Adjustments on the Trainee Test

[ghostrider]

I took the test on RE App Trainee Test Friday & I have to disagree the way the questions where asked when it came to adjustments on the houses. IE Lake view , Garage, Bathrooms. The other part was
Depreciation. Maybe some has better examples for me too learn from. The book that I have is old & just ok. Any Free websites would be great. I spent enough money on the test & Everything else.

 

[Marcia Langley]

ghost,

I'm not in California so I can't help with anything specific to your state.

But I don't know of any free training materials for appraisers. Your supervisor should have materials and should be guiding your education.

It sounds like you have not taken the basic pre-license classes, yet. You will get lots of information when you do that.

If the only comparison you have to the test questions (that you disagree with) is what your supervisor is telling you to do, then don't discount the possibility that you simply don't understand it well enough, yet or that your supervisor may be doing it wrong.

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Some things you can do on your own are to get your own copy of USPAP (it is available free on line, you can print it out) and study it in depth.

Also, the Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and FHA guidelines are available free on line. If you are learning to do appraisals for residential lending, those are extremely important.

None of these resources will tell you specifically how to extract credible adjustments from the market data. Your supervisor and your formal classes will teach you that.

 

[SMF]

Ghost,

You don't have to agree with the way the questions are asked, but you do have to know the answers to them. The test was specifically developed to make sure appraisers and trainees are not appraising without understanding how to appraise.

 

[Mike Phillips]

I've never seen a test on adjustments that required a judgement call on the part of the test taker.

Usually, it just requires finding an initial pair of sales that differ in only one characteristic. Pair those two, and you know the value of a particular property characteristic. Plug the value of the characteristic in (adjust each comparable to the subject) and look for another pair that only differs in one characteristic. Continue until all the comparables indicate the same value. They have to indicate the same value unless judgement is required.

There is no way it can get complicated unless percentage adjustments are being made which would require using the proper sequence of adjustments.

 

[fishdat]

give us an example question that you saw on the test.

 

[Smokey Bear]

I saw a really dumb on on the CA test (pre 2008) where they provided info on comps with and without pools, and wanted us to adjust, but never said whether the subject had a pool. Really dumb question. :-(

 

[Martyn Holgate]

That's right Smokey, I remember that question and trying to find the trick to it. I read it three times and decided someone was goofing around, there was no good answer to that question!