Seems like New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman isn’t going to let CoreLogic and subsidiary eAppraisal off the hook as easy as the other guy. Read it here.
After several years of consumers waiting for someone to “pay the price” for the mess we are in, maybe someone is finally going to be called out on this financial fiasco, in one State anyway.
I remember back in 2007 when the NY SAG stated a division of First American (now CoreLogic) “single-handedly caused the foreclosure crisis in New York”. Wow. Huge accusation.
I have kept up with this case and there is a lot of smoke coming from that fire. We’ll watch how it plays out. But if any of the accusations hold up (grossly inflated appraisals?! yikes!), it won’t be good news for the country’s largest data collector.
And if those accusations turn out to be true in court or litigation, you’ve got to ask yourself if you’re in the Real Estate industry- If I utilize this kind of company for any of my real estate services, will it help me convince the American Home Buyer that REALTOR’s are honest and trustworthy?
I think you have a broken link. Here is the link on Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/22/us-firstamerican-newyork-lawsuit-idUSTRE7AL1DU20111122
I would also note that it is doubtful that the data company is going to take the hit for the Appraisal industry that was putting feet on the street to “appraise” homes. Remember the day when the Appraiser would do a “virtual appraisal?” I cannot see how they can hang this on a data company.
CoreLogic, a data or information company, owns eAppraiseIT.com, the other subject of the NY SAG’s ire. They are a little more sophisticated today than the virtual appraisal scam of yesteryear. But I do see your point Victor, without agreeing to it.
To be clear, they have the right of presumed innocence, and CoreLogic may be innocent of all charges, or at least, successful in a settlement without admitting wrong doing or just paying hundreds of millions in settlement costs and filing the whole episode under “cost of doing business”.
But if they are found guilty, then yes, I think the “data company” would take a financial hit. One they could withstand fairly easily I’m sure.
But this real estate data and analytic company, which now has several SAG’s filing against them, could become the subject of someone else’s ire. The downtrodden American taxpayer/homebuyer/consumer. Grab enough e-headlines for screwing over the 99% with nefarious dealings in the real estate appraisal industry and you could be 2 tweets and a Facebook post away from financial disaster.
That’s all I was sayin’.
Thanks Victor, I think I fixed the link now.