Appraisal Management Company - AMC

These are the companies hired by your bank to appraise your home. They don’t work for the bank. Rather, they are independently hired to fulfill consumer protection regulations that went into effect as a part of the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.

That piece of federal legislation reflected the crazy easy mortgage standards given out during the mid-2000s, leading up to the financial crisis of 2007/2008. Things were so messed up in the mortgage market of the time that pretty much anyone with a smile and a handshake could get a loan based on insanely liberal appraisal policies (a system nearly bankrupted the United States).

Basically, this rule tried to stem corruption in the system by keeping banks from self-appraising properties that they have an interest in, appraising with numbers the bank wants to hear, rather than numbers that reflect marketplace reality.