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As of May 1st new legislation enacted the HVCC which requires lenders to follow strict appraisal ordering guidelines. Loan officers can no longer have direct contact with the appraiser. Mortgage brokers can no longer hire an appraiser directly. Many lenders have hired Appraisal Management Companies to order appraisals. The problem with this is that Appraisal Management Companies (AMCs) are totally unregulated, they often charge $500 to $600 for an appraisal and only pay the appraiser $160 for a full appraisal! The general public does not realize that the appraisal fee they are being charged does not go directly to the appraiser. Appraisal fees have remained relatively the same for the past 30 years - $350. The fees are now going up, but the appraiser is not seeing the benefit, in fact many appraisers are now out of business. For the added time, new forms, and additional underwriting requirements, a full appraisal can take a minimum of 8 hours to complete. Add the increase in E&O insurance, MLS dues, database costs, paper, software, etc. Appraisers who work for the Appraisal Management Companies are earning about $10 per hour. The appraisers in our area are not signed up with any of these companies - most appraisers who are signed up are new to the business and it is the only work they can get. This is why you are seeing so many out of town appraisers. The fees are so low, and the AMCs require the report to be completed in 24-48 hours. Often these reports are inaccurate and incomplete. It does not make financial sense for these appraisers to spend the required time on the report. Realtors - not all local lenders have an AMC - BB&t started an in-house ordering system after a failed attempt at using Fiserv (no local appraisers signed up). BB&t now has only local appraisers and they are HVCC compliant. Check with your preferred lender to see how they order an appraisal. It could mean the difference between a sale closing or falling apart because of a bad appraisal. Check out this recent article (this is going on all over the country)  http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09092/960003-28.stm