AMCs: The TALCB in Texas is Requiring that you be Registered by July 5th

The Texas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board’s (TALCB) registration and panel management process for AMCs is now fully operational, and to continue doing business within the state of Texas, AMCs must be fully registered with the TALCB by no later than July 5th, 2012. The registration of all AMCs operating in Texas is now required under the Texas Occupations Code Chapter 1104 (HB 1146, 82nd Legislature), and the application form for AMCs is available under the My License Online Services button located on the home page of the TALCB website.

The TALCB has jurisdiction over all AMCs operating in Texas, and has provided a set of guidelines that registering AMCs must abide by in order to be fully registered:

• Must file an application by using the My License Online Services link, or submit the Registration as an Appraisal Management Company application;
• Must pay the $3,300.00 application fee for a 2 year registration;
• If the AMC is a business entity, they must provide a current “Certificate of Good Standing” that is dated within 21 days prior to the date of submitting the application, and that was issued by the governing state agency where the business entity was incorporated or organized;
• Must provide owner information for each individual or entity that owns more than 10% of the company (there can be up to 9 owners);
• Each owner that owns more than 10% of the company must sign and submit a separate AMC Owner/Primary Contact Background History form;
• Must provide the name of the Primary Contact within the company. This Primary Contact must also submit the background history form, and must be an owner, officer or director of the AMC, or be authorized by the AMC to enter into contractual relationships with others to perform appraisal management services. The Primary Contact must also either be a certified appraiser, or must have taken the 15-hour National USPAP course and remain current with the 7-hour USPAP Update course;
• Must designate an Appraiser Contact who is a licensed or certified appraiser to serve as the Appraiser Contact for the AMC to answer questions from appraisers on the AMC’s panel.

For those of you—which by this point should be most—who have dealt with AMC regulations in other states, most of these requirements above shouldn't come as a surprise to you. However, the TALCB has a very important post-registration requirement for AMCs that is unique to Texas only. Once registered and approved, an AMC must notify the TALCB of its appraisal panelists by creating a current list of the actively licensed Texas appraisers that it contracts with for conducting appraisal reports. To do this, AMCs will be required to use the agency's online Panel Management tool, and they must continually maintain and update their lists as changes are made.  

This new tool will allow registered AMCs to invite appraisers to join their panel by identifying the appraiser by name or license number from the Board’s list of certified appraisers in Texas. Once an AMC has selected an appraiser to invite to their panel, an electronic notification is sent to that said appraiser in which they can either accept or decline the invitation. There is no limit on the amount of appraisers that an AMC can have on its panel at one time, and either the AMC or its appraisers can easily terminate their relationship at any time with an electronic message.