Bank Of America Is Raising Its Minimum Wage For Employees To $20 An Hour

[Randolph Kinney]

In appraisal, we need or will need people with a lot of computer and math skills.

Sure, so each appraiser can write code or macros for excel to generate their own product that produces more competent analysis and presentation. Trouble is, you get the big corporations involved and they produce something that is dumbed down to the lowest common denominator so that clerks can be trained to check the boxes or automation can use the data and results.

 

[RCA]

Sure, so each appraiser can write code or macros for excel to generate their own product that produces more competent analysis and presentation. Trouble is, you get the big corporations involved and they produce something that is dumbed down to the lowest common denominator so that clerks can be trained to check the boxes or automation can use the data and results.

It's interesting though, one of the areas with the biggest demand right now is for people who can code excel spreadsheets. There is an unbelievable amount of Excel macro code witting by "non-programmers". I've seen some people that I have never thought could possibly work with computers, finally get convinced and pressured to write Excel Visual Basic macros. They do it, they gain confidence ... and well, actually, you can do a lot with that alone.

At CBRE there is a lot of that created by appraisers ... it just happens because they need to get things done yesterday and there is a big time lag getting some developer appropriated for the task and brought up to speed on the requirements. If there is one thing you should learn, it is Excel ... and how to do everything you can with it. It's like a gigantic bottleneck to a lot of systems. Everything seems to run through Excel at some point. It's like the common language. My MARS takes input from Excel, so does R, Excel is vital to reports and on and on.

--- And now can non-programmers possibly write programs in Excel VB? You can google what you need, find some code out on the internet that does something close to what you need, copy and paste it, then tweak it. Copy and paste ... that's what a lot of "real" programmers do anyway ... otherwise, they would be bogged down reinventing the wheel all the time.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

--- And how can non-programmers possibly write programs in Excel VB?

I bought books. Self taught. They did not have Excel or spreadsheets in college when I went.

Copy and paste ... that's what a lot of "real" programmers do anyway ... otherwise, they would be bogged down reinventing the wheel all the time.

Absolutely. Like subroutines, subprograms or nested Do loops.

 

[RCA]

I bought books. Self taught. They did not have Excel or spreadsheets in college when I went.



Absolutely. Like subroutines, subprograms or nested Do loops.

Excel VBA works for single task jobs - like doing a specific appraisal report. But if you want to expand out to a network capable of:

1. Supporting multiple appraisers,

2. Supporting the creation of an extensive database covering the past 20 years of MLS listings for a large market area (or even a complete state) via batch downloading of data from external RETS servers to your database on a daily basis, with integration of GIS, Census and other data, with filtering and cleaning of data,

3. Building models of multiple market areas every week or month,

4. Provide websites for CRM,
and so on,

- then you will need to learn a language like C# or Python plus a range of related tools.

At companies like CBRE, they do spend a good deal of money on software developers to develop applications that SUPPORT appraiser tasks, yet it seems appraisers continually need to improvise with Excel.

In the ideal situation, independent residential appraisers would team together with a developer and analyst to improve their competitiveness. This sort of development is a trend in at least commercial appraisal. There was a recent article on this in Valuation, I believe. An example is ValBridge https://www.valbridge.com/, where many older smaller companies were having difficulty competing with the likes of CBRE, and combined resources. The fact that some top MAIs have left CBRE to work for them is an indication that they have been successful, so far.

 

[RCA]

BOA is crowing about something magnanimous on their part! So they are getting free positive praise by the Fake Media! They look good don't they!

Wrong, they are simply responding to market forces. Unemployment is very low now. They can't get people to work for them at the lowest levels because its more beneficial for those people to work somewhere else. If you work at a branch bank, then you have to dress nicely in appropriate business attire. That cost money from the employee. Mostly women have these jobs as tellers and women's cloths are expensive. They do like the hours, they like the work environment.

Banks exploit everything and everybody! They pay their bean counters handsomely just so they can exploit to the maximum. BOA the last time i checked gave equal amounts of Campaign money to both major parties. Most people don't know that and for a obvious good reason.

And if they don't keep their eye on the bottom line, someone gets fired when the **** hits the fan. In that respect, ALL companies are the same. Sooooo, if you want to get rid of dealing with banks, just don't deal with them ... but then you better find a substitute; e.g. if we could get GSEs to replace lenders and AMCs for supplying GSE type residential appraisal work. I mean it makes a lot of sense right? Cut the cord, remove red tape, go straight to the source, ... it makes a lot of damn sense.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

But if you want to expand out to a network capable of:

I would never be starting a business writing computer programs for the industry of appraisers. It would be a waste of my time and not very rewarding.

What sells is a relatively inexpensive program that solves a specific set of problems that are repetitive from one assignment to the next.

 

[RCA]

I would never be starting a business writing computer programs for the industry of appraisers. It would be a waste of my time and not very rewarding.

What sells is a relatively inexpensive program that solves a specific set of problems that are repetitive from one assignment to the next.

You are kind of right. I wouldn't write a program to sell to appraisers or anyone else. Too many copycats out there, for one thing.

The other alternative is you build an extremely potent system for doing your own appraisals and then hire some recruits out of college to pick up what you know and replicate it ... and maybe you might get some attention from some other talented appraisers. Maybe not. In any case, I would never get too focused on appraisal ... there are many other things in the market that are similar ... and appraisal is just one. But who knows. I actually would like to build a kind of public sector CIA ... oh yeaaa .... crazy idea. But then again not, there are already many such companies out there ... but something with a different twist.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

There are enough leeches out there sucking the life-blood from appraisers from background checks to AMCs. If clients are not demanding a better product, producing a better product is not rewarded. In fact, competition will get more business producing faster, cheaper and less comprehensive products that clients want than a gold plated Cadillac that has many analytical means thrown in that take time but no one has the time to read and digest. Hence hybrid appraisals or desktop appraisals that clients pay a reduced fee for a reduced SOW to the appraiser.

 

[Carnivore]

And if they don't keep their eye on the bottom line, someone gets fired when the **** hits the fan. In that respect, ALL companies are the same. Sooooo, if you want to get rid of dealing with banks, just don't deal with them ... but then you better find a substitute; e.g. if we could get GSEs to replace lenders and AMCs for supplying GSE type residential appraisal work. I mean it makes a lot of sense right? Cut the cord, remove red tape, go straight to the source, ... it makes a lot of damn sense.

Don't know how you managed to take my comment about Low Level work getting a raise ...back to appraising ...but then again yousaid something that makes sense...without you realizing it....

I have a lot of respect for your knowledge ...and I understand what your saying about mars and using excel etc. Here is the issue I think your missing.

All of us could get as smart as you are about using an analytics tool in our trade. Sounds good, right, Wrong...they are not willing to pay for it...Why would any appraiser right now invest in more education, time and money on a service business that is paying less and less ..

Why do you think they dropped the four your educational requirement for CR's? I will tell you why...and maybe I am wrong... If we transform the entire RES Appraisers to 4 year degree'd appraisers , then price of an appraisal will go up....If the Lender Client won't pay it..The appraiser(s) will and can embark on a new career in some other endeavor/career path where they appreciate the educational commitment and are willing to pay for it.

 

[RCA]

All of us could get as smart as you are about using an analytics tool in our trade. Sounds good, right, Wrong...they are not willing to pay for it...Why would any appraiser right now invest in more education, time and money on a service business that is paying less and less ..

Well actually you could use R/earth which is free and run it on your Excel comp downloads. That is what I did 2003-2008. My methods are more advanced now and require more work - another story.

If I wrote a step-by-step article about using R/earth, most could probably deal with it. But yes it would take more time, and you have some learning to do and I probably underestimate the learning effort because of my background in math. ....

Why do you think they dropped the four your educational requirement for CR's? I will tell you why...and maybe I am wrong... If we transform the entire RES Appraisers to 4 year degree'd appraisers , then price of an appraisal will go up....If the Lender Client won't pay it..The appraiser(s) will and can embark on a new career in some other endeavor/career path where they appreciate the educational commitment and are willing to pay for it.

I don't know why they did that either, but probably the banks and lenders had something to do with it. Or, it could be the investors and entrepreneurs who are afraid of an educated (relatively speaking) appraiser class getting in their way. .... In any case, it was a questionable decision, with no reasonable basis as far as I can see. But we have to keep in mind the system doesn't function for the sake of the appraiser. If appraisers want things done their way they have to coordinate and cooperate, attain power and exercise that power. Same for all groups. The Dems are good at that, and very good at looking out for only their own interests ... I'll stop there and avoid the politics; but the point being, for a group to be successful as a group - it takes some work and cooperation, a group mindset. And that is currently lacking.

The AppraisalBuzz/Collateral Risk Network seems to be running things to a certain extent; and that is likely a descendent of my suggestion to "won't mention his name" 11-12 years ago, that inspection and appraisal would eventually be separated. I don't think that is the case anymore. Well, you can't get away from the fact that the person doing the inspection has to be licensed and needs their own E&O. Inspection goes hand in hand with building value models. So, long story short, you need to have appraisers doing both if you need firm accuracy and reliability. Now an appraiser good at inspection can team with an appraiser good at building models. That's a possibility. But, we need better inspectors and appraisers much better at building models - and that takes more education. So, what has happened is that the CRN has likely screwed things up beyond belief, what is that term? FUBAR.

What I do, I certainly use for my own appraisals. And, it may never go beyond that. But, who knows how far that will go ...