is false per research using the government's own data. One anecdotal article by Fannie Mae stated there were more appraisals under contract value in lower income areas that have more blacks and Latinos. The correlation is not race. It's lower income borrowers buying lower valued homes. Fannie Mae even stated their calculations were not research and there was no conclusion as to cause.

USA Today went on and included more absolute lies in their article. They even cited Junia Howell whose research is as flawed as Andre Perry. Again, homes in predominantly white areas are worth more than predominantly black, Latino areas because whites make more money, have more money and buy more expensive homes in more expensive areas. Based on Joe Biden's, Kamala Harris' logic, a new Rolls Royce with zero miles should sell for the same as a 1980 Ford Escort with 500,000 miles. They both have four wheels. To value them differently is clearly racism and bias. The government should sue Kelly Blue Book and the car industry for valuing them differently. (sarcasm)

While I support an honest and fair appraisal industry I don't support the false narrative of the racist white male appraiser. It's a lie. While racism, racists exist it has not affected appraisal values. I also don't support the promotion of the false narrative for votes or any other agenda. I'm a Democrat and will vote for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris again. They do more good than bad but I'm absolutely against their actions on this made up issue. It's very harmful to appraisers and the industry. Appraisers are getting cancelled, death threats, harassed over the Administration using appraisers as scapegoats for the income gap. It's the income gap, stupid! Fix the income gap and leave appraisers out of it. They won't fix the income gap because it's too expensive. Maybe the politicians don't want to even fix it.

Mary Cummins of Cummins Real Estate is a certified residential licensed appraiser in Los Angeles, California. Mary Cummins is licensed by the California Bureau of Real Estate appraisers and has over 35 years of experience.

Mary Cummins, Mary K. Cummins, Mary Katherine Cummins, Mary, Cummins, #marycummins #animaladvocates #losangeles #california #wildlife #wildliferehabilitation #wildliferehabilitator #realestate #realestateappraiser #realestateappraisal #lawsuit real estate, appraiser, appraisal, instructor, teacher, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Brentwood, Bel Air, California, licensed, permitted, certified, single family, condo, condominium, pud, hud, fannie mae, freddie mac, fha, uspap, certified, residential, certified resident, apartment building, multi-family, commercial, industrial, expert witness, civil, criminal, orea, dre, brea insurance, bonded, experienced, bilingual, spanish, english, form, 1004, 2055, 1073, land, raw, acreage, vacant, insurance, cost, income approach, market analysis, comparative, theory, appraisal theory, cost approach, sales, matched pairs, plot, plat, map, diagram, photo, photographs, photography, rear, front, street, subject, comparable, sold, listed, active, pending, expired, cancelled, listing, mls, multiple listing service, claw, themls, historical appraisal, facebook, linkedin

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Mary Cummins

Mary Cummins of Cummins Real Estate Services has been in real estate since 1983, over 35 years. She is licensed by the Bureau of Real Estate Appraisers. Mary Cummins was an agent and broker licensed with the California Department of Real Estate selling residential income, commercial buildings, raw land and homes for Merrill Lynch Realty in Beverly Hills and Westside Properties in Los Angeles before concentrating on appraisals. Mary Cummins currently provides real estate appraisals, expert witness testimony, historical research, legal real estate research for mortgage brokers, banks, lawyers, factors, insurance companies, financial consultants and private individuals. Mary Cummins was born and raised in Southern California. Cummins attended Beverly Hills Good Shepherd Catholic School and Beverly Hills High School. Besides being on the Dean's list, Mary Cummins was a top ten national swimmer and competed on the men's water polo team. Mary Cummins began college at the age of 15 attending the University of Southern California on scholarship, majoring in Psychology/Sociology. http://www.animaladvocates.us http://www.facebook.com/AnimalAdvocatesUSA

Thursday, March 23, 2023

Biden Claims to Have "Fixed" the Alleged Racial Bias in Home Valuations but Didn't, by Mary Cummins

UPDATE: 03/24/23 Marcia Fudge just said the same thing in a video almost word for word. Notice how different her tone of voice is in this video compared to other videos. Here she is speaking slow, politely, calmly and even has an interesting accent which is very different than her normal speaking voice. She's not as sharp, condescending, abrasive, abusive or calling all appraisers and whites racists like she usually does. She is flat out lying when she says data proves that "appraisal bias is real." There is no data or research which proves that. There is research based on the government's data which proves it does not exist in the reports and valuations.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/hud/videos/native/urn:li:ugcPost:7044684730058895360/

ORIGINAL: Today the White House claimed they "fixed" the alleged "racial and ethnic bias in home valuations." They claim the Biden-Harris PAVE task force has "fixed" the "wealth gap" among whites and blacks, browns related to home value. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/03/23/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-tackles-racial-and-ethnic-bias-in-home-valuations/ This is beyond misleading and couldn't be further from the truth.

Let me preface this by stating I'm a Latino Democrat woman who voted for Biden. I support Biden in most of his policies. I do not support his policies related to real estate appraisers and the appraisal industry. Biden, Harris merely created a non-existent problem to get black, brown votes. They stated they alone can fix the problem if elected. They formed the PAVE task force to fix the made up problem. Then they claimed they fixed the problem. Ta da! Pat on back. No easier problem to solve than a nonexistent one.

Nothing has really changed. The main reason is because the problem never existed. The "fixes" also already existed. Black, brown owned homes are worth less than white owned homes because of the income gap. It's a fact that blacks, browns make less money than whites. If you make less money, you have less money in general and less generational wealth. If you have less money, you buy a less expensive home than someone who makes more money. That less expensive home is in a less expensive area. Here is research provided to the PAVE task force which proves this https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/aei-housing-center-response-to-perry-and-rothwell-2021/ . Appraisers are not appraising the homes differently based on race! People who make less money also buy and own less expensive cars. Are car values also the fault of "biased" real estate appraisers?

The release states "In just 12 months, the PAVE Task Force has made critical progress towards fully implementing the Action Plan, including by empowering consumers with new tools and greater awareness of appraisal bias; leveraging data to identify trends and crack down on offenders of appraisal bias; and supporting a well-trained and dynamic appraiser profession." Let's take a look at these three areas of "success."

1. "Empowering consumers to take action against appraisal bias."

They claim borrowers can now file a Reconsideration of Value if they don't like the value. Borrowers have always been able to file a ROV! I've seen ROVs for at least 30 years. HUD stated they're giving $54,000,000 to private non-profits to help them educate the public about ROVs and related items. A huge waste of funds that should have been used to solve the income gap problem and actually help people. This also shows the agenda of the private nonprofits receiving the funds. They will support this flawed idea to get millions of dollars.

2. "Increasing transparency and leveraging federal data to inform policy and improve enforcement against appraisal bias."

They've released similar data for at least 20 years. This is how people have been able to do research on appraisals and home sales, values. This research on this "new" data proved there was no racial bias by appraisers. It also proved that the values are based on location. Remember the three biggest indicators of value are location, location, location. This data proved that the main correlation between home value and borrower is income and not race.

3. "Cultivating an appraiser profession that is well-trained and looks like the communities it serves. The Administration is taking steps to remove unnecessary educational and experience requirements that make it difficult for underrepresented groups to access the profession and to strengthen anti-bias, fair housing, and fair lending training of existing appraisers."

They proposed adding education on bias as part of license requirements and it's not even final yet. This was already a requirement and had been a requirement since at least 1989. Appraisers were talking about using different types of experience i.e. PAREA, to get a license long before Biden was elected or any talk of racial bias. The apprentice experience program is difficult for people of every color and race. They still have not finalized a change in the requirements for experience. While they talked about making appraisers more diverse there has not been an actual change in the diversity of appraisers. Luring black, brown people to become a new appraiser in a market with no business that requires three years minimum experience to get work is actually a cruel thing to do to lower income people.

Most upsetting in this puff release is they mention the Austin lawsuit in Marin, California, "Austins' home was appraised at roughly $500,000 more than its initial appraised value after having a white friend stand in for them. Earlier this month, the Tate-Austins settled a housing discrimination lawsuit." They forget to mention that the Defendant not only didn't admit wrong doing but there was no wrong doing on the part of the first appraiser. They assumed the second appraisal was correct when it wasn't. The first appraiser only settled because of legal fees and harassment which the Federal government encouraged and aided. Having a white friend stand in for them had no effect on value. They requested another appraiser and appraisal from the same AMC. That appraiser knew the borrower's target value and wanted to please the borrower for fear of a lawsuit and AMC, lender to keep getting work.

This entire issue of alleged bias in appraising is beyond frustrating, maddening and sad. It makes me wonder how many other fake problems were created in politics just to get votes. How many other "we fixed the problem!" statements were just fake puff statements like this one. The worst part is the administration hasn't helped the people who are suffering from the income gap among white and black, brown. It's clearly easier to call appraisers "racists" and blame them for the wealth gap than fix the real problem of income disparity.

*I'm using "black," "brown" because that is what the release states to be clear.

Mary Cummins

Monday, February 20, 2023

Rebuttal to Marcia Fudge's Misleading 2022 CNN Interview by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

Marica Fudge, HUD, Laura Coates, CNN, interview,Mary Cummins real estate appraiser, bias, discrimination, racism,white, black, Latino, home value,

Marcia Fudge of the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) was on CNN August 22, 2022 with Laura Coates discussing alleged appraisal bias. "Housing and Urban Development Sec. Marcia Fudge says her department is examining the process in which home appraisers collect data, which she says is systemically biased against people of color." "HUD Secretary On Battle Against Racism In Real Estate."

Here is a link to the show: https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2022/08/22/hud-sec-fudge-racism-in-home-appraisal-process-coates-intv-ctn-vpx.cnn

Here is a link to the transcript: https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/se/date/2022-08-22/segment/01

Marcia Fudge continues to promote the false narrative of the alleged "racist appraiser" "devaluing black owned homes." Marcia Fudge has the facts and independent research yet actively intentionally promotes the false narrative to promote her own agenda. Fudge's agenda is to get media attention for herself and more money for her department. Fudge and politicians have created this problem so they can state they alone can fix it. In fact based on what Fudge said in the interview the problem has already been fixed just by doing the same thing they've done for years.

The real issue is the income gap. White owned homes are valued more than black, Latino owned homes because of the income gap. Whites make more money than blacks, Latinos. The more money you make, the more money you have. The more money you have, the more expensive home you can buy and own. The more expensive home you have, the more generational wealth is created. If you want to fix the home value gap, fix the income gap. Fudge won't admit to that because then the problem is not in the jurisdiction of her department HUD and she won't get more money.

Below are some very misleading quotes by Marcia Fudge.

"Because what we know is that it used to be that these things happen only in redlined

communities. But now it is pervasive, it is happening everywhere. And we determined that part of the problem was how appraisers are trained, who was in the appraisal industry, and how they are governed. And so, what we did, in March, was to present a report that showed how deeply, this whole bias situation, is across this country. It is systemic, and it is intentional to some degree."

Marcia Fudge doesn't understand redlining. Here's an article I wrote about it. Those risk maps were made by her own government agency HUD FHA and no longer exist. Government made risk maps were a way to determine loan risk. They included many factors. We still use all of these factors except we don't use race or country of origin. If you took race and country of origin out of the old maps, they were 100% as effective in determining risk. Obviously race and nation of origin have nothing to do with loan risk. Correlation is not causation. Not all maps even included those factors.

"That's part of the problem, Laura, it's the data. So, they collect data, and the data is not what it should be. They then use the data, in a way that it should not be used. And so, they come up with these biased appraisals. But as well, when you look at an industry, that is more than 95 percent White, you find that people of color, are treated differently, because there is an inherent bias with a lot of them. And because they collect the data, the data is not good data."

Appraisers don't collect data. The data is home sale prices. It's just data. HUD collects this data. Zillow has and uses the same data. MLS, Title collect data. Appraisers use the public data according to the law and well established, accepted economic theory. HUD is one of the government agencies which told appraisers what data to use and how to use it. Appraisers are doing what HUD told us to do.

95% of all appraisers aren't white. I've gone over the misleading statistics in previous articles. Almost the same amount of appraisers are white as real estate agents. If most agents are white, does that mean they are also all racists? Most people in the US are white. Does that mean every white person is racist? Of course not.

"If those homes are appraised the way that they should be Laura, then we look at being able to pass down, significantly, more resources, and more wealth, to generations that follow." "And if we are

constantly being discriminated against - and that is really what this is. We can call it bias, if you want. But it is systemic racism, and it is built within most federal agencies, and those agencies that we oversee."

This is the result of the income gap and not appraisers. Here is AEI's response to the PAVE Task Force. Fudge knows this. She has the facts, data and research. If she truly believes this, she should be fired because she's incompetent. Fudge is just lying to the public.

"So, we're tackling it. We are now advising first-time homebuyers, on their rights, if they get low appraisals. We are doing it to people, who sell properties. We are going to train all of the appraisers through fair housing and lending laws. We're going to make sure that the data is collected properly. And we're going to make sure that the right people have the data."

Fudge's solution is to do what we've already been doing for years. Fudge created a "horrible" problem then instantly fixed it by doing nothing. All these things have already been done years before she was the head of HUD. This proves she knows the problem doesn't really exist. She hasn't made any real changes and now it's "fixed."

Marcia Fudge stated that her own home is worth less than white owned homes down the street because she is black. This is of course false. I did a valuation of her much older home on a busy highway. It's worth less than the homes up the street because they are new luxury homes off of the highway. If Fudge doesn't understand this, she doesn't understand the basics of home appraisal and should resign as head of HUD. She states this falsehood for effect every time she speaks.

Mary Cummins

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Real Reasons Appraisers Come in Below Contract Price by AEI. It's not Racism, by Mary Cummins

AEI just released a report about appraisers coming in below contract price in areas with lower income buyers, lower priced homes and more blacks and Latinos. This is exactly what I've been talking about. Again, AEI proves it with science and facts. Just FYI AEI is considered a "conservative" source.

"Our critique points out some significant shortcomings of these studies. Notably, they focus on entire
neighborhoods, when they should study the actions of individual appraisers. They use the greater share
of under-valuations as evidence of racial bias, when they should consider explanations unrelated to bias
that might account for under-valuations, including for example the greater share of first-time
homebuyers, who tend to overbid, or the greater presence of seller concessions, which will reduce the
appraisal amount when they are properly accounted for. They also fail to note the size of these undervaluations. Using the Aggregate Statistics Data File and Dashboards, our analysis indicates they are relatively small, averaging about $1,100 to $1,900.5 These levels are too high if they are in fact due to racial bias. However, our analysis finds multiple other plausible explanations for under valuations of this magnitude such as the greater presence of first-time homebuyers or seller concessions. We also note
that under valuations of this magnitude of are unlikely to depress entire neighborhoods and, they may
in fact provide a disproportionate consumer benefit to minority homebuyers.

We conclude with a renewed call on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and regulators such as the FHFA to mass screen individual appraisers for racial bias and inaccuracies. We have already laid the groundwork for this research with a published working methodology."

The most important issue which I've stated previously is they focus on appraisal value and contract price for purchases and no refinances. When doing an appraisal for purchase the appraiser NEVER sees, meets the borrower, buyer. We may see the seller or the seller's agent but never the borrower. The government study also doesn't know the race or color of the borrower, buyer AND appraiser. What if it's only black appraisers coming in low with black borrowers? A recent horrible unreliable "study" showed that the appraiser who came in the lowest for black people was themselves black.

More important observations from AEI's study. Contract price does not equal market value. First time home buyers which are more likely in these lower priced areas are more likely to over bid. They don't always know they can negotiate. These same areas tend to have homes in lower condition. The appraiser adds more comps to appraisals which are below contract price. I do this to fully back up my work so everyone can understand the value. An appraisal that comes in below the contract price would not endear you to the AMC or lender. Appraisers HATE coming in below contract price but we do it because it's the right legal fair thing to do. The appraisal is to secure the loan not help a buyer or seller.

Some good snippets though you should read the entire report.

Fist time buyers offer over market value. "Shui and Murthy (2019) conclude that first-time homebuyers using Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac financing overbid for a home by approximately $3,000, or about 1% of the contract price for the average home compared to repeat buyers. They also find that FTBs with higher LTVs tend to overpay by more compared those with lower LTVs. FHA borrowers, who are disproportionally concentrated in minority census tracts and largely FTBs, typically have higher LTVs and lower credit scores and may thus be more likely to overpay than other buyers."

There are more seller concessions in these first time buyers, buyers using gov funding and these areas. If a home sells for $100,000 and has a $3,000 seller concession, appraisers subtract $3,000 from $100,000 in the adjustments. The net price is $97,000 which is under contract price now by 3%. There are more concessions to help buyers buy the property and because of condition.

There are more buyers for lower priced homes. This causes buyers to over bid for homes based on supply and demand. We saw this during the recent Covid runup. Buyers bid and paid over list price. They had to make up the difference in loan amount with a larger down payment.

First time buyers aren't just competing against other buyers but also against their rent. Many only compare what they are paying in rent to what their mortgage will be. Quick story. Friend of mine was buying a cheap mobile home. She wanted to buy a cheap home because the mortgage is less than her rent. She was buying it to save monthly expenses. Appraisal came in $20,000 below contract price of $85,000. She asked me for help. I told her appraisal value looked correct. I told her to ask seller to reduce price. She said "but it's actually worth $85,000! It's almost the cheapest house on the market! I will lose the home to someone else! I have to buy this home because the monthly payments are cheaper than my cheap rent!" She didn't care about the price but the monthly payment being less than rent. She only wanted to find a way to get $20,000 more cash for the down payment. Thankfully seller reduced the price. The appraisal gap prevented her from over paying for her first home. Many first time buyers in less expensive areas feel the same way.

Buyers using government funding tend to overbid. They're buying the home with someone else's money because of lower down payment requirements.They just want the home at any price believing it will instantly go up in value and they will have thousands in equity to take eventually. The government told them this is the American dream.

The actual appraisal gap is small. There is almost no gap in Latino areas and 1% in black areas. The government made this huge stink about appraisal gap and there barely is one! "In our prior critique of Freddie Mac’s research note, we find that “there appears to be no gap [in home purchase appraisals] relative to White tracts for Latino tracts and a relatively small gap [in home purchase appraisals] of 1-2% for Black tracts.” They mean predominantly white, Latino or black census tracts. None are 100% white, black or brown. That means whites are having the same issues in those areas as blacks and Latinos. The gap is not a color issue because the same things happens to whites in the same area.

AEI again debunks Andre Perry's "paper." Perry stated appraisers devalue black owned property by $48,000 per home. That's much more than the difference in contract price and appraised value of 1%. AEI pointed out that homes owned by poor whites are also valued less than homes owned by wealthier whites. It's not because of skin color but income, wealth and location.

Appraisals coming in below contract price can help lower income Latino, black buyers. They can renegotiate with the seller. The government didn't say the buyers never closed on the properties and the deals died. They're prevented from overpaying and ending up upside down. AEI state that the government is part of the problem. They help and allow buyers to over pay for homes at the top of the market only to lose those homes later when the market tanks or they have a financial emergency. And you know who the government falsely blames for that? Appraisers!

This kind of reminds me of the destroyed apartment buildings in the Turkey earthquake. Their President bragged that he reduced earthquake requirements to allow the construction of 300,000+ homes for lower income people. That is one of the major causes of the high fatalities in the earthquake. The President basically killed people. FHA and the government like to brag that they helped low income people buy homes. Then they lose their homes because they over paid at the peak of the market and couldn't easily pay the mortgage. Also reminds me of our student loan problems. Latinos, blacks are the ones stuck with huge student loans while the government brags they helped them get an education. Most didn't even finish their education and get the degree or certificate. Most of the ones that did didn't even get the better paying promised job. Governments just want to brag that they "helped" people not caring that they actually destroyed them financially. If the government helped them find a way to earn more money, they could buy a home on their own and afford to stay in it.

AEI suggest mass screening of appraisers to check for racial bias. I support this. If any appraiser knew of a racist appraiser who came in low on a black, Latino owned home because of their racial bias, they would love to take that appraiser back behind the wood shed. All appraisers are being attacked, vilified, defamed based on this false narrative of the "racist old white male appraiser." While racism sure as hell exists, not all appraisers are racists who lowball Latinos and blacks. If there are appraisers doing this, other appraisers would be the first to hold them accountable and strip them of their license.

FTR Dan Wiley of Freddie Mac stated this about their appraisal gap research. "We have not reached any conclusion for cause of the gaps or correlation. Our research showed that further studies are warranted." Danny Wiley and Freddie Mac are doing further research into the possible causes of the appraisal gap. They are looking at all the new data and reviewing all appraisals involved in the appraisal gap research. Of course that hasn't stopped Marcia Fudge, HUD, media... from running with Freddie Mac and other's inconclusive data about appraisal gap from stating it's allegedly caused by racial discrimination by appraisers.

https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/exploring-alternative-explanations-for-appraisal-under-valuation/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=exploring_alternative_explanations_for_appraisal_under_valuation&utm_term=2023-02-14

Mary Cummins

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

AMC, Lender Pressure Appraisers to Appraise Over Market Value in Violation of Law by Mary Cummins Appraiser

The lawsuit is "Naftali Horowitz v. Nicole Andrews, Fastapp AMC founder v. Fastapp. AMC president. Horowitz, Fastapp founder, filed a lawsuit in New York court on January 31, 2022 against defendant Andrews to, among other things, remove Andrews as an officer and director of the Company because, when he brought her on as shareholder in 2020, he claimed that she made certain false representations and promises that were never kept." The lawsuit is really about Nicole Andrews trying to get rid of Naftali Horowitz and take over the company per Horowitz. It's kind of messy because there are other accusations involved so we don't know the full, full truth.

This lawsuit is among principles in an Appraisal Management Company AMC Fastapp. They are suing each other because allegedly Nicole Andrews unethically pressured appraisers to hit target values. The purpose was to please the lender clients so they could close a loan to make money. When the lender makes money, the AMC makes money with more orders. One principle was allegedly worried about government enforcement actions. I personally believe both parties knew about this activity all along.

This is the stupidest lawsuit I've ever seen. Generally criminals like this would settle their grievances quietly so they don't all go to jail. It almost sounds like threats of extortion. Once the parties realized this looked bad publicly they reached a settlement a month later and the case was dismissed. Too late. All these juicy incriminating emails are now public. Nicole Andrews is still with the company per their website so... https://fastapp.com/

Generally when these value instances arise the parties are notified to call the office. These things are discussed on the phone and not in writing. It's shocking and beyond dumb these people put these things in writing.

This is why when appraisers come in at market value they sometimes get a complaint or sued for discrimination. A second willing to please "fixer" appraiser desperate for work will come in over market value making the borrower assume the first appraisal was too low and biased. The second appraisal is generally the wrong one over market value. It's the second appraiser that should be sued in all of these big "racial discrimination" media articles, complaints and lawsuits. I'm trying to get ahold of those second appraisals so I can report the appraisers so they can lose their license. They should go to prison for bank fraud along with the AMCs who approved those appraisals.

#realestateappraiser #realestate #appraiser #appraisal #AMC #DoddFrankAct #bias #discrimination https://appraisersblogs.com/alleged-violations-of-appraiser-independence-at-fastapp-amc

"The following court documents in the case Naftali Horowitz v. Nicole Andrews, Fastapp AMC founder v. Fastapp AMC president, confirm what appraisers have been saying all along, that if you want high-volume AMC work, you have to lower your fees to 1980’s level, have 24 hour turn times, and, above all, be a number hitter.

Horowitz, Fastapp founder, filed a lawsuit in New York court on January 31, 2022 against defendant Andrews to, among other things, remove Andrews as an officer and director of the Company because, when he brought her on as shareholder in 2020, he claimed that she made certain false representations and promises that were never kept. Horowitz is an individual residing in Brooklyn, New York, and is the founder, and, at all relevant times, a 49% shareholder Fastapp. Andrews is an individual residing in Newport Beach, California, and, at all relevant times, a 51% shareholder of Fastapp.

Horowitz claimed that Andrews engaged in conduct constituting potential violations of the Appraiser Independence Requirements under the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 (“Dodd-Frank Act”), including unlawfully seeking to influence an appraiser to encourage a targeted value to facilitate the making or pricing of the transaction in violation of 15 U.S.C. § 1639e(b)(3). (See copies of emails in Exhibit 3)."

Read the article here with all the email exhibits. This has been happening forever. If you are a kiss ass AMC pleasing appraiser you will never have a complaint or lawsuit filed against you.

https://appraisersblogs.com/alleged-violations-of-appraiser-independence-at-fastapp-amc

fastapp, nicole andrews, naftali horowitz, mary cummins,real estate appraiser, appraiser, appraisal, dodd frank, violations, appraiser independence, lawsuit

Mary Cummins

Monday, January 9, 2023

Cancel Culture is Destroying Freedom of Speech on Important Issues by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

mary cummins, real estate appraiser, appraiser, appraisal, real estate,real estate appraisal, los angeles, california, racism, cancel culture, bias, black, white, freedom of speech

If someone does something racist, they should be called out and educated. If a police officer murders a black man, they should be arrested and tried in a court of law. If someone just talks about these issues, they shouldn't be attacked, sued, have their business ruined, reputation destroyed, be harassed, threatened and assaulted. It doesn't make any sense. It harms freedom of speech, promotes racism and destroys any chance at public discourse of the issues.

Lizzo took a moment on a Sunday morning to share her concerns about cancel culture.“This may be a random time to say this but it’s on my heart.. cancel culture is appropriation,” Lizzo tweeted on Sunday (Jan. 8).“There was real outrage from truly marginalized people and now it’s become trendy, misused and misdirected,” she wrote. Lizzo continued: “I hope we can phase out of this & focus our outrage on the real problems.”

People are more upset about people talking about racist issues than the actual racism, race violence and hate crimes. People are more upset about someone stating facts about the false narrative of the racist appraiser than they are about real racism against blacks, the wealth gap or the fact that blacks, Latinos have little generational wealth. We appraisers can't even talk about the issue without being attacked, harassed on social media, getting false negative business reviews, death threats or threats of physical harm. Appraisers can't even comment on articles about the false narrative of the "racist appraiser" or we'll be viciously attacked. In fact some appraisers, AMCs and lenders have piled on to the false narrative in order to garner praise, seem woke, appear to be doing something about racism, get business, positive press and to not be attacked over the same issues. Some lenders have even used this issue to rip off POC by luring them in with promises of no racism only to charge them higher rates which is racist.

The real issue here is the income and related wealth gap between whites and POC. Because POC make less money, they have less money and wealth including generational wealth. Because they have less money and wealth, they buy and own less expensive homes in less expensive areas. The cause of the difference in value between white and black, brown owned homes is not the fault of the real estate appraiser. The data used in these misleading articles didn't even come from appraisers or appraisals but flawed automated valuation methods, robots, software programs by failed Zillow. The real problem is the income gap. Tell politicians and the government to fix the income gap. Assaulting real estate appraisers will never fix the problem.

Someone on Twitter stated in response to Lizzo's tweet, "Jessica Ballinger @BallingerMom Replying to @lizzo

Absolutely ❤️ There are very real issues that warrant outrage… I sometimes wonder if cancel culture stems from people feeling impotent against those bigger issues, so they go after simpler targets to feel better about themselves, like they did something."

I can understand the feeling of wanting to do something about racism but harming an innocent bystander is wrong. If someone sees racism against POC by white people, that doesn't give them the right to beat up and kill any white skinned person they see. That's just as racist as the racism they say they hate. It's also hypocritical.

In this situation by forcing real estate appraisers to shut up about the false "racist appraiser" narrative they are destroying freedom of speech and any public discourse on the issue. Instead the public only sees the misleading articles about specific cases in the media which are false. The media now writes these articles to get more outrage, traffic to sell more ads. One media will share the article by another media to make money off ads.

I've written about some of those cases here. The homeowners weren't low balled due to the fact they were black and the appraiser was white. The homeowners weren't even low balled in the specific cases I reviewed here. The specific properties were appraised using the closest most similar sold comparables. They were all near the edges of more valuable but very different neighborhoods. They were worth less than homes in the next neighborhood for very good reasons. The homeowners just wanted their homes to be worth more and were maybe misled by Zillow, RedFn and other robot "Zestimates."

I really hope in 2023 appraisers will be allowed to write articles about these issues or at least comment on articles without being so viciously attacked that they have to delete their comments or only comment anonymously. That doesn't help anyone. It just perpetuates racism and hatred against white appraisers.

Mary Cummins

Sunday, December 11, 2022

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Sussexes did not use a different home to look wealthier by Mary Cummins

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, the Sussexes, home, house, montecito, california, rockridge, mary cummins,real estate appraiser, real estate appraisal, netflix, movie, series

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Rockridge, the Sussexes, home, house, montecito, california, rockridge, mary cummins,real estate appraiser, real estate appraisal, netflix, movie, series

I thought I wrote an article here about the Sussexes home in Montecito but it's gone. It's public knowledge it's Rockbridge, Montecito, California. They bought it mid 2020 for $14,650,000. It sold 2009 for $29,000,000. It was marked down from $34,000,000 in 2020. It's clearly worth more than what they paid for it plus they upgraded it. There has been a lot of appreciation since June 2020 in 2.5 years. They did not use a different house for the show to try to look wealthier. Their home is bigger, nicer and probably worth more than the other home. They didn't want to disturb their family life, security and privacy.

https://www.tmz.com/2022/12/11/prince-harry-meghan-markle-mansion-netflix-documentary-not-their-home/

This is the home where the Netflix series was shot, 888 Lilac Dr, Montecito, California. It was built 2006 on about 2 acres, 13,599 sf, 6 bed, 6.2 baths. listed at $33,500,000. It's been on the market 473 days which means it's probably over priced.

https://www.compass.com/listing/888-lilac-drive-montecito-ca-93108/858159209087806745/

Sussexes house 7** Rockbridge, Montecito, California built 2003 on 5.3 acres, 14,563 sf, 9 bed, 13 baths, listed at $34,000,000 in June 2020. They are three miles apart equidistant from the ocean and main road. The Sussexes house is most likely worth more because it's larger on a lot over twice as large.

Mary Cummins

Saturday, October 22, 2022

Dia de Muertos Celebration Grand Park Los Angeles October 22, 2022 by Mary Cummins

Mary Cummins, Dia de Muertos,Grand Park, Los Angeles, California, October 22, 2022, altaras, ofrendas, real estate appraiser, real estate, appraiser, appraisal, folklorico dancing, las catrinas mariachi

Mary Cummins, Dia de Muertos,Grand Park, Los Angeles, California, October 22, 2022, Day of the Dead, altars, ofrendas, real estate appraiser, real estate, appraiser, appraisal, folklorico dancing, las catrinas mariachi

Tenth 10th Annual Dia de Muertos celebration at Grand Park 200 N Grand Ave, Los Angeles, California 90012. It was between Grand Ave and Hill St. between 1st and 2nd St. Below is the event schedule for opening day October 22, 2022. Las Catrinas Mariachi Band and Grupo Folklorico Huitzillin & Teatro Aztlan were there along with poetry reading, sugar skull decorating, Dia de Muertos face painting and a few booths. This was also the 10th Anniversary of Grand Park. It was the Grand Avenue Arts All Access

Below are a few photos and videos of the event. @mariachilascatrinas
Event information: https://grandparkla.org/event/grand-parks-downtown-dia-de-los-muertos-2022/

Grand Park’s Downtown Día de los Muertos honors people, places and ideas that merit reverence and commemoration. Grand Park’s Downtown Día de los Muertos is a community-oriented space inviting park-goers to contribute to the community altar, ideated by artist and educator Consuelo Flores and to stroll through the park viewing numerous altars made by professional artists and local organizations. Additional public programs and activities on the opening day to include, poetry reading by Women Who Submit and Luis Rodriguez, musical performance by Las Catrinas Mariachi Band, dance performance by Grupo Folklorico Huitzillin with Teatro Aztlan, sugar skull decorating with East Los Sweets and colorful chalk art with KDaze Art. Plus professional face painting with Color Me Face Painting.

"Curator’s Statement

By Consuelo G. Flores

Los Angeles is comprised of different communities with rich, impactful histories and cultural contributions. What you’ll see as you walk through Grand Park are exquisite threads that create tapestries that focus on legacies, families, and the beauty of our diverse Latino community.

Día de los Muertos/Day of the Dead at Grand Park, offers Los Angelenos and city visitors the opportunity to interact with an intimate and important component of the celebration – the ofrendas/altars. Each installation gives the viewer a glimpse of the person(s) being remembered, who they were in life, what was important to them, what brought them passion, what their impact was on those still living and especially how they were loved. As you visit with each ofrenda, perhaps you can imagine sharing a cup of coffee or a sip of tea or getting a good book, movie or play recommendation from those who are being remembered.

Each altar is dedicated to people like you or me or someone we know, who lived, loved, and became part of our community. Sometimes they were here for a long time, sometimes for a short time – but always an impactful, memorable time.

As you interact with and learn from each ofrenda, remember what the Día de los Muertos/Day of the Dead celebration is in three simple tenets: