Am I being trained properly?

[MrX]

First off the only one looking out for you is you (aside for maybe some close family or friends). It sounds like you are doing work to educate yourself which is a good thing. I'm not sure the third party software is great, although I'm not sure what software you are referring to. My first "mentor" basically threw me to the wolves and I moved on after having basic experience to market myself for a better supervisor. If you can do that I would, otherwise get the experience you can and fill in the gaps by self teaching yourself using the resources available.

This is starting to sound like the most common reply, and I appreciate it.

An add on question to filling in the gaps is understanding what is considered defensible to lenders/FHA/Florida Real Estate Board. That may vary by assignment or client, but say, in the case of paired sales, does one pair cut it (if you can even find it) when it might be from two years ago (timing particularly applicable now)? Or is it just a case of do the best of what's available and if more is available, use more within a reasonable time commitment?

 

[MrX]

Both great books. The David Braun book may be hard to find, but that is one you really should get. It provides the fundamentals for understanding regression analysis, which is what I think you need as a goal!

I was able to find the David Braun book on Amazon.

Thank you very much.

 

[Elliott]

https://www.solomonappraisalllc.com/downloads/SolomonUserManual.pdf

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

his short-hand heuristic approaches are (i.e. adjust X% of cost, flat dollar amounts for various physical features, etc.) that don't deviate much by neighborhood/price point nor are they backed up with much, if anything in the workfile. I have tried to incorporate data analysis with the use of third party adjustment software, but he is distrustful and regularly dismisses the data.

Keep what you have in file, but if doing a percent of cost he's really doing lousy work. Learn sensitivity analysis - Ratterman's book explains it. Use land sales to support your site values. "Site Value"= bare land value+value of site improvements (utilities, landscaping, curbing, i.e.-a developed site). Do NOT use allocation as a "land method" nor use the assessor's values.
Buy direct from the Appraisal Institute - used on Amazon is double that

 

[Tom D]

spark's new adjustment program covers a lot of bases. you get to pick the adjustments that seem supportable. nothing is perfect, but something in your work file is better than the answer 'i don't know how i got that' like most programs there is a big learning curve at the beginning, but pretty much faster as you learn how those programs learn.
if you ever sold real estate you would see that buyer's don't use adjustments the way we do. with them it's emotions with hot buttons. but that being said there probable is a group thinking adjustment for any item. we just seem to have to be a little more precise in how, than just saying i bought the view.
also, as stated by the people who can hang you, better no adjustment if you can't support it. you just say that.

 

[George Hatch]

From your description it appears you're currently engaged in appraising residential. If so, those markets really do function differently (in some respects) than what you've seen in the non-residential property types. The clients and users have different expectations, the buyers and sellers are operating at a completely different level of sophistication and more significantly than that, residential properties serve different needs than non-res properties. People get emotionally involved with their homes and wrap them into their personal identities. Nobody scores points in the informal discussions after the PTA meeting about that concrete industrial building they own, but they do get points for the car they drive and the home they live in and the schools their kids attend. If you know what I mean.

Brokers appeal to those motivations in their advertising "A house is more than a house, it's a home" and such. And that's a completely legitimate position for them to take given their role in selling these properties and given the emotional needs these properties (also) fill in addition to their respective utility.

My point is that SFR appraisal is a highly specialized niche that has its own challenges that you do not want to discount. Your current supervisor may be oriented to the mechanics of producing these appraisal reports in a timely and efficient manner that will hopefully minimize the number of stips or requests to rework from the users. That is a necessary step in the learning process that you can't skip, whereas some of the "extras" beyond that stage can be glossed over as far as many of the clients and users are concerned.


I think the main thing appraisers don't want to lose sight of is that it usually doesn't pay to try to get too far out ahead of the techniques the market participants are using in their own decision making. What's appropriate for the 6-story office building might be gross overkill for the 1200sf tract home. Let the data speak, up to and including acknowledgement of the imperfections and inefficiencies in that data.

 

[MrX]

get to pick the adjustments that seem supportable. nothing is perfect, but something in your work file is better than the answer 'i d

Keep what you have in file, but if doing a percent of cost he's really doing lousy work. Learn sensitivity analysis - Ratterman's book explains it. Use land sales to support your site values. "Site Value"= bare land value+value of site improvements (utilities, landscaping, curbing, i.e.-a developed site). Do NOT use allocation as a "land method" nor use the assessor's values.
Buy direct from the Appraisal Institute - used on Amazon is double that
View attachment 60274

I will check this out. In my area sales are typically long gone, at least ones that are comparable, so site extraction has been a method I've tried to incorporate. I have software that helps me do this, to the chagrin of my supervisor. He gives a lot of credence to assessor values, which I also find highly suspicious given my past work appealing ad valorem assessments.

 

[MrX]

From your description it appears you're currently engaged in appraising residential. If so, those markets really do function differently (in some respects) than what you've seen in the non-residential property types. The clients and users have different expectations, the buyers and sellers are operating at a completely different level of sophistication and more significantly than that, residential properties serve different needs than non-res properties. People get emotionally involved with their homes and wrap them into their personal identities. Nobody scores points in the informal discussions after the PTA meeting about that concrete industrial building they own, but they do get points for the car they drive and the home they live in and the schools their kids attend. If you know what I mean.

Brokers appeal to those motivations in their advertising "A house is more than a house, it's a home" and such. And that's a completely legitimate position for them to take given their role in selling these properties and given the emotional needs these properties (also) fill in addition to their respective utility.

My point is that SFR appraisal is a highly specialized niche that has its own challenges that you do not want to discount. Your current supervisor may be oriented to the mechanics of producing these appraisal reports in a timely and efficient manner that will hopefully minimize the number of stips or requests to rework from the users. That is a necessary step in the learning process that you can't skip, whereas some of the "extras" beyond that stage can be glossed over as far as many of the clients and users are concerned.


I think the main thing appraisers don't want to lose sight of is that it usually doesn't pay to try to get too far out ahead of the techniques the market participants are using in their own decision making. What's appropriate for the 6-story office building might be gross overkill for the 1200sf tract home. Let the data speak, up to and including acknowledgement of the imperfections and inefficiencies in that data.

This makes sense to me, especially after having been in the commercial arena. That was in a way more intuitive for me because the investors were generally concerned with a similar goal - maximizing return.

Residential is harder in that respect, for me at least. I know there is some art to it. What I am being taught right now is, say you have an outdoor feature like a screened-in lanai. Maybe a comp or two have similar lanais that are unscreened. If we think we know the contributory value of the screened-in lanai, any adjustment for there not being a screen is more of small walk-back from the full screened-in lanai (depending on size, condition, quality). I would admit trying to find paired sales on a minor deviation (like a screen v. no screen) is probably not something I would agonize over.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

He gives a lot of credence to assessor values,

He will get over that the first trip to the state board he makes. It is a very common sanction and if they review your work to get licensed, you will suffer the same fate. Show your work. Go to whatever lengths necessary to find land sales or 'tear downs" (excellent comps for land value)

 

[George Hatch]

With non-res properties it generally comes down to dollars and cents, not feelings. There are a relatively few "vanity" properties which will be the exception to the rule, but aside from that a storefront or a warehouse or a piece of land otherwise has to pull it's own weight. On the other hand, whether the floorplan of a home has a reasonable flow (public zone on one side, private zone of the other) or the appeal of the design or the right location - those are often deal breakers for many buyers if a property has a problem there.

They stage some homes in order to maximize their marketing. They don't do that with retail buildings or multi-family. These are important considerations and it takes a lot of exposure to a lot of different examples to build the judgement it takes to connect some of these dots. For the most part, the data you're using isn't going to be that well refined until the appraiser refines it. Data qualification is even more crucial when appraising homes than when appraising most other property types. Many, many details.

I daresay the extent to which you refine and qualify your data is more crucial to the result than the mode of analysis that you use for comparison. If all your comps were the same in every way then a blindfolded monkey with a dartboard could get to a reasonable value conclusion.