Given the fierce efforts to keep HVCC alive, it makes you wonder if AMC interests know something the rest of us don’t.

As federal legislation that would end the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) moves closer to reality, appraisal management company (AMC) interests are blitzing the media with their message that overturning HVCC means a return to lender pressure/appraiser compliance and an environment that allowed the current real estate collapse.

Industry thought leaders have been saying for months that, no matter the fate of HVCC, the shotgun marriage between appraisers and AMCs is sealed: if appraisers want to do business, they will have to do business with AMCs on the terms dictated by these middle men or so goes the conventional wisdom.