A Latina real estate professional recently faced scrutiny from members of an appraisers group on Facebook who questioned her status as a licensed appraiser shortly after she and her husband were granted a settlement for appraisal discrimination.
Dominique Curtis, a Bay Area licensed appraiser and Latina woman, was a member of the 100% Real Estate Appraisers Group on Facebook.
However, Curtis told Atlanta Black Star that doubts emerged among a few members about whether her appraiser license was legitimate after they saw a recent ABC7 News article on her and her husband, Ronald, and racial bias in the real estate industry.
One member who was skeptical of her appraiser status suggested that “AI was handing out licenses like candy.”
“Instead of solely focusing on the fact that the appraiser was caught in the wrong and fined for it, they were more focused on the fact that I was an appraiser,” Dominique Curtis told Atlanta Black Star.
In response, the Facebook group owner shared proof from the California Bureau of Real Estate Appraisers, revealing that Curtis was a licensed appraiser, but didn’t redact her home address and phone number.
Curtis left a comment, requesting that the group owner, Mark Skapinetz, delete his post containing her personal information. In the years since the Curtises launched a legal battle against an appraiser who undervalued their home in 2020, they said people have posted their personal information online, called their phone numbers, and left threatening voicemails.
They feared that Skapinetz had done the same thing with the same malicious intent and accused him of “doxxing” their information.
However, Skapinetz told Atlanta Black Star that that was never his intention. He only wanted to post proof from a state website that Curtis’ license was real to put doubts to bed. He said he regretted not redacting her personal information in the process.
He said he didn’t see her request to delete the post until the next day. That’s when her husband contacted him personally to demand that he delete the post. Ronald Curtis told Atlanta Black Star he berated Skapinetz for the post, but only because he was fearful about the potential fallout of sharing his and his wife’s personal information with strangers on Facebook.
“It was a cursing match, and I assume he came to his senses when he figured out that I knew who he was and he could lose his license for his posts,” Ronald Curtis told Atlanta Black Star.
Skapinetz posted a public apology to Dominique Curtis, and then deleted the page entirely, but not before posting a message to members addressing why he shuttered the group.
Skapinetz stated that the group contained 4,000 members, some of whom aren’t appraisers, have interests that conflict with real estate affairs, and launch heated disputes with other members. As the sole administrator of the page, he said moderation had become too much to handle for him. The comments concerning Curtis’s license were the signs that he needed to delete the page altogether.
“There is too much to handle and monitor, as well as things being posted in here that have and can be used against us appraisers,” Skapinetz wrote in the group, later adding, “The fact I created this group and one of my sole principles was to keep certain people/groups out and I failed hurts me deeply. I cannot leave this group for others to maintain when it’s tainted.”
The Curtises recently made news headlines after they were granted a settlement from an appraiser who state investigators determined had undervalued a duplex they owned due to racial bias.
The Curtises purchased that duplex in Oakland in 2019, and after making significant renovations, the home was appraised at $1.15 million in April 2020.
Later that year, they sought to refinance the home to take advantage of historically low interest rates and had the home reappraised. However, the appraiser valued their home at $900,000 — a $254,000 reduction from the initial appraisal. They appealed the decision, but the appraiser wouldn’t budge on his findings.
In 2021, they were able to sell their home for $1.2 million after they removed all of their belongings, including family photos and other items indicating their race and ethnicity.
That sale made the couple doubtful about the $900,000 appraisal, so they contacted the Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California, who filed a complaint on their behalf with the state civil rights department.
After the state determined that racial bias was a factor in the low valuation of their duplex, they were awarded $75,000.
Dominique trained to become an appraiser while she and her husband took up their legal battle against the appraiser. Ronald, a Black man, is a real estate agent.
