Appraisal Institute Last-minute Shakeup

[Non Sequitur]

The 2024 filing dated 11/17/25:

Appraisal Institute, Full Filing - Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica

Since 2013, the IRS has released data culled from millions of nonprofit tax filings. Use this database to find organizations and see details like their executive compensation, revenue and expenses, as well as download tax filings going back as far as 2001.

projects.propublica.org

 

[Sadie]

I think all large appraisal organizations are doing that same thing. Fewer members is going to show up in the numbers at some point.

Fewer appraisers all around for all entities relying on appraisers for funding. The state boards that are wholly funded by appraisers are hurting as our numbers decline. Same with the organizations, although they are able to keep the retired ones.

 

[Non Sequitur]

Another “Special Board Meeting” and another significant decision made without transparency or any membership input. The interim CEO is now the "officially appointed" CEO. Never mind that the last public comments indicated the position would likely be eliminated. Same old same old at the insta-toot.

 

[TerryRohrer]

Another “Special Board Meeting” and another significant decision made without transparency or any membership input. The interim CEO is now the officially appointed CEO. Never mind that the last public comments indicated the position would likely be eliminated. Same old same old at the insta-toot.

Well, they certainly pay themselves well for part-time jobs, then spend lavishly on "consultants" to to the actual work. No wonder those gigs are hotly contested and likely "purchased", either under the table, or on it, in the case of Steinley!

 

[RCA]

If you ask me, the Appraisal Institute and other appraisal organizations don't make a lot of sense:

1. The world is changing hyper fast. Part of that change is increasing complexity, laws, regulations, software, AI, robotics, and automated machinery. The people at the AI, - and unfortunately I can say the mass of appraisers in general, do not provide a pool of qualified personal to deal with what needs to be dealt with. As a group, they are lacking in skills and expertise.

2. Appraisal is also tightly linked to laws and regulations. A large part of the problem is that the people and organizations (e.g. TAF) are not adequately adapting laws and regulations, e.g. USPAP, to the changing requirements of the economy and infrastructure. And that has a ripple effect through everything else.

I think that conceptually TAF is needed to integrate political requirements to existing laws and regulations - but is currently completely inadequate for the job. And, it's greatest excuse is unfortunately the lack of competence among appraisers.

The whole appraisal system has to be replaced with a new effective system of appraisal that is based largely on AI (notwithstanding they will still need skilled appraisers as managers of AI and robotic systems), and once that has occurred, - tossed in the Trash bin.

Well, set back and see what happens!

In the meantime, to get what available work there is, some will be advised to get expensive designations, as stupid as they are. Appraisal Fees will continue - which require expensive courses that are largely misguided.

I would argue, that lenders and GSEs will come to trust the more technically advanced appraisers over designations. Skill Sets will become more important. In the RCA Appraisal software system I have, I will probably have dropdowns for designations, allowing 3 max, Another drop down for Skills that is quite large and asks the Admin to rank appraisers skill 0-10 for Operating Systems (Linux, macOS, Windows), DataBases(PostgreSQL, SQLite, MS SQL, ...), Languages(R,Python,Prolog,C,C++,C#,Angular/Typescript, HTML, CSS, Javascript, Shell Script (Bash, Zsh, ...), IDEs (VS_Code, JetBrains, ...),AI Coding (Claude-Code, ...), Git, ..., Photography by Camera, Drone License and experience - and so on; And last but not least their skill in handling the 3 approaches to value and understanding the various levels or regulations and compliance.

Online randomized tests, ala the old BrainBench system can be designed to test proficiency in all of these skills. As with what happened to BrainBench, these online tests will eventually evolve into proctored tests, with probably good old "certifications" or "designations". But it's not that simple. A multitude of individual skills will be needed by future top appraisers. A good balance is needed in skill sets. Getting a good balance of the most popular and used skills at the beginning of a careers is highly important. However, with experience, the appraiser will naturally expand his set of skills; some will fall out of use with time and be largely forgotten, new ones learned.

...

 

[Red Flint]

I doubt if I am going to make it through 2026 without more efficient memory stack pointers.

 

[RCA]

I doubt if I am going to make it through 2026 without more efficient memory stack pointers.

Well, you may not want to spend the money, but I am very happy with my Mac Studio M2 Ultra I bought in 2023. So are most users (although now the latest version is M3 Ultra). In my case (may not apply to you), I would get it with 2Tb internal instead of 1Tb internal, because some things have to go on the internal drive. You can spend time to go in and and trash old caches and trash files, but it's a little time consuming from time to time, but I get by. I have 64G of memory and I only max out on that if I am doings some gigantic complex join on say all the houses in a county, or doing neural networks. Still building my system is at times a bit slow and I plan on buying the new M5 Ultra when it comes out (I guess this year) and will probably get that with 96-256G of RAM).

It's mostly the Unified Memory unique to Apple, the large bandwidth, plus silent operation and low power consumption that makes it competitive when it comes to AI. Well, that's on the hardware side. Also, a lot of MacOS software is very good and solid. Oh, and never forget their Time Machine, which is always saving the day for me when Claude Code (the Genuis/Idiot) suggests deleting some enormous data base I have with all the MLS data from counties around the SF Bay Area, - or some folder with Terabytes of data - or something else. I have to baby it like a child, scold it like child, and put guardrails around it. Yet, it will still manage to delete something important if I drop my guard for a second and the click approval without closely reading what it intends to do. And it can never be counted on to remember the right way to do something, without forcing it to keep written notes in Markdown files, and then crossing your fingers that it has reread the Markdown notes and not compressed them out of existence. Still it's smooth operation for me. Much better than the crashing Windows system.

I also use Synology 100Tb drive for large downloads, such as MLS photos. MLS Photos - if you are collecting MLS data for multiple counties in California going back 25 years, we are talking many Terabytes - then you will want a backup. Also, of course I have MLS property data for a number of very large counties in PostgreSQL/PostGIS databases. PostgreSQL is free of course. And with PostGIS - nothing can touch it. And I download from PostgreSQL to SQLite to create multiple snapshots for each project/appraisal. I have a number of high speed SSDs connecting over Thunderbolt 4, plus some cheaper Terrabyte hard drives. The main Apple Apps I use are: Finder, ForkLift,DaisyDisk,CleanMyMac,Obsidian,Proton Mail, Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft VS Code, Microsoft 365 Office, Libre Office, DBeaver, DB Browser for SQLite, QGIS, OrbStack, Postico 2, Micro (text editor), Terminal,RStudio, R, Claude Code, ChatGPT, Grok, Little Snitch, Repo Prompt, Photo Mechanic, Neo Finder, ....

Note: If you are considering migrating from MS SQL Server to PostgreSQL, you really need to move from Pascal Case (BestBuy) to Snake Case (best_buy). The other option is embedding all table and column names in quotes ("BestBuy") - which is not worth the trouble. Take my word, Snake Case in the long run, is the way to go.

And when the day comes that I get my new Mac Studio M5 Ultra, you can be sure I will split Docker containers between the two machines and then manage them with Kubernetes.

 

[chad hampton]

We currently have Uber drivers and other various types of individuals walking off the street and being given appraisal licenses. AQB is about to eliminate any degree requirement qualification altogether because their pay masters told them to. I think we’re a pretty long way off from needing a masters degree in computer science to appraise real estate like RCA seems to suggest.

You’d think there would be a middle ground somewhere out there?

 

[Non Sequitur]

Posted to LinkedIn this morning (bolding mine):

Yesterday I published "Reconsideration of Value: Minnesota," an analysis of how external obsolescence operates at the state level when historical destruction, civil rights crises, and federal-state conflict compound across decades.
The response has been overwhelming. Over 600 engagements in 24 hours.
But as I reviewed the evidence, one connection kept surfacing that I want to address directly.
Byron Miller is from Minnesota.
Five months ago, I wrote about the Appraisal Institute's rejection of Byron Miller, SRA, AI-RRS, for the 2026 Vice President nomination. That piece received over 5,000 impressions. The question I raised then: Why would an organization reject a clearly qualified candidate unless the same bias that affects property valuation also affects how we value professional leadership?
Now I'm asking a harder question.
Is Byron Miller a victim of compound external obsolescence?

 

[Francois K. Gregoire]

Posted to LinkedIn this morning (bolding mine):

Yesterday I published "Reconsideration of Value: Minnesota," an analysis of how external obsolescence operates at the state level when historical destruction, civil rights crises, and federal-state conflict compound across decades.
The response has been overwhelming. Over 600 engagements in 24 hours.
But as I reviewed the evidence, one connection kept surfacing that I want to address directly.
Byron Miller is from Minnesota.
Five months ago, I wrote about the Appraisal Institute's rejection of Byron Miller, SRA, AI-RRS, for the 2026 Vice President nomination. That piece received over 5,000 impressions. The question I raised then: Why would an organization reject a clearly qualified candidate unless the same bias that affects property valuation also affects how we value professional leadership?
Now I'm asking a harder question.
Is Byron Miller a victim of compound external obsolescence?View attachment 106684

They're so biased the AI elected Smedmore Bernard, Jr., MAI as 2026 Vice President.
Smedmore Bernard