How is Business and your anticipation for the future?

[djd09]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2049928833718231495

 

[J Grant]

For context, income has trended like this:

• ~$160K
• ~$130K
• ~$90K
• This past year: roughly $75K–$80K

Interesting - my appraisal income almost parallels this exactly over the past 6 years. My expenses are lower than the OP, but when it hit below the 90k range I could not save anything to provide a cushion for the next slow cycle. And there are always slow cycles in res mortgage appraising.

I am near the tail end of my career, but if I were mid-career, I would consider retraining in any field with the least potential to be impacted by AI. Even a field that offers similar modest pay but is more rewarding is a better bet. At least one can get social interaction or satisfaction from certain jobs. The appeal of this career as an independent is disappearing with the intense scrutiny, pressure, and uncertainty at hand. Appraisal business expenses are rising with no increase in fees or pay on the horizon. Maybe a few niche clients or review opportunities that reward a highly competent professional appraiser will remain. I would hope that is the case.

PS, the Department of Corrections pays more and offers better benefits than many appraisal staff jobs. And the crooks are on the other side of the bars!

 

[Zoe]

For context, income has trended like this:

• ~$160K
• ~$130K
• ~$90K
• This past year: roughly $75K–$80K

Interesting - my appraisal income almost parallels this exactly over the past 6 years. My expenses are lower than the OP, but when it hit below the 90k range I could not save anything to provide a cushion for the next slow cycle. And there are always slow cycles in res mortgage appraising.

I am near the tail end of my career, but if I were mid-career, I would consider retraining in any field with the least potential to be impacted by AI. Even a field that offers similar modest pay but is more rewarding is a better bet. At least one can get social interaction or satisfaction from certain jobs. The appeal of this career as an independent is disappearing with the intense scrutiny, pressure, and uncertainty at hand. Appraisal business expenses are rising with no increase in fees or pay on the horizon. Maybe a few niche clients or review opportunities that reward a highly competent professional appraiser will remain. I would hope that is the case.

PS, the Department of Corrections pays more and offers better benefits than many appraisal staff jobs. And the crooks are on the other side of the bars!

Law enforcement pays really good money after just few years and great fringe benefits. They start out around pretty high and then you keep getting bumps. If you have a degree, they pay more.

They will even help pay for you to get a degree. You work several years in it and counting the benefits you could be around $100K or better. Good health insurance and more fringe benefits like 401K, etc.

I want to say starting salary on some is around $50K. It may be 60K plus depending and you get a signing bonus.

 

[TC]

Will they pass any of their cost reductions on to borrowers?

and monkeys just flew out of my butt.

 

[DTB]

The forum can be st

Find another job and turn appraising into a gig job. Easy to make 60-80k/yr part time in this. You can do it on the weekends.

80k isn't a professional salary unless you’re 23. And a staff job at the worst AMC in the country has to be a miserable existence.

Good luck, but you'll be in the same boat in 6 months if you work for class. And you will have lost all your real clients.

I’d look for another steady job with benefits, etc. There’s so much easy **** out there for 50 to 100 grand that allows you to work from home anyway. Find two jobs that pay 75 and now you’re at 150k.

Unfortunately, that’s the position appraisers are in these days.

The forum can be strange sometimes.

If one does 7-10 assignments per week, they must be cutting corners or are form fillers, number hitters...
How many can one complete on a weekend? 2? 3?
You must get pretty stiff fees to make 60-80K on the weekends appraising and that is picking the easy ones?
If that's the case why be part time? Do a 4th one and make 100K

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

If one does 7-10 assignments per week

There are certain types of assignments where you could pull that off, I suppose but realistically, I've never in 30 plus years recall getting 7-10 assignments per week let along 'doing' them. I mean this week might be 3, next week six or 10 even, but that was when I had an assistant and 2 trainees with 2 years' experience finishing up their internship. Plus, I was doing the shoe leather effort to generate enough work for us all back when we were actually allowed to market to loan officers. And again, we did not get a steady stream of predictable assignments weekly. Only occasionally did we get a series of jobs where we were able to produce more than one assignment per day. That was almost always a person with multiple rentals, estates, etc. where several properties might have the exact same comps to work with.

The only place I could think of where more than one per day was possible, would be a compact urban-suburban area with a very good MLS. Then perhaps you could inspect 3 or 4 in the morning and finish by the end of day two. After all, you still have CE to take, paperwork like E & O, buying office supplies, etc. to deal with - just everyday stuff everyone has to deal with.

 

[JTip]

The forum can be st

The forum can be strange sometimes.

If one does 7-10 assignments per week, they must be cutting corners or are form fillers, number hitters...
How many can one complete on a weekend? 2? 3?
You must get pretty stiff fees to make 60-80K on the weekends appraising and that is picking the easy ones?
If that's the case why be part time? Do a 4th one and make 100K

I have a FT job.

My PT job consists of 6-8 clients that provide me with a mixture of portfolio 2055, purchase/refi, relocations, and private assignments. I like easy ones but will take the tough ones and charge for it. I NEVER decline unless I'm not competent, and will quote everything that I am. If I don't get the tough one, there will be another easy one in the pipeline. It's important that I stay within my preferred radius of coverage. I don't drive 100k miles a year, but will travel for an assignment if the fee is right and I have the time.

I can dedicate 1-2 hours per weekday evening and usually 4 hours (morning) on Sat/Sun. That's a dozen production hours available. Do I work every evening and every weekend? No. Today (after typing all this) I will work on two reports (inspected last week, comp photos secured) while the sun dries the dew off the grass. Two hour sesh cutting grass on the zero, shower, another hour or so on the reports. One is due Tue, the other Thur, I will have them both done tomorrow after dinner. Mon/Wed inspection and a quote pending on a rural acreage new construction that is a 4 digit fee. The lady said "thank you for answering your phone". I will get this one too. Gonna be another good month.

If I do three random orders a week, that's $50k+ gross. Three orders will take three 1 hour weekday inspections. A weekend session will finish the reports.

Do a 4th one and make 100K

Once you hit that '4th' one, it begins to eat into you personal time. What's nice about the winter time, it gets dark at 5pm, no grass/yard maintenance, but in the spring/summer/fall, you need time to do things you need to do. I can comfortably do 3 a week, and coordinate reports to be completed by Mon/Tue, giving me time for a good look at it before submitting. New jobs get rolled to next week and so on.

This is the best PT job on the planet.

 

[Zoe]

I have a FT job.

My PT job consists of 6-8 clients that provide me with a mixture of portfolio 2055, purchase/refi, relocations, and private assignments. I like easy ones but will take the tough ones and charge for it. I NEVER decline unless I'm not competent, and will quote everything that I am. If I don't get the tough one, there will be another easy one in the pipeline. It's important that I stay within my preferred radius of coverage. I don't drive 100k miles a year, but will travel for an assignment if the fee is right and I have the time.

I can dedicate 1-2 hours per weekday evening and usually 4 hours (morning) on Sat/Sun. That's a dozen production hours available. Do I work every evening and every weekend? No. Today (after typing all this) I will work on two reports (inspected last week, comp photos secured) while the sun dries the dew off the grass. Two hour sesh cutting grass on the zero, shower, another hour or so on the reports. One is due Tue, the other Thur, I will have them both done tomorrow after dinner. Mon/Wed inspection and a quote pending on a rural acreage new construction that is a 4 digit fee. The lady said "thank you for answering your phone". I will get this one too. Gonna be another good month.

If I do three random orders a week, that's $50k+ gross. Three orders will take three 1 hour weekday inspections. A weekend session will finish the reports.

Once you hit that '4th' one, it begins to eat into you personal time. What's nice about the winter time, it gets dark at 5pm, no grass/yard maintenance, but in the spring/summer/fall, you need time to do things you need to do. I can comfortably do 3 a week, and coordinate reports to be completed by Mon/Tue, giving me time for a good look at it before submitting. New jobs get rolled to next week and so on.

This is the best PT job on the planet.

That is way VA is. They say you take the good with bad unless you get approval from lender and vet.

Notice borrower is in the picture.

 

[Alsie35]

The forum can be st

The forum can be strange sometimes.

If one does 7-10 assignments per week, they must be cutting corners or are form fillers, number hitters...
How many can one complete on a weekend? 2? 3?
You must get pretty stiff fees to make 60-80K on the weekends appraising and that is picking the easy ones?
If that's the case why be part time? Do a 4th one and make 100K

What a strange comment indeed. The most amazing thing to me on this forum - hands down - over the past 6 years is seeing how so many appraisers appear to show a lack of self-awareness and simply project their own anecdotal experiences on the rest of us.

 

[Joe Flacco]

I think one of the main things residential appraisers don't understand is that the revenue is not your income. Just bad business people in general. And if your wife and son are driving you around and setting up your reports, while you type reports in the car, then the revenue and income is divided by three people.