I completed my California real estate appraisal continuing education "3-hour Cultural Competency and Elimination of Bias in Appraisals" class last month. While I agree all humans have implicit bias I don't believe that many, most or all appraisers act on it. Appraising is a math formula. 2+2=4. You could be the most evil racist unhinged person on earth and 2+2=4. 2+2 ≠ 3 or 5. You would have to intentionally work extremely hard to contort hard data and a basic math formula. The review robots, AMC, Lender would catch your error and reject your report before a client saw it. And for what? To lose your license, career, go broke, get sued, have all your colleagues and everyone else despise your racist behind...?
I was upset to see the course falsely promote some of the false cases in the media about bias as fact. The cases were mainly the false Maryland and Florida cases which I covered in this blog. There was no lowballing at all. I also didn't like being forced to view racist propaganda videos. One included known "research" fraud Andre Perry and his fake paper. It's a fact that whites make more money than blacks, Latinos. If you make more money, you have more money and you're more likely to buy a more expensive home in a more expensive area. That's why white owned homes are worth more than black, Latino. No one lowballed the appraisals. Those appraisals were done by robots, AVMs and not appraisers.
The class even promoted the hugely misinterpreted Fannie Mae anecdotal data on race, contract price and appraisal values as true. AEI debunked it with research. There are more concessions in lower priced areas which are more likely to be black, Latino because of lower income, wealth. This is why appraisal values are lower than contract price in those areas. This means blacks, Latinos were paying over market value because they were conned by real estate agents. They should have made up fake case studies as examples without using color, race and real cases that have not been settled on the merits. Using these frivolous cases was actually bias and racism.
The class also included false information on the term "redlining." I wrote an article about redlining here with facts and dates. The class itself was biased, racist and promoted false narratives about appraisers and the appraisal industry. It could have easily explained bias in a more neutral manner without involving specific people, races, colors, lawsuits and organizations. I'm assuming promoting the false narrative is the only way the courses would be approved by the powers that be. So ironic that the government deals with the issue of bias, racism, and discrimination by actually being biased, racist and discriminatory. There's enough real bias, racism and discrimination in this country that we need to fight. Ridiculous to waste time, energy and money fighting nonexistent racism. I believe the government does this so people won't look at the real cause of income inequality and the wealth gap among white, black and Latinos. It's easier to blame appraisers than to fix the income gap.
Home appraisal is a math formula. Robots, AVMs can do a home appraisal of an average home if they had all the data which they don't. That's how exact the math formula can be. In fact I pull my comps based on math formula alone which I've posted here a million times. I then type those comps into a form. I choose adjustments based on more match i.e. matched pairs analysis and regression theory. My software then adds/subtracts the adjustments and that's the value. I don't control the value.
Some may say why not just use robots and AVMs. The problem is they don't see or inspect the property. They don't have all the data. GIGO, garbage in garbage out. They don't know if it exists, actual size, permitted number of bedrooms, condition, upgrades, actual age, view type, topography, lot type, home style.... They only know what's on the tax roll which isn't always accurate. Some like Zillow also include MLS data which is generally incorrect. Most MLS sizes, bed counts are larger than actual. Zillow and others also let the public edit the data which makes it even more inaccurate. Zillow also doesn't do a proper comp search or adjustments. If Zillow can't find similar recent comps, it goes so wide that it's in a totally different neighborhood which could be worth twice as much. In fact most of the false media cases about lowballing fell into that category. Zillow is probably the reason appraisers were frivolously sued for bias, racial discrimination and alleged lowballing.
Appraisers use numbers, facts and data. We're aren't interpreting the finer possible meaning of ancient translated words in poetry or the Constitution. There is no interpretation. It's basic math! You'd have to work harder than Justices Samuel Alito or Clarence Thomas when they twist, contort and misinterpret the words of the 1788 Constitution. There is no room to twist number of square feet, number of bedrooms, number of garages, location, recent local sales... Facts are facts.
This class is now mandatory because of recent regulatory changes caused by the false narrative of the "racist appraisers." So far no lawsuit has shown or proven any bias, racism or discrimination in appraisals. "Those applying for appraisal license renewal in California must complete at least one hour of Cultural Competency and two hours of Elimination of Bias, which can be combined into a single three-hour course. These changes to the education requirements are key components of California Assembly Bill 948."
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.
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