«
»

Robert A Givan

February 12, 2007

Colorado Division of Real Estate
1560 Broadway #925
Denver, CO 80202
Attn: Erin Toll

Complaint

This is a complaint against the appraisal license of: Robert A Givan (CR01320539).

Discipline History

In August, 2000 Bob Givan paid a $500 fine and sat thru 2 classes as a plea bargain settlement of a complaint filed against his appraisal license.

From the BOREA meeting minutes, 08/18/00:

Case # 800 5016 and Case # 800 5017: The investigative report concerning case number 800 5016, respondent Gary J. Hill and case number 800 5017, respondent Robert A. Givan was submitted to the Board together with all documentation. Investigator Ramos reviewed the cases for the Board. After discussion Board member James moved to refer case number 800 5016, respondent Gary J. Hill and case number 800 5017, respondent Robert A. Givan to hearing with an offer of a stipulated settlement, a $1,000.00 fine, all but $500.00 shall be suspended and due immediately, completion of a 15 or more hour USPAP course within 6 months, and completion of a 24 or more hour course in advanced residential appraisal, complex residential appraisal or similar subject matter within 12 months. After further discussion the Board voted to approve this motion.

Factual Details of the Complaint

Subject Appraisal: 2423 Xanadu Way #B, Aurora, CO 80014. Appraised $105,000 as of 12/20/05

The Players:

  • Appraiser: Robert A Givan, Statewide Appraisal Services
  • Seller: Freddie Mac (REO)
  • Buyer: Maxine Brier
  • Mortgage Lender: Ownit – now kaput
  • Listing Agent – Gay Hodges, Coldwell Banker
  • Selling Office – 09183 = United Property Brokers, 303.671.9311
My investigation leads me to believe that:This is an appraisal done for a purchase mortgage. The subject property is a Freddie Mac repo. The listing history shows this property has been on the market since February, 2004 – for the better part of 2 years, with $25,000 price reduction. The 2 real estate agents each collected a 3.5% commission (the seller paid 7%), which is higher than the normal 2.8%. It’s a buyers market.The buyer (Maxine Brier) paid $96,900 to buy the property. The buyer, seller, and 2 real estate agents worked together and produced a contract with a $99,900 price and $3,000 rebate paid from the seller to the buyer. This hocus pocus arrangement is very common in the Aurora real estate market. The sole purpose of the $99,900 contract price is to request an appraisal of at least that much so the buyer can obtain a $99,900 mortgage. In this case it worked – the appraisal came in at $105,000 and the buyer obtained a $99,900 mortgage.

The report says:

Downpayment assistance and seller concessions up to 5% of the sales price are typical of this market and warrant no adjustments. Seller concessions over 5% of the sales price are adjusted according to the market.

To understand how ridiculous this is – take a look at the comp 2 listing history. With an asking price of $102,900 – a buyer offered to pay $100,000 contingent on obtaining a $109,000 mortgage. So they added $6,100 of pretend money to the “sales price” and called it $109,000. On the sales grid, Bob Givan adjusted $3,600 of the pretend money – in effect saying the market indication of comp #2 is $105,400. In a weak market, after 224 days on market – this is crazy. The only way to explain this kind of adjustment is that the appraiser – Bob Givan is not objective, not independent, not unbiased.

Days on Market

The report does not address reasonable exposure time. This is a violation of USPAP std 1-2(c) comment, 2-2(b)(v), SMT-6, and item (3) in the definition of market value. This is not an insignificant technicality – given the comps used in the report, a reasonable estimate of exposure time is about 8 months. Subject days on market = 199, comp #1 = 380 DOM, comp #2 = 224 DOM, comp #3 = 41 DOM.

Subject Listing & Contract

USPAP says the appraiser must consider the subject contract and marketing history. After 199 days on the market, why would anyone pay $5,000 more than the asking price?

How does Bob Givan reconcile the $105,000 appraised value to the $99,900 asking price? He does not.

Bob Givan does not reconcile the difference, he does not analyze it or explain it. He ignores the asking price – as if it does not matter. After 199 days on the market, any idiot can see this property is not worth $105,000.

Call to Action

This complaint presents an example appraisal and mortgage loan that is very typical of the Denver metro area. It’s not an exaggeration to say it happens all the time. And it’s not an exaggeration to say it’s not going to stop unless something happens to make it stop.

And, in my opinion, the huge rate of foreclosure is going to continue to grow until something happens to put a stop to this kind of loan. To those (you know who you are) who say “it’s only $5,000″, my response is – if $5,000 is so small as to be immaterial or insignificant, then let the appraiser value the property at the amount paid to the seller, and there should be no problem making the loan just a little bit higher – right?

Once the “system” decides it’s acceptable to lie about the value of the property (or the value of the contract) for the purpose of getting the loan approved/sold to a sucker, it doesn’t take long for the $5,000 “concession” to grow to $10,000 and then $20,000 and then $200,000. Right? Does anyone think I am exaggerating?

During the past 6 years, the enforcement program for appraisers and real estate agents has been pathetically ineffective.

It is a violation of USPAP for an appraiser to accept compensation for performing an assignment when it is contingent upon:

  1. the reporting of a predetermined result (e.g., opinion of value);
  2. a direction in assignment results that favor the cause of the client;
  3. the amount of a value opinion;
  4. the attainment of a stipulated result; or
  5. the occurrence of a subsequent event (i.e., loan approval)

Does anyone think that is not what happened here? This is not rocket science – it’s right there in plain sight. All you have to do is read the report. It is readily apparent that Robert A Givan violated the above cited portions of the USPAP Ethics Rule.

Certification:

I certify that the statements and information supplied by me in this complaint including the attachments are true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.
Philip G Rice
11268 E Linvale Dr
Aurora, CO 80014
720-282-3376
phil.rice@mkgappraisal.com

cc:
Distribution List

Attachments sent to Erin Toll:

I have included a complete copy of the appraisal, deeds report, MLS listing for the subject and each of the comps. A complete copy of this letter, including all attachments and extensive additional documents and photos is/are available at:

http://www.mkgappraisal.com

/images/Skippy/givan/givan_complaint2007.htm

– End of Letter –

tags

Robert A Givan

mortgage fraud real+estate Erin+Toll Robert+A+Givan Givan Gay+Hodges Coldwell+Banker United+Property+Brokers seller+concession

technorati ping / phil.rice / / / / / / / / / / /

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 24th, 2007 at 3:59 pm and is filed under Mortgage Fraud, Skippy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Comments are closed.