http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-29....

Quote:

Kyle Lagow, an appraisal manager for Countrywide from 2004 to 2008, claimed that Countrywide inflated the value of homes to support bigger loans, according to a statement today from Seattle-based law firm Hagens Berman. Charlotte, North Carolina- based Bank of America Corp. (BAC) bought Countrywide in 2008 to save it from collapse as defaults on home loans soared.

Now, I am all for whistle blowers getting a piece of any settlement, but this one has a bit of a whiff to it. "Appraisal Manager" as a job title suggests that Kyle had something to do with property appraisals. If, as he asserts, those appraisals were strategically increased to increase that amount that could be lent against such property, one might conclude that he was directly involved in that action.

This is somewhat akin to stealing a Rembrandt, then returning it to the insurance company for a "finders" fee. Thus, rewarding Mr. Kyle has a bit of an inverse penance whiff to it. Even so, I am glad he spoke up - and I am glad that he is now wealthy, for it greases the skids. The more whistleblowers the better.

hehe, well, if you're right, Kyle is one shrewd blower:

Quote:

A former home appraiser will receive $14.5 million as part of a whistleblower lawsuit that accused subprime lender Countrywide Financial of inflating appraisals on government-insured loans, his attorneys said Tuesday.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bank-ameri....

apparently he was employed by Landsafe in plano. thats where their hq is. i am an appraiser and use to do alot of work for Landsafe. countrywide had a couple of joint ventures with a couple of builders. when things went south, i was taken off their "new construction" approved appraiser list as i couldn't "make value" funny, when bofa wanted to hold a loan in their portfolio, they would call me to do the appraisal. I asked them at one point when i didn't want to do the appraisal, why don't you get someone else to do it-they said they were holding it in their portfolio and they wanted me to do it and to name my price. (gosh, i should have charged more). they even waited for me to get back from vacation to do an appraisal for them (in this business its an extreme rarity to wait for an appraiser to get back)

I don't believe there were any in-house appraisers. They worked as independent consultants, technically hired and paid by the buyers. However, buyers invariably use the appraiser that the lender suggests. Appraisers that wouldn't pump up home values found themselves blacklisted by the lenders.

My educated guess would be that Lagow maintained the list of approved appraisers, and arranged for the appraisals to be completed.

When we bought our home on Long Island, the mortgage broker was sitting with me and he called "his" appraiser. He told him the address, the age of the home and the value of the mortgage. He then repeated the value of the mortgage.

2 hours later, I get a phone call...... house appraised right on target....you're approved. Funny, my appraisal of the home was about $140,000 below where they appraised it. What is sad.....7 years later, the current value is ALMOST at my appraisal.

Yeah, to say the least....we are ****ed.

Quote:

Funny, my appraisal of the home was about $140,000 below where they appraised it.

WHY did You sign?

Ferfawksake, Man; -WHO'S fault is THAT ?