Hello Don Price:

I think I agree with you on the MACRO side of what's happening (or has happened) in the RE Industry. I do believe that after the S&L Banking Crisis in the late 1980s, the mandated use of arms length Appraisals should have included some prohibition about supplying a copy of the P&S to the Appraiser so that he/she could do a TRUE Appraisal without knowing what the "Magic Number" was. For almost 20 years now, the Industry has had its Appraisals notched up because Lenders seek (or sought) to have the Purchase Price justified. Nullifies the value of the Appraisal process.

But I was talking earlier about the MICRO side where where the massive increase in the number of 3rd Party BPO "arrangers" has resulted in a reverse bidding war to see who can name that tune for the fewest dollars and if the Broker doing the evaluation doesn't get paid - SO WHAT! Honesty and Good Business Etiquette have left the battlefield. There are a million plus Real Estate suckers out there and the individual dollar losses in each instance are too small to justify getting an Attorney involved; and because the BPO Company is typically in another State, you have no standing. That's why my Attorney says we should consider fashioning a complaint to the ICC, and maybe enjoin some of the thieves from doing business across State lines.

I'm still smarting from a BPO I did in 1995 when I let it be known that the Subject property had gone up for TAX SALE and the Redemption Period had expired; so the Client no longer had a legal interest in the Subject. They dropped the pursuit, thanks to my information; but Cartel Asset Management never got around to compensating me! So now I refrain from volunteering anything more than the absolute minimum.