Your tax dollars at work - 2

[Les]

All this work was done by a fannie mae contractor for less than $1,200. Passed bank appraisal for handrail compliance!

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Damn inspector actually reported this as defective!

[Ben H]

So sad.

[Tom Raymond]

Gee, must be nice to be an appraiser, you have very little liability, you get to be wrong more often than not, and you get to perform HIs without all those pesky license requirements!

$1200? That's less than $60 worth of material there. Crooks!

[Les]

#2 spf with 2 1/2" drywall screws

[Tom Raymond]

In that case my original estimate may be a tad generous.[:-banghea

[charlieb]

What no one here realizes is that HUD paid that amount but the contractor who performed the work received considerably less. His fee, dictated by a national company) included material, labor and travel. Generally, he was required to work a 100 mile radius. You can guess how I know this. I quickly found I could not perform work in the manner "they" requested.

[Les]

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same house different contractor. "100amp service, no defects noted"

This is not one of our inspections. I am trying to help establish if the appraiser was ever there at all and if he was, did he fall and hit his head before writing the appraisal?

[David Meiland]

What no one here realizes is that HUD paid that amount but the contractor who performed the work received considerably less. His fee, dictated by a national company) included material, labor and travel. Generally, he was required to work a 100 mile radius. You can guess how I know this. I quickly found I could not perform work in the manner "they" requested.

I've heard similar regarding bank-owned properties. Bank contracts with large middleman outfit to deal with repairs to all their properties, but the actual guy doing the work gets very little of it. The taxpayer is probably paying the middleman as the bank writes off the loan to Fannie/Freddie.

[Les]

What no one here realizes is that HUD paid that amount but the contractor who performed the work received considerably less. His fee, dictated by a national company) included material, labor and travel. Generally, he was required to work a 100 mile radius. You can guess how I know this. I quickly found I could not perform work in the manner "they" requested.

Hey Charlie,

Ya, I know there is a lot of middle fat, but on this one that is the amount the asset manager paid to the chainsaw carpenter. Actual cost to "us" likely in the three thousand range.

If I estimate/bid a job to specific standards, I may well be the only company to do that. Then agt gets two other bids based on my bid, sends that up to the asset manager, who forwards it to a contracted maintenance company, who was selected by hud. My bid may be accepted, however acceptance does not mean I get the work. It means that the task can be done for that amount and approved by the agent who signs off to the maintenance company, who contacts the asset manager. In other words, a scam!

I get to work about one in twenty bids.

I could testify to an ethics committee for several days.

[charlieb]

Between the billing requirements, distance of some and the $$, we did not preform work for very long. Their inspection work is a good gig.

[Brian G]

Originally posted by Tom Raymond

Gee, must be nice to be an appraiser, you have very little liability, you get to be wrong more often than not, and you get to perform HIs without all those pesky license requirements!

I did it for 1 long year. With very few exceptions, you have to choose between being honest or being successful. Zoids can only dream of having the sort of chokehold on HI's that bankers and mortgage lenders have on appraisers. Thank goodness I escaped to an entirely honorable profession like home inspection! []

Pity the snake, for he must slither in the dirt and mud to get his food.

Brian G.

Railing By Doofus [:-dunce]