Have you or your clients experienced appraiser discrimination?
- Never (90%, 129 Votes)
- Yes, rarely (5%, 7 Votes)
- Yes, often (3%, 5 Votes)
- Yes, sometimes (2%, 3 Votes)
Total Voters: 144
Poll: Have you or your clients experienced appraiser discrimination?
Susan, again you are incorrect and showing your ignorance of how real estate in general and appraisals work. LOCATION!!! We cannot go out of the subject neighborhood!!! And, if you were well informed, you would also understand that just because an appraised value is lower than one expects, that is not proof of bias or racism. Also, one of the cases, most of the court case was thrown out due to lack of evidence. Bias has no place in the appraisal profession, or anywhere else.
People who receive an appraisal that doesn’t match their value expectations could easily be manipulated into thinking they’ve been discriminated against. The truth, however, is it is highly unlikely that an appraiser’s value has anything to do with the ethnic makeup of the person living in the home. Most appraisers (I’m a Certified Appraiser for almost 25 years) in my opinion pull the majority of their comparable sales before even personally meeting the homeowners. That means before the appraiser even sets foot on the property to even have an understanding of who lives in the property they are already moving toward a potential value through their market research. They should not even be thinking about the ethnic makeup of their neighborhoods and especially not the ethnic makeup of the people living in the home their appraising. The only thing that matters is researching and using comparable properties as recently as possible and that are located as close as possible to the property being appraised. Appraisers are just investigators that report back what the market is doing/paying for similar properties.
This is garbage. Zillow said my home is worth $150,000 more than the appraiser did. The appraiser used sales in my community which is mostly black instead of the nearby community that is mostly white. It is clear racism and we need to get the word out that this is not acceptable.
Susan, that is how real estate works. The most proximate and recent data from the subject’s neighborhood. Going out of the area (which is what you suggest) is not reliable in most cases. That is something anyone involved in real estate can explain. Location, Location, Location! The A in Zillow stands for accuracy. Please do not give credit to things like Zillow, they have been proven unreliable. I would suggest you search Zillow and their CEO Spencer Rascoff and see how well their algorithms worked for him. They take general data from areas, they do not see things like the new or old kitchens/baths, deferred maintenance, locations on busy streets or backing to train tracks. Appraisers are one of the most regulated professions in the US. Appraisers are the only unbiased party involved in a real estate transaction. Appraisers appraise property, NOT people.
This is happening all over. There is a black couple whose home was devalued by $500,000 because they are black. The first appraiser knew they lived in a black neighborhood and made sure to stick it to them by making sure they didn’t compare it to homes in majority white areas nearby. Fortunately Biden and the Democrats have been brining this to light. It has to stop.
Zillow really? Zillow? wow people really do believe anything the computer tells them or Susan is just being funny
Susan you do realize the first counter suit was just filed last month against the couple that filed a lawsuit against the appraiser and there are more to come against those that accuse appraisers of racial bias. A lawsuit has already been thrown out by a couple that decided to sue an appraiser. False accusations against professional real estate appraisers will not be tolerated and the judicial system will see to it.