HVCC Petition Strikes a Hot Button with both Industry and Consumers

Petition to Rescind HVCC Strikes Hot Button with Real Estate Industry and Consumers

With 37,000 signatures, petition includes stories from thousands of HVCC victims

(Fairfield, CA) An online petition calling for the reconsideration of the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) has struck a chord with both real estate industry professionals as well as consumers, particularly prospective homebuyers whose lives have been devastated by the unintended consequences of HVCC.

The petition was launched June 1 at www.hvccpetition.com by Think Big Work Small, a provider of online video training, education and content to the mortgage industry. The petition, with over 35,000 signatures and comments detailing the ruinous personal impact HVCC has had on consumers and industry professionals will be delivered to New York Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director, James B. Lockhart and the House Financial Services Subcommittee.

The National Association of Mortgage Brokers has conservatively estimated that HVCC costs consumers $711 more in fees for the appraisal itself and for extended loan locks. This consumer cost alone to exceed $2.8 billion a year in extra costs and fees. Appraisal Management Companies (AMCs) retain up to 40 percent of the appraisal fee, but have no accountability for the timeliness or accuracy of the appraisal. Evidence since the May 1 implementation of HVCC indicates that AMC’s assign appraisals to the lowest-cost appraisers who oftentimes have little to no understanding of the local market, resulting in vast numbers of appraisals coming in way under their true valuation. This ultimately results in loans which cannot be funded and the entire transaction is lost.

“We posted the HVCC petition as a public service to those in our industry who were being impacted, as an outlet to have their voices heard,” explained Tim Kearns, chief executive officer of Think Big Work Small. “We knew this was causing extreme hardship to the industry, but we didn’t expect to get thousands of horror stories from would-be homebuyers whose dreams have been dashed by this well-intended, but misguided policy. Every day thousands of people are getting the rug yanked out from under them in their quest to become homeowners because of HVCC. You only need to go to our petition website to read the stories for yourself,” said Kearns.

The Company’s goal is to obtain 100,000 signatures by July 30, 2009, at which time Company officials will hand-deliver the petition.

“We plan to take their stories to New York and Washington in hopes that the HVCC policymakers will reconsider the policy in its current state and correct its most obvious flaws,” Kearns continued. “We hope this prompts some action, based both upon the high number of signers, but more so by the personal stories of the disastrous impact HVCC has had on consumer’s lives.”

About Think Big Work Small

Thinkbigworksmall.com provides a variety of video and Internet based tools and rate alert services to real estate and mortgage industry professionals. It also hosts a daily program (www.TBWSDaily.com) with timely and relevant news for the industry. It was an emotional audience reaction to one of these programs, which talked about HVCC, which was the catalyst for ThinkBigWorkSmall.com to formalize its efforts to put a halt to the damage being caused to consumers and the housing market by HVCC.


As an appraiser, I urge all of the real estate professionals to revisit this issue and sign the petition.

Grande Appraisals
1044 Big Oaks Blvd
Oviedo, FL 32765-6005
(407) 366-9915 (407) 538-7366
contact@grandeappraisals.com
www.grandeappraisals.com