An expose of bad businesses and their unethical practices

The charges are really nothing new; real estate appraisers complaining about demands by loan officers that appraisals be changed to meet the expectations of the lender. The charges have been taken a little further in a suit filed by a California appraiser against Washington Mutual Bank, the country’s largest thrift institution. The suit alleges that the appraiser was blacklisted by the bank because show would not change her appraisals to conform to the desires of loan officers.

Interestingly, this suit comes just two months after New York State sued an appraisal form for doing the opposite. First American eAppraiseIT is alleged to have acquiesced to demands by its customer lenders to inflate the values they reported on property appraised. The State properly charges that this practice contributes to mortgage and foreclosure losses.

The California appraiser says that Washington Mutual blacklisted her after she properly cited declining market conditions as a reason for reporting lower values. She was apparently told, point-blank by a manager at WaMU that she would be given no further appraisal assignments if she refused to raise the values being submitted. When she refused, the ban was enforced.

Apparently, there is no such thing as too much Bad Business for mortgage loan operations.