Appraisers' Free Forum

AR is meeting and I understand that one Don Stieger (stiager?) has resigned his Ar lic with the understanding he cannot renew it without resolving a complaint. I am going to send an FOI request to the Board and find out the details. He is the appraiser who appraised a bunch of Laotian poultry farms for a tort law firm, and claimed they were over-appraised by as much as 100%.

I understand he got hammered in Mo. too. He is a CG in OK who reciprocated to AR and MO.

Once you get the information, let me have a copy of it, and I will submit it to the appraisal board here

Done - FOI request yielded the following document.

Appears to give up license in lieu of further action and "not to contest these specific findings..."

Hey Ter - what about the other stuff from the "informal meeting"? Is that also available - the complaint, "meeting" and final decision?

That could help not only GP but you in some of that stuff that keeps coming back to haunt you.

To explain. This all started in a Bankruptcy hearing where a poultry farmer's Law Firm argued that they had been defrauded by the bank and that my appraisal was badly inflated. Staiger prepared a report on the farm arguing that it was worth barely half the appraisal and the Lawyers were asking for a write down to that amount. Staiger's testimony is in the bankruptcy hearing and can be had via the PACER system for 8 ¢ a page...but there are huge amounts of testimony.

At the hearing were representatives from several banks including 2 appraisers I knew. Ironically, one of them was the appraiser of record on the prior sale of that farm (which was also a Hmong), so knew the details from his report of 18 mo. earlier. I had a copy of his report and our values were less than 10% apart. They were there to learn about Staiger for their client who was being sued for fraud over similar Hmong Farmers in trouble. Apparently, from what I heard, he was later hammered in court in Kansas City over a Missouri farm. So I guess they prepped pretty well. I had heard he was facing a hearing there as well. Perhaps he simply turned in his license. He is from Oklahoma and a former FSA (FmHA) appraiser.

In testimony he admitted a lot of things. He used only assessor data and Farm Credit was his sole other source (FC is not lending to any Hmong to my knowledge.) He admitted he was not aware that there were over 80 sold poultry farms in the Local MLS. He also argued that no Hmong could be considered "knowledgable" therefore, all sales to Hmong could not be used.

The Law firm thinks I am the one that turned him in. I really wasn't but it doesn't matter. I assisted with providing info to the board. The Law firm's defense of their pet appraiser was that I was the one who turned him in and it was professional jealousy. The Law firm tried to modify the agreement that was made between Staiger and the Board which he was to surrender his license and to not be eligible to apply again. The Law firm (undoubtably still needing him for testimony in another 10 or so trials) apparently tried to give him the out that he could pick up his license at a later date so as to testify.

I understand the report they requested he submit did not match the report that was submitted in public record to the bankruptcy court. There were innumerable errors in the report including several mismatched numbers which apparently came from clones of the report.. (the SA and CA were mixed up in one place, not the same numbers for the summary and elsewhere, etc.)...

I have no other real details but what came from someone at the board hearings who picked up a few tidbits....State Investigators are reluctant to talk. One of the people who attended the trial as observer pointedly asked our investigator at our "Day with the Board" to comment and she smiled and said, "You know I can't talk about that...."

I do read this much into the deal. It was brokered by the Law Firm. They knew they dare not have him be sanctioned or it would open them up to a suit over using him in the first place. I also suspect it places all their suits in limbo until they can get them re-appraised by a more honest appraiser (imagine that.) I understand they have modified a number of those suits and I suspect that is why. One of our USPAP instructors got caught up in one and that suit dropped the Realtor, appraiser, poultry company, etc. from the suit and remains solely against the seller (arguing the fraud issue again.)

As far as I know this is all that is in the file so to speak except a cover letter from the legal firm.

I guess in such a situation, this bothers me that he isn't fined or sent to jail. Obviously, he had to do mental handstands to come to the conclusions he did and it had the potential to hurt a lot of people. In fact, it did. The gas company was in arrears by the plaintiff to the tune of $55,000. Anderson Propane was unpaid and his bills were disclaimed and the plaintiff allowed to restructure under Chapter 12 bankrupcty. Don Anderson took the $55,000 hit....he didn't deserve it. The bank gave up some interest and restructured the loan but all in all came out pretty good.

I'm familiar with state's dealing with these stuations separately, which permits this sort of con man to just keep moving. By providing conflicting testimonies in bankruptcy court it sounds like he may have purjured himself as well. Perhaps a federal law has been violatd that a prosecuter could obtain a conviction on, that then would provide a record to use in OK. It will take a long time.

I also think if the guy was sued in OK that the evidence in AR could be subpoenaed. I doubt the OK board can get the AR stuff without some kind of court order.

Thanks for keeping us informed Ter. I recall when you first brought this issue to our attention, and the emphasis then seemed to be that the buyers were of the impression that if they bought real state it would appreciate in value. Now we have them in bankruptcy court trying to defraud the court with a jerk of an appraiser.

We had a somewhat analagous situation here with an appraiser by the name of Stroh who allegedly over-valued multiple conservation easements in the Arkansas Valley. The board here accepted a consent that amounted to an emasculated slap on the hand, with no suspension of the license. The evidence is buried and the guy is still appraising. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were in play. Ultimately the county commissioners (some of whom are also farm owners) in one of the counties involved stated that even though the appraisals were discredited that they would put county tax dollars up to complete transcations based on the errant appraisals. So I guess the attraction of getting what you want causes one to find some way to get it.

Sorry rogerwhatland, this stuff certainly cries out for some sort of federal appraiser oversight. Keep the faith guys. If we keep sharing the info here, these crooks have fewer hiding places. The worst thing we can possibly do at this point is to keep quiet about this stuff. Just make sure only the truth is told.

If I recall correctly, Staiger reportedly appraised 12 properties in Ar, several in MO, and even one or more in OK...so there are similar reports floating about in the state of OK I suspect. Probably against AOK Poultry or Tyson.