A college degree tune up?

[Dale Smalley]

A college degree is a total waste of time for a residential appraiser. Hard work and preservance is the only thing you need to suceed here. The pay scale is too low for a college grad to enter the field. Plus a degree will not ensure any amount of sucess.

 

[Larry Lyke]

Dale --

A college degree is never a waste of time for a residential appraiser, I say. Work isn't everything; enjoying life is at least 90% of a contented life.

Hard work and perseverance are what you need to succeed.

The pay scale is pretty commensurate with a college grad entering the field who quite naturally has to do her apprenticeship for another two years. I don't see many college grads earning $70,000 in their 3rd year in business. Most are in the $50,000 to $75,000 range.

However, I do recommend a college grad thinking of entering this field, to do two years in a more structured field (academe, if they can afford tocontinue) wherein the graduate years might be more meaningful in terms of learning satisfaction and possible income generation.

I would not expect that a progressive college grad would be pounding the appraisal field trail everyday, but instead, would be drumming up more business and managing same. Sales is where the money is, not so much in actually producing the product. The "grad" can go out frequently with the "workers" and obtain the full basics from her "betters" in the appraisal trenches.

I've never had to grovel for business, so I may be biased. Instead of rejecting the need to sell a client, I enjoy it. And always act promptly to keep a client in the fold (notice I didn'tsay happy; there is a difference) when I see something going awry.

 

[Caterina Platt]

Mike,

If real practicing appraisers with common sense are not allowed to teach these courses, in my opinion, it would become a farse. I would hope there would be a way to allow the true experts in our field such as yourself to become instructors. Econ, Statistics, Bus. Law and such, OK fine, give me a professor. Appraisal practice and theory- no one who isn't in the field should have any business teaching these courses.

 

[Dale Smalley]

Larry

I am sure it is fine to have earned a degree, but it not necessary and should not be to enter this field. I have taken classes athe local real estate trade school and at the local community college. The trade school was far superior in the training and preperation for the exams. The community college instructor was so bad that I went back to my AB 1 and 2 materials and books from Gold Coast to pass my certification test.

Are they thinking of replacing the 2 years of field work with 2-4 years of course work? If you earn a degree in appraising or Real estate will you get a license without having to do any field work. As we all know the course work is very different than what actually happens to produce appraisal reports. Does anyone make an adjustment for the southen exposure?

And yes Larry you are lucky I and most others did have to grovel to get into the biz. Lets add goveling 101 to the requirements.

 

[Randy Beigh]

In some ways, this discussion is incomplete.

Getting a college degree is not needed to be a good appraiser. But, beyond that, there are few universities that offer degrees in real estate or fields that would be useful for becoming an appraiser. A degree in liberal arts, biology, or basketweaving serve absolutely nothing to improving the quality of the appraisal field.

If the appraisal organizations were to work with universities to provide higher education and improve the education for appraisers, then I would be more likely to be on board.

Appraisers need to improve in mathematics, computer sciences, and statistics. Appraising is going to change in the coming years heading in areas such as regression analysis and AVM's and most of us don't even have a basic understanding of such areas.

The bar does indeed need to be raised. But, it needs to be raised in such a fashion as to have positive effect on the future appraisers. Raising the bar just to say we are raising the bar serves nothing and no one.

 

[Larry Lyke]

I don't want to leave the impression that I think having a college degree ought to be the prerequisite to become a residential real estate appraiser. I don't.

Proficiency in any trade (profession?) is usually obtained in several ways -- never just one way. Part of the difficulty in bringing the whole balliwick of residential appraising together is that nobody's really leading the parade.

We would benefit greatly from ONE collective (read proletarian organization) with reasonable dues, strict courses of study, leadership and membership requirements. This has been so for many years because there's a group that insists on having a class system.

But that house of cards has collapsed. Licensing has had ramifications that the effete elite leadership of appraising could not have foreseen.

I didn't say I had any answers, just the mouth to blow hard a little bit.