AQB Update On Proposed Changes To Appraiser Qualifications

[timd354]

I agree that the weak/corrupt supervisors are and always have been Problem #1. Trainee qualifications cannot touch that problem.

The problem is that I am unaware of any good and workable solution to address the issue of weak/corrupt supervisors

 

[Joe Flacco]

It already is changing the residential side of business, just as predicted, for a plethora of reasons. The hot topic now deals with AMCs complaining about shortages. The supply of cheap labor has been cut off due to the current requirements.

It is pretty crazy to me that AMC's see higher fees as a crisis. I saw a fee schedule someone posted for servicelink and in the pot states it looked like the fees they are charging is between $900 and $2,000+ depending on the tier. That is opportunity, not a crisis.

 

[Joe Flacco]

You realize the large shop model is exactly what Forsythe does, right?

I don't know anything about them. They operate local offices with staff all working in house and supervised?

 

[timd354]

Yeah. But then a practicum course instead of experience with the current structure is even worse. You can't just have somebody pass a practicum course and then leave them unsupervised to work at home. That would be a disaster.

That all depends on how comprehensive and tough the practicum course training and examination requirements are. If the courses are comprehensive enough and the examinations are difficult enough to pass so that only people who are very competent and intelligent can pass the exams and practicum, then I don't see how this could be any worse then the current system of mentoring, especially since many of the current mentors are horrible by your own admission. In fact, there is an argument to be made that since the practicum course would not involve using the trainee as a profit center and will not be pass on the really bad and questionable habits of these often horrible current mentors, the practicum course method of training may turn out to be more effective in producing competent residential appraisers than the current mentor system.

 

[Joe Flacco]

That all depends on how comprehensive and tough the practicum course training and examination requirements are. If the courses are comprehensive enough and the examinations are difficult enough to pass so that only people who are very competent and intelligent can pass the exams and practicum, then I don't see how this could be any worse then the current system of mentoring, especially since many of the current mentors are horrible by your own admission. In fact, there is an argument to be made that since the practicum course would not involve using the trainee as a profit center and will not be pass on the really bad and questionable habits of these often horrible current mentors, the practicum course method of training may turn out to be more effective in producing competent residential appraisers than the current mentor system.

I think it is impossible for any national course type of program can prepare someone to handle local things. Even basic things like where to find certain info and how to interpret some of the data. I cover 3 or 4 counties and the way I get certain info and how I interpret the data is different in each county. Like one county uses ANSI. Another county doesn't. One county sometimes notes finished attic space separately sometimes and sometimes it doesn't. The list goes on and on. Local training is necessary.

 

[gregb]

I don't think there is a magic number of trainees to mentors. Have seen various trainee mentor situations over the years, 3 CG's training 6 appraisers, 1 CG training two trainees etc. Outcome varied based on either the mentors, the trainees or both. In most states, the current residential and possibly commercial fee structure does not support the traditional fee split model between mentor/trainee.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

when a college degree already did that?

does it really?

 

[Non Sequitur]

It already is changing the residential side of business, just as predicted, for a plethora of reasons. The hot topic now deals with AMCs complaining about shortages. The supply of cheap labor has been cut off due to the current requirements.

So AMC fees, run away SOW, ridiculous turn times, etc. aren't the problem? You can't have it both ways.

 

[Eli]

It already is changing the residential side of business, just as predicted, for a plethora of reasons. The hot topic now deals with AMCs complaining about shortages. The supply of cheap labor has been cut off due to the current requirements.

And look at the flip side. Profit margins have shrunk drastically more than fees have increased as a result of increased labor costs (time) and increases in other operating expenses.

As a result, $1 in gross revenue as an independent appraiser does not result in near as much profit margin as it did in 2005. The biggest increase in operating costs has been labor.

That tells you the impact of an oligopsony on price alone. LA is not done. I promise you.

 

[George Hatch]

The problem is that I am unaware of any good and workable solution to address the issue of weak/corrupt supervisors

The supervisors sign every single report their trainees participate in, and are 100% responsible for the content.

In our state the trainees have to submit a log of experience that includes a reference to every report they're claiming towards their experience requirements. Each of those reports is subject to the State's review. At random. It seems apparent that a state could schedule appointments for a supervisor whose trainee who is, say, 1/2 way through their experience cycle, to cart copies of every workfile that appears so far in their log and the state's reviewer could select a couple at random to check them for content. The trainee can pay for this review. The "halfway point" review could provide the state with an opportunity to spot report writing and development issues and point the supervisor in the right direction to remediate them. And clean up their own act in the process.

A Forsythe supervisor could make a day of it. Most other supervisors would be in and out in an hour or two, because a review for reporting and development issues can go pretty quickly.