Mary Cummins, Real Estate Appraiser, Animal Advocates, Los Angeles, California

Mary Cummins, Real Estate Appraiser, Animal Advocates, Los Angeles, California
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Friday, May 24, 2024

False Bias Claims Against Appraisers - Six Main Cases in the Media by Mary Cummins Real Estate Appraiser

mary cummins, real estate appraiser, real estate appraisal, los angeles, california, bias, discrimination,race, racial, white, black, latino, andre perry, hud, george floyd, lowball, lowball, 

Below are six of the main falsely alleged racial bias cases against real estate appraisers. When I heard about the first case I assumed the appraiser maybe was racist or was incompetent. Who would make such a hurtful false claim if it weren't true? I would have been the first to take the appraiser out behind the proverbial woodshed for a talking to.  

After fully researching the properties and values, I realized the claims were false. I continue to research new cases and have not found one yet where the lower appraiser was in the wrong. I definitely found no biased or racist behavior on the part of the lower appraisals. I have found that the second or higher appraiser has been in the wrong either through bias or incompetence. If I knew who they were and had a copy of the report, I would report them.

In these cases the borrowers truly believed that they had been discriminated against. I understand after a lifetime of discrimination one could assume anything they don't like is the result of discrimination. Sometimes though there is a perfectly good explanation for something we don't like that has nothing to do with race, color, gender... 

I did notice four similar things with all of these cases. One, the homes all have complex physical issues. Two, the homes are all located on the edge of neighborhoods nearer to higher valued areas. Three, property values were rising quickly. Four, some of the homes had external factors which greatly affected value. These four factors make for a complex appraisal assignment. If the correct comps are not chosen, evaluated, adjusted properly, values could vary by a large amount. The end result could be incompetence in the form of a higher appraisal.

The first issue has to do with complex physical characteristics of the subject property. Something that I noticed with all of these cases is that they're not newer homogeneous tract homes. All of these homes are complex. The homes are complex because some are much older, in C4-C6 (fair) condition, have unpermitted additions, illegal bedrooms/bathrooms, are on severe slopes, were built to Q5-Q6 quality (low), built on reclaimed swamp land, have varying views... The difference in value could be attributed to differences in actual legal size, real bed/bath count, view, condition or upgrades compared to other homes which sold for more. 

The second issue has to do with the homes being located nearer to the boundary of two dissimilar neighborhoods. This caused the second higher appraiser to choose non-comparable comps in a totally different neighborhood than the subject. The Marin case is a prime example of this. There were few larger recent sales in the same area because most homes are smaller and there were few sales overall. The higher appraiser chose comps in Mill Valley which has more larger homes which sell for twice as much as Marin. They are not comparable areas to say the least. It's like comparing homes in South Los Angeles to Beverly Hills.

The third issue is quickly appreciating values. All of these cases happened when homes were appreciating over 15% per year. If you appraise a $100,000 home January 1 for $100,000 then appraise it again 12/31 of same year, the value would be $115,000. That doesn't mean the first appraiser low-balled $15,000. Both appraisals are correct. Sometimes the area was also revitalizing (some call it gentrification) so values went up 25-30% per year. Revitalizing happens when people are pushed out of more expensive areas into nearby less expensive areas causing the area to improve and property values to rise. 

The fourth issue is external factors which greatly affect value such as location on a busy highway (Maryland case). Homes located on busy highways are worth less than homes located on cul-de-sacs, private lanes, small residential streets and streets with no through traffic. Another example is homes built on reclaimed swamp land on unbuildable sloped inclines (Marin case). Yet another example is homes a mile from the ocean near the freeway being compared to homes on the ocean with a full ocean view and  a boat dock (Florida case). 

There is another issue which contributed greatly to these false complaints which is not related to the actual appraisals or homes. It is Andre Perry's false, fabricated, misleading paper and book titled "Know Your Price." Andre Perry falsely stated that racist real estate appraisers lowball black people's homes by $46,000 per home just because appraisers are all "white male racists." Appraisers weren't even involved in the data used by Perry. The truth is people who make more money have more money and buy more expensive homes in more expensive areas. They also buy more expensive cars, clothes, jewelry... Whites make more than blacks and Latinos. Most of that racial wealth gap is actually reflected in higher earners. No homes were low-balled in Perry's data. People read articles about the paper and assumed it was true. Politicians even used the faked paper to campaign to black people for votes and campaign donations. 

In all of these huge false appraisal bias cases in the media we had a borrower who automatically assumed racism, a home with intrinsic, extrinsic negative value issues located in a revitalizing appreciating area near a neighborhood which is worth much more. All of these factors combined contributed to a huge explosion of misdirected hate against appraisers especially after George Floyd's murder and Andre Perry's fake paper. It will take years to deal with the false narrative of the alleged "racist old white male" appraiser.  The media is directly complicit for wanting to sell advertising to make money by inciting racial divide and hatred with their misleading stories. I didn't see one article where they had an appraiser review the appraisals or give their opinion of the cases. I contacted the writers and no reply. Shame on the media for promoting false hateful racist stories.


20 Pacheco, Marin, California - Tenisha Tate, Paul Austin

https://mary--cummins.blogspot.com/2021/02/alleged-discrimination-home-appraisal.html

1329 Fall Creek Pkwy E Dr, Indianapolis, Indiana - Carlette Duffy

https://mary--cummins.blogspot.com/2021/05/homeowner-claims-discrimination-in-home.html

4132 Sherwood, Jacksonville, Florida - Abena Sanders Horton, Richard Horton

https://mary--cummins.blogspot.com/2020/08/black-homeowner-claims-discrimination.html

5924 Martin Luther King, Oakland, California - Cora Robinson

https://mary--cummins.blogspot.com/2021/07/racial-discrimination-alleged-by-cora.html

Allendale, Oakland, California

https://mary--cummins.blogspot.com/2024/06/details-about-alleged-racial-bias-case.html

209 Churchwardens Rd, Baltimore, Maryland 21212 - Nathan Connolly, Shani Mott

https://mary--cummins.blogspot.com/2023/01/maryland-lawsuit-alleged-racial.html


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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