Things have gotten so bad for Bay State real estate appraisers – the embattled scapegoats of the housing crash – that they are looking to Beacon Hill for help just to get paid on time.

The Massachusetts Board of Real Estate Appraisers (MBREA) is pushing legislation that would bring some badly needed oversight to controversial appraisal management companies (AMCs), created by government fiat after the collapse of the housing bubble.

AMCs were intended to give appraisers some level of independence. They were created in the post-bubble fallout, amid allegations that real estate appraisers had been routinely pressured into signing off on inflated home values.

Instead, they have become semi-regulated behemoths that are increasingly putting a devastating financial squeeze on individual appraisers, at least according to the MBREA and other critics.

Hence the professional group’s latest legislative proposal. Among many other things, it would require AMCs to pay appraisers, who now mostly work as independent contractors, within 60 days.

“It has become a nightmare,” noted Rich Goulet, a trustee of the MBREA and owner of his own, independent shop. “The AMCs are making appraisers’ lives miserable.”

A Tough Position

In a first step, the appraisers’ group is pushing to get its bill reported favorably out of committee and onto the House floor for a vote. The MBREA contends its proposal would bring some badly needed oversight to these new real estate industry players, requiring them to be licensed – and directly regulated – by the state.

The days of inflated appraisals have now been replaced with allegations that appraisers are being steered into offering low-ball estimates by skittish banks. Putting AMC’s directly under the gaze of the state’s professional licensing board would provide home sellers – frustrated with seemingly low appraisals – a place to lodge complaints, the appraisers’ group contends.

But for rank and file appraisers, the requirement that AMCs pay for their services in a somewhat timely fashion is likely to have the most significant impact. It comes as AMC’s increasingly drag out payments to appraisers, sometimes for months, contends Stephen Sousa, the MBREA’s executive vice president.

The delays come atop an already tough position for appraisers.

Appraisal fees have been cut by a third, down to approximately $250-per-home, while the amount of work expected on each report has skyrocketed as banks push for endless numbers of comparables to justify each sale price.

The pressures have already led to an exodus by veteran appraisers, who are not being replaced by newcomers as they leave.

“The AMCs have driven the fees so low it is increasingly difficult to make a living,” Sousa said. “If my kids were coming out of college, I would tell them to go anywhere else than appraising.”

New Rules, Same Master

Whether our local appraisers will get a helping hand from Beacon Hill remains to be seen. After all, it’s not exactly a venue known for taking swift action on anything. But the increasingly dire situation individual appraisers find themselves in does raise some disturbing questions.

After all, how did a key housing market reform go off the rails so quickly?

Mortgage lenders and banks without their own appraisal departments were required to hire appraisal management companies in a series of post-bubble state and federal reforms.

But the new AMCs appear to have proved once again the old adage about the new boss being worse than the old one.

The banks still pay the bills and, as a result, still call the shots. The only thing that has changed are terms of the game – the pressure now is for low-ball valuations instead of high-ball ones.

And with the housing market in a bad place, banks are squeezing AMCs for every dime they can get, with the big appraisal shops, in turn, squeezing individual appraisers to make up the shortfall.

If nothing else, the appraisal mess should provide a cautionary tale on how well-intentioned reforms can backfire. As lawmakers in Washington eye an even more sweeping overhaul of the real estate market, it’s a case study that Congress should not overlook.