- Demand a Congressional investigation of the Appraisal Institute,
its members and its practices.
Proposed Petition:
We
petition the US
Congress to do a complete forensic investigation of the Appraisal Institute, its
membership/practitioners, and the reports its members produce. We advocate
eliminating the use of appraisal designations, as said designations cause
confusion to the lending community and the public at large.
The
Appraisal Institute (AI) continually lobbies for its membership to have lenders
assign their members appraisal work and preferential treatment over other
appraisers who are duly licensed, but do not have the revered MAI/SRA
designations.
AI is a
private organization; a Real
Estate Appraisal
School is all that it is
in actuality.
It is by
far the largest appraisal school in the world, and is in the process of
completing a merger with the ASA. The AI
is predatory and monopolistic as it continues to discredit, appraisal course
instruction by non - AI instructors.
Appraisal
instructors looking in from the outside (Instructors who are not AI members) do
not offer the lofty "designation(s)" the appraisal institute
provides. Accordingly, eliminating the designation will eliminate the confusion
that it causes in the lending community, where lenders repeatedly ask for an
MAI or an SRA approved report.
The
Appraisal Institute places itself on a pedestal, as it promotes its so-called
prestigious designations, MAI/SRA. The fact is that the educational courses for
state licensure for appraisers are based upon criteria as mandated by the Appraisal Foundation's Course Approval Program (CAP)
which is the same for all states for licensure.
The AI
charges membership fees to candidate members, while existing, ordained (if you
will) official members (MAI/SRA’s), put the fear in you to join (extortion), or
you may expect your work to be blacklisted via the lending community, (Which is
contrary to the FIRREA anti-discrimination law – chapter 564.5-6).
Said
anti-discrimination law was passed back in 1989, namely due to the S & L
crises, in which many BAD appraisal reports were prepared by Institute members.
The
Appraisal Institute has managed to sneak a paragraph into section 203K of the
HR 3837 bill, which endeavors to reverse anti-discriminatory legislation which
has existed since 1989, which will further cause into confusion, the
differentiation from a state certified appraiser, versus an MAI/SRA appraiser,
of which there is in fact no difference.
The
appraisal Institute furthermore is known to be and IS a nepotistic
organization. The AI makes it very difficult, and in many cases impossible to
obtain their designations, as their existing membership oftentimes refuses to
approve their candidate members for the MAI/SRA designations, as the ordained
members realize, that if/when they do, they are inviting competition into their
exclusive club.
Accordingly,
the Institute keeps candidate members hanging on year after year, paying associate
membership fees, but oftentimes, said associate members never get to see the
prized MAI or SRA designations.
Appraisal
reports prepared by members of the Institute should be forensically investigated,
as organization members are rampant with fraudulent appraisal reports.
The Appraisal Institute has contaminated the process of doing
business with their unofficial/unregulated authority over the appraisal
industry. Federal and State agencies regulate the banking industry - not the
Appraisal Institute.
Summary
– Abolish the Appraisal Institutes designations (MAI/SRA) as it causes into
confusion for lenders and the general public, the terms State Certified
Appraiser as opposed to an MAI/SRA, in which there is no difference
what-so-ever.
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