A Letter From The Appraisal Institute

[cpursley]

RIMS

Always thought that and Xsites sounded like adult domains. Gotta love the software products still kickin' that were named back in the 1990s.

 

[Non Sequitur]

Actually, I believe the board meetings are now open.

A little bit of an update. The promised link to the board's report to membership never materialized. But breaking news: Per the AI President "Last week, at our regular Q1 Board meeting, two motions were presented related to Bylaw changes and open meetings, addressing open, closed and executive sessions of the Board. The makers of the two motions agreed to work together and bring one motion to the Board in May to ensure there are no inconsistencies. If an agreement isn’t reached, the original motion relating to open meetings will be on the May agenda for discussion and vote."

So there you have it. A non-profit trade organization might vote to have open meetings in May. Anyone want to bet on the outcome?

 

[Non Sequitur]

The idea of AI (Appraisal Institute) creating anything useful with AI (artificial intelligence) is truly hilarious.

Short but interesting take on artificial intelligence and the appraisal profession.

The Future of Appraisal: Smarter, Faster, and Still Human

The Future of Appraisal: Smarter, Faster, and Still HumanFor years, the appraisal industry has been buzzing about artificial intelligence (AI). Will it replace appraisers? Will reports basically write themselves? Will we all be out of a job? Spoiler alert: No—at least not those willing to adapt...

www.ektimoadvisors.com

 

[Carrie Vann]

The idea of this benefit came from Designated Members after the launch of the AI review designations in 2014, when Designated Members were having their reports screened for the new designations during the experience component of the designation process. Many members said that the process (of independent feedback) would be an excellent benefit for members who haven’t had an independent review of their work in some time.

We have always had this free advisory guidance process in place for Candidates seeking feedback prior to their experience submissions for the designation process.

Designated Members came together to discuss how this would work for Designated Members (versus Candidates), and a process was created in 2023 and beta tested with several Designated Members, tweaked, and then launched exclusively for SRA Designated Members (in low density markets) in late 2024. We have expanded our outreach in early 2025.

It provides a unique educational opportunity to enhance future appraisal reports. Designated members may submit an eligible appraisal report for independent advisory guidance from a fellow Designated member who has knowledge and background in evaluating appraisal reports. The Designated Member counselor will schedule a one-on-one virtual interview to verbally provide educational and constructive feedback during the session. This guidance will be verbal only and will be kept confidential by both the member and the counselor.

Checklist for Eligible Submissions and Program Guidelines

• The report submitted is a final report accepted by the client that is at least six months past the date of the report.
• The report is not subject to any pending litigation or subject to investigation by a third party.
• If the report submitted is not eligible, an opportunity to submit another report will be provided.
• A Designated Member is eligible for one counseling session per year.
• Revisions to the submitted report based on the advisory guidance session are strictly prohibited.
• Providing the submitted report to a client following the advisory guidance is strictly prohibited.
• Minimum standards and best practice techniques will be addressed in the session.
• No opinion of value will be offered, nor will this guidance be a Standards compliant review.
• The advisory guidance session will be kept confidential by both the Counselor and Designated Member.

Work performed by all Designated Members is subject to:

Regulation No. 6, Peer Review

Code of Professional Ethics

Standards of Professional Practice

This was created by Designated Members as a benefit to Designated Members. We are not using artificial intelligence for any of our membership processes, nor do we collect this data for any other services except member guidance. We’ve worked very hard, with members, for many years to bring this benefit to members.

We are not using artificial intelligence for any of our membership processes. All our screening processes for the designation process and our counseling process for this new benefit is handled by real live human beings and are Designated Members of the Appraisal Institute who wish to provide a service to our Members and assist individuals with improving their work product. This will help maintain a higher standard of quality of our members valuation work, which ultimately will help maintain the overall value of our designations in the marketplace within this highly competitive environment.

If you would like more information on a Designated Member who is very familiar with this process, you may contact:

Gilbert A. Valdez, MAI, SRA, AI-GRS, AI-RRS
gvaldez@appraisalinstitute.org
(312) 335-4145

Thank you,
Carrie Vann
Appraisal Institute
Director, Membership

 

[George Hatch]

Good explanation. They're aiming at improving the actual level of play.

 

[Non Sequitur]

We have always had this free advisory guidance process in place for Candidates seeking feedback prior to their experience submissions for the designation process.

I'm a candidate, this has NEVER been offered. NEVER.

 

[RCA]

As already posted, they are most likely looking for relatively good reports to train their LLM on. Now, of course, they already have some SRA reports likely in their archives, but there may be legal issues with accessing those reports. And as I said, it is not likely that anyone is going to be doing this work, without getting something in return. -> Common Sense.

I got a call a couple of days ago from the Appraisal Institute in Chicago that they heard about my above comments and that it wasn't correct that they were using AI to review papers. Well, per the above, I didn't say they were, I just said what I said: "..., but I imagine they (the AI) are getting excited about using AI to review appraisals" or in any case my statements were in my opinion issues of probability.

Anyway I told her that doing appraisal reviews takes a considerable amount of time and common sense would be that they are somehow getting something in return for all the work this would entail. I further asked her why they were doing these reviews. She told me they were not using AI to review the appraisals, nor were they using the submitted appraisals to train AI systems. She also added that their reviewers are doing this in their paid time. As to what's going on exactly, I will leave that to your judgment, or imagination. It could be that they just have less work for existing employees and are using this as they call it "new member benefit" to keep existing employees occupied rather than firing them.

But then they have had all of these conferences about using AI to save time and reduce expenses, so why wouldn't someone assume they are taking their own advice?

 

[Carrie Vann]

I'm a candidate, this has NEVER been offered. NEVER.

If you are a Candidate, then I recommend you login to your Candidate for Designation checklist in your AI account and review one of the three documents linked there for your designation path called Experience Credit Candidate Guidebook and turn to page 19. This has been in place since 1991 when Appraisal Institute came to be. It is also documented, since 1991, in Regulations No. 1 and Regulation No. 2 and since 2014 in Regulation No. 3 for review designations. https://www.appraisalinstitute.org/about/AI-bylaws-and-regulations

 

[Non Sequitur]

If you are a Candidate, then I recommend you login to your Candidate for Designation checklist in your AI account and review one of the three documents linked there for your designation path called Experience Credit Candidate Guidebook and turn to page 19. This has been in place since 1991 when Appraisal Institute came to be. It is also documented, since 1991, in Regulations No. 1 and Regulation No. 2 and since 2014 in Regulation No. 3 for review designations. https://www.appraisalinstitute.org/about/AI-bylaws-and-regulations

Typical response from national; Send a link.

Makes me happy that my son is going to take Mckissock QE courses because the institute only sent a link to "What it means to be an appraiser" when asked about taking QE.

 

[cpursley]

AI education was fantastic but expensive. And they did absolutely nothing to help connect/place new graduates with employers - just threw you out on the street. Furthermore, their find an appraiser portal is not just bad, it's embarrassing. That said, lot of smart appraisers with MAIs/SRAs etc. They have several places where they need to improve before membership is worth the entry price.