American Appraiser Returning Home - Where is there volume?

[Joe Flacco]

Oregon, Colorado, and Washington State are your best bets. They have the highest fees by far.

 

[DWiley]

Hi everyone,

I'm an American who has spent the past 14 years living and working as a residential appraiser in Canada. I hold the CRA designation through the Appraisal Institute of Canada, with experience focused on residential 1–4 unit properties, including standard residential and a fair amount of rural and non-standard work — outbuildings, properties without close comparables.

I'm planning my return to the US and want to get licensed and working here. I'm not locked into a particular state, which is actually the question I'm hoping the forum can help me answer.

I've done some research on where appraiser supply is thinnest — North Dakota, South Dakota, rural South Carolina, parts of Oregon and Idaho keep coming up. But data only tells part of the story. What I'd really like to hear from practitioners on the ground is:

Where are you actually turning work away, or seeing turnaround times stretch out?

Are there markets where lenders are regularly struggling to find coverage, not just complaining about AMC fees?


I'm not interested in dropping into a saturated metro market. My experience is in rural and semi-rural residential work, and that's where I'd want to build a practice. Happy to cover territory.

Appreciate any insights — this forum has been one of the best resources I've found for getting past the headline numbers and into what's actually happening on the ground.

Thanks in advance.

LK

You might be interested in this, especially page 3

https://sf.freddiemac.com/docs/pdf/report/appraiser_capacity.pdf

 

[glenn walker]

Alaska.

 

[James Micozzi]

*SIGH* Reading Comprehension has always been in short supply around here ....



View attachment 111235

so you are just pulling numbers out of your ***. got it.

 

[lmketch]

You might be interested in this, especially page 3

https://sf.freddiemac.com/docs/pdf/report/appraiser_capacity.pdf

Very helpful thank you

 

[Alsie35]

so you are just pulling numbers out of your ***. got it.

 

[Zoe]

If you are focusing on rural/suburban, you might look at like loan volumn and sales in local areas where you might want to move. You could look at building permits and sales in particular area. You could look at mortgage volume in a particular area.

You focusing on rural/suburban will help you. Rural is not fun in Tennessee and much of Tennessee is rural.

 

[Zoe]

Check out the various areas in the country were the VA is adding to the panel, that will show you were the shortages are

Yeah, he or she can pick up phone and call them and they will tell him if they need an appraiser in that area. They will also post online too. If they need one in that area, it probably wouldn't take long to start getting assignments.

Depending on the volume in that area and working suburban/rural, other clients would fit in.

 

[Zoe]

You might be interested in this, especially page 3

https://sf.freddiemac.com/docs/pdf/report/appraiser_capacity.pdf

You can't trust that totally because there is huge variations in locations by State and especially if the appraiser is wanting to focus on rural/suburban.

I do good to cover one county and they load my plate on urban/suburban/rural. There are like 7 different jurisdictions in the County. He don't want Shelby County Tennessee. Nashville would probably be good. Knoxville too. Several towns in Tennessee that have much rural/suburban.

 

[Zoe]

I have one now set up for monday and guy is getting 1% lower interest rate than 1 year ago. He is just doing no cash out refi. It is also $750,000+

appraisal. 1% interest rate on $750K is a bunch of interest savings. Subject is Urban to the hilt.