Mercury Network

As we've written several times before, the HVCC provided ample incentive for mortgage brokers and appraisers to become allies united behind a common cause. Since we single-handedly bore the cost of raising awareness among appraisers and mortgage brokers about the HVCC last year, we were happy to find afterward that the National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB) recognized the difficulty in what we did, and wanted to cooperate and consult on HVCC issues. Eventually, NAMB decided to take the battle to the courts, but withdrew the lawsuit after the government claimed its actions as conservators of Fannie and Freddie are not subject to judicial review (even though, obviously, the HVCC was started prior to the government bailout). As a last-ditch effort, NAMB asked us if we would distribute their "Follow Up Call to Action" to our appraiser list nationwide, which we're happy to do for them. We encourage you to…

With each issue of The AppraisalPress, we find ourselves discussing how dramatically things have changed in the short span since the last issue. While we originally thought we'd be dealing with a rapid comment-and-revision cycle on the proposed HVCC a year ago, we never envisioned it dragging out this long (the "final" HVCC takes effect May 1st), nor did we think there would be so much chaos and tumult along the way. It's an understatement to say that things have been out of control. It's certainly made our jobs harder, but even more importantly, it's made yours almost completely unpredictable.

On October 20th, 2002 at the Mortgage Bankers Association's 89th Annual Convention & Expo, a small group of us from a la mode rolled a wicked looking stainless steel Harley Davidson V-Rod into the convention hall of the Hyatt Regency in Chicago.

We're giving away $69,000 in cold, hard cash to help drive traffic to the Mercury Network.

If you've been reading the articles in this newspaper for a while regarding our revised Mercury Network, you might think that it will wind up being nothing more than a new AMC-like venture, or something akin to FNC's AppraisalPort hub. But ordering and delivering appraisals will be just the tip of the iceberg.

As the market naturally erodes due to fewer real estate transactions, and as the HVCC pushes the remaining transactions in ever-increasing numbers to appraisal management companies (AMCs), many appraisers are kicking around the notion of creating a member-owned AMC, or "co-op".

It's clear that no matter how the HVCC plays out, there will be continued pressure to implement some sort of firewall to shield lenders from the liability inherent in loan production staff applying potential coercion to appraisers. In fact, it's been a general requirement for years, most recently dating to the "interagency memo" in 2005 from the OCC, the OTS, the FDIC, and the Fed — the HVCC just imposes it on lenders in a more abrupt and internally meddlesome way, with additional negative consequences.

In the last issue, the most popular article by far was "Preventing the AMC fee cut". This issue, we're looking at the bigger $6.3B valuation market and the role that an "un-AMC" may be able to play in keeping a much larger share of in your own pocket.

In today's climate, lenders are looking to lessen their liability.  One choice is funneling all orders to AMCs, but there's another alternative.  Why lenders will start to gravitate to the Mercury Network and how you can use it to prevent fee cuts.