So right now we have a down turn in business. Is this an opportunity for you to improve; your knowledge, methods, procedures, etc. The answer is yes. What else could you do during this slow time? If your thinking go out and expand your client base. Well the answer is your too late. Your standing in the same soup line as many others. Personally I have strongly resisted refi work, FHA work, and AMC work. That's does not mean I don't do any of that, but I don't if I don't have too. Right now I may do some of that work. I am going to still be choosey about it. If the only benefit I receive is money then I don't want it. Its not enough, I need the market knowledge(staying current in the market segment more than the money). So to relieve some of angst that some of you are feeling/experiencing now. this business will turn back around simply because we are a capitalist society and people like to spend money. Refi's wont stop! This is a temporary lull. Pretty soon people will go out and buy a new car, renovate a bathroom, go to Disney land/world. We sold houses at 14% interest rates. There is a huge market of people wanting to buy a house. We have a shortage of housing in Charlotte MSA. Developers are already starting new home s/d. The winter here was exceptionally cold one and it stifles activity of all kinds. Political environment is toxic.
So maybe George Hatches started this thread on competency was really an attempt to get members to open their eyes a little. Attempts to get it back on track have failed. So I have nothing else to offer. Maybe George will come up with another thread to create some useful discussion that wont degrade into a mud slinging contest.
One last thought; Get a new boogey man. The GSE's are not your enemy. Frankly they have done more to standardize/stabilize the appraisal methodology industry than USPAP. I have personal contact with GSE's employees. Frankly I was very impressed and was motivated to work harder and provide more detail in my reports.
I have a long time client I've been doing business with under one masthead or another for 20+ years. One of those situations where I was on the short list of a bank that got ate up by another bank which merged with another banks and so on. They're a portfolio lender so they do a wide range of property types, one being high value SFRs and proposed construction of SFRs and other property types. So in addition to appraising the various property types I also do some of the outside reviews (they get an outside review on anything over $2M). Their Chief Appraiser is an AQB USPAP Instructor I've been knowing for many years, so they know what they want and they understand what it is they're getting when they get it back.
This cycle around they were having a tough time finding SFR appraisers in certain areas who would slow down enough to address everything they were asking for in their engagement letters, the fee-is-no-object terms of engagement notwithstanding. I don't think there's anyone on their panel with less than 20+ years in the business and a few of their regulars have been at it longer than me. And many of them were pushing back on this lender's appraisal policies, if not ignoring them outright in favor of their widget.
So the lender has been on me to take on some of those SFR assignments. Which messes me up when I'm working on my normal workload. It's hard to deal with a combination of assignments that have different timelines - get this SFR done on an SFR timeline while I still have other assignments that have already been waiting for 2+ weeks.
My other situation is that I don't want to get too exposed to the roller coaster ride you guys have to put up with. I can't afford to tie too much of my book of work to a niche that's here today and gone tomorrow, nor do I want to get back into the Fannie gig, because as I say I haven't done anything in that vein for many years and I haven't even owned an appraisalware suite for the last 10 years. so i've actually been withdrawing a little from this particular client and not taking on some of these assignments unless they're stuck and can't find anyone they trust to do the do.
My point is this (and several of the folks in this thread will vouch for it) : in at least some regions there really are some opportunities for the SFR appraisers to improve their level of play and to work their way into other assignment types and other client types. But in order to do that they need to step away from watching the clock and focus on their relationships, not their fees so much. What are our users asking for and how can we *at least* meet those expectations if not add in a little more? If we run into an angle that perhaps some other appraisers wouldn't see, are we willing to gut it out and take the hit on the fee if that's what it takes to get to the prize at the bottom of the cereal box? How can we make our reports more readable and user-friendly so that even the loan processor can follow our reasoning in what oftentimes involve some convoluted or complicated situations? How can we break a complicated problem down to look at it in terms of our fundamentals? How well do we understand *why* we're doing what we do as a means of figuring out how to do it better?
And most of all, can we at least try not to hate everyone we work for? Can we refrain from characterizing them all as our primary enemy, or assuming they're working in bad faith to rip off everyone they do business with?
