Monday, April 11, 2011

Appraisers to Unionize?

Regarding a recent email: "Maryland Appraiser Union Joins American Guild of Appraisers/OPEIU"


Any "unionization" attempted by appraisers will not survive a legal challenge.

Appraisers cannot unionize because it would be a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Appraisers are independent contractors, and any discussion of setting uniform or baseline fees is price-fixing, and therefore illegal.

Consider that the Appraisal Institute must remain silent on the topic of fees for this reason. Also consider that the NAR has been threatened with multi-million dollar fines by the FTC for publishing fee percentage recommendations for member services.


We don’t need a union. We need fellow appraisers to stop sabotaging our profession by working for free.
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7 comments:

  1. Michael,

    You may not have a proper understanding of how the American Guild of Appraisers operates. The guild represents independent fee appraisers and cannot strike, participate in collective bargaining, or any of the other actions offered by conventional unions. The guild is related to the AFL-CIO and uses that relationship as a resource. No other appraisal organization has the national numbers of the AFL-CIO (currently 10 million members). As President of the NJ Chapter of the AGA I am one phone call away from meeting with Commissioners and Directors of state departments.....all I do is mention AFL-CIO and I'm in.

    Dan Drelich

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  2. What can they do for us?? Is there a way around
    banks setting our fees?? Do we have to work for them? A plumber doesn't have to go into a house that is too dirty. Can we blackball them as they do to us? Sound like something I want to join because,as you said,they have the name and number of members.It's a good start and we have nothing to lose other than unemployment.How can we change " Independent Contractor's " to Big Business or another label?

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  3. HOW CAN YOU JOIN ?? A UNION COULD STOP UNFAIR PRACTICES BY CHEST POUNDERS THAT KNOW NOTHING ABOUT APPRAISALS OTHER THAN PUSHING APPRAISERS AROUND FROM A LIST.THEY ARE GETTING PAID FOR FINDING A PROBLEM SUCH AS "ST" BEING SPELLED "STREET" OR "AVE" BEING SPELLED "AVENUE". WASTING OUR TIME. TELLING US WHAT COMPS TO USE OR TO USE TIME ADJUSTMENTS TO DRIVE THE MARKET DOWN FURTHER. (WHICH WE CANNOT PROVE) I REALLY LIKE WHERE THEY TELL YOU A REPORT IS DUE AT 5:32 AM OR IT IS REASSIGNED WITH NO PAY. IS THAT LEGAL? .WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MONITORING OF THESE PEOPLE. THEY ARE GIVING THEMSELVES A PROBLEM BECAUSE NOW THE BANKS WON'T WAIT FOR ALL THE BOGUS CORRECTIONS THEY ARE FINDING.
    WE NEED SOMEONE TO STAND UP FOR APPRAISERS. IT WOULD BE EASIER TO WORK AT BURGER KING.

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  4. >WE NEED SOMEONE TO STAND UP FOR APPRAISERS.

    Appraisers need to stand up for themselves: it isn't anyone else's responsibility.

    You've repeated a set of common complaints that begs only one question: Why are you still accepting work from abusive clients?

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  5. You are basically telling me to quit appraising and that a Union does not help anyone. I can't change the entire system. They don't care if I quit. If its a common complaint,individuals are unable to change it.It will only matter when there are no appraisers and that will happen. IF its noones responsibility that there are no appraisers, its no surprise that conditions are as they are. It's all politics and big money (greed) which is bigger than we are.

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  6. >It's all politics and big money (greed) which is bigger than we are.

    Well, then, clearly there is no hope and nothing to be done! Maybe it's time to quit appraising!

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  7. Clear Captial is really pushing people around big time. I had to take my son to the hospital. I wrote and told them before I left. The next morning I got a threating letter that if they didn't hear from me by a certain time ( 2.21- something like that) they would remove the order with no pay. I hadn't been able to get an appointment. I called. I was upset and told them it wasn't necessary to send me threatening letters, which they always do and DO remove the order because I have had it happen. Now I am not on their list because they didn't like the way I spoke to their representative. They called me unprofessional which is exactely what they are. I hope Chase removes them soon and realize what kind of unprofessional people
    , that know nothing about appraisals, they are dealing with.

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