LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
Rio Grande Chapter, Appraisal Institute
April 2014
We have made it through another legislative session with minor scrapes and bruises this year. As you all may know, there were changes mandated by the Feds that our Appraiser Act needed in order to be in compliance so we could continue to perform appraisals for federally regulated loans. The new laws become effective in January 2015 and we would not have time nor could we take the chance these new requirements would be approved by our legislature during the next 60 day session.
However, we were surprised when, at the last minute, the Realtor Association and some of the AMCs had hired a lobbyist and were going to challenge our changes if we did not remove language pertaining to BPOs and AVMs.
Minda McGonagle, our lobbyist of several years, arranged a meeting with RLD, NAR and some of us were at the session to discuss the ramifications of removing the BPO and AVM language. It was determined that with the changes they were proposing the Appraisal Board would still have oversight of BPOs, not only what was still in the Appraiser Act but what we still have in the AMC Act. So, we decided to move forward without the BPO and AVM language so as to get the Appraiser Act through committees and to the Governor’s office since not all bills get through such a short session.
The interesting part of what happened was RANM changed directions and sided with the AMCs after sitting for hours last year with our appraisal groups agreeing on language needed so they could perform BPOs for short sales and foreclosures as noted in the Dodd Frank Act. What we have found out is AMCs and the Realtors, which primarily consist of commercial Realtors, want no oversight of BPOs and of course they wish to perform them for any type of valuation.
I had contacted Steve Anaya the Executive President of the Realtors Association of New Mexico prior to the 2014 legislative session asking if they have any problems with the BPO language in the Appraiser Act, as we would be opening the Act this year to make basically word changes to comply with Federal Regulations at which point he responded they had no issues. That was not the case after our first committee meeting at the legislature as I have noted above.
We currently are researching Title XI language that states that the Attorney General’s office is basically the enforcement agency for BPOs . I believe we have been approaching this wrong by trying to put enforcement under our Appraisal Board. If the AG’s office is truly the enforcement arm, then we will approach them on ensuring that our mandatory licensing is followed for all valuations.
I would like to thank all of those that assisted with funding our lobbyist this year as we nearly met the coal of $12,800 which was the contract price with Minda for this 30 day session. We raised $10,000, of which AI paid $5,000 and the NMAC paid $5,025. I am hopeful that we might be able to raise more funding through membership both through AI and the Coalition. Through the efforts of both organizations we are able to maintain our profession which is continually being attacked by the Realtors, Banks or AMCs.
Next year we will be having a 60 day session and from what we can currently ascertain, the AMCs and Realtors are arranging for rule changes that would remove the BPO language from the AMC Act so there would be no oversight over this product.
We need to start a campaign now for fund raising so we can retain our lobbyist which we most certainly will need if the AMCs and RANM move forward with attempts to remove BPO oversight.
As a reference, the Secretary of State’s website noted in 2013 that RANM did $47,501 in political expenditures and in 2012 they made individual contributions of $122,630. THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE WHAT THEY PAID THEIR LOBBYISTS.
So you can see we have our work cut out for us but I believe with a little cooperation we can obtain whatever goal we need to if we work together as a single force.
Some folks understand the process and some do not, which creates some confusion which I am in hopes of correcting this year through meetings, going to classes and making presentations, and just sitting down with those that want to truly understand what we are up against during these legislative sessions.
I know some believe we pay too much for a lobbyist but most professional organizations pay considerably more in order to make sure their professions do not get sidelined by special interest groups. We have been quite successful being the first state to have an AMC Act and we have basically been successful each session when we have AMCs or RANM or NAR coming at us for whatever reason. Although we thought we were able to work with RANM and NAR as equals, that became apparent this year to not be the case.
We continue to need a presence at the legislature and a very knowledgeable lobbyist that understands our plight is most imperative. If we attempt to hire an outside person who has other interests, we will be defeating the impending purpose. The banking industry and mortgage loan folks are not concerned with our cause and appear to be siding with the AMCs and Realtors when it comes to using another source of valuation, other than appraisals, due to cost and turn times and no oversight. This approach is not in the consumer interest, but only their own.
Again I want to thank those who helped us with this session and hope that everyone realizes the importance of appraisers working together to save our profession.
Richard Hix
Government Affairs Chair
Rio Grande Chapter of the Appraisal Institute and New Mexico Appraiser Coalition
Title XI of FIRREA Real Estate Appraisal Reform [12 U.S.C. 3331 – 3351] as amended by the Dodd-Frank Reform Act can be viewed on the website http://www.iowa.gov/government/com/prof/appraiser/PDFs/Title%20XI.pdf
