Listen! - Can You Hear That Tiny Violin?

It's playing "My Heart Bleeds for You." It's playing for the appraisers who were forced for the last few years to inflate values of homes to keep the business of mortgage lenders who wanted ever higher valuations for mortgages and home equity lines. It's a tough world, and I really hate to hear about the pressures that were placed on them.

I guess I shouldn't be so stuffy about it. After all, on our own level, we do the same thing. How many real estate professionals take listings at prices that will never fly in the market because they are afraid of losing the listing if they tell the seller what they should hear? I don't do that, but I also rarely have more than one or two listings either. I lose many more every year due to sticking to what I know is a true valuation.

It's less noble than it is not wanting to go to the trouble of all of the paperwork, photos, videos, special websites, etc. If I do take on over-priced listings, it's likely that after six months, most of the sellers assume I'm incompetent and take their listing elsewhere. I don't like wasting all of that work and marketing on a sure-fire non-mover.

So, the video could be of a young lady who is a homeowner stuck upside-down in a mortgage due to an inflated appraisal. Or, she could be a real estate agent about to go back to her previous job because she blew her budget advertising overpriced listings. If she's an appraiser who lost business because she stuck to her ethical obligations, then I'll be glad to recommend her to the new breed of very careful mortgage lenders.