Buying a small appraisal business....

[Red Flint]

I don't think their business is worth as much as we originally thought

Pay for a business appraisal, can be expensive to get an experienced valuer, try ASA appraiser with business valuation focus, or CPA.

 

[Mark K]

As far as "the writing on the wall," I'm unsure if I wholly agree with that sentiment.

The "writing" to which I'm referring is the not-so-slow deterioration of the scope of F/F, secondary market appraising. More and more of the "appraisals" will be AVM, AI generated, waivers, etc. eroding the quantity of, what we would call, 'normal' appraisals. I would be hesitant to pay much at all for a business that is being phased out as quickly as possible by those with the power and money that want to phase us out of the equation. There will always be a need for 'normal' appraisals for square pegs that won't fit in their round holes and for locally owned banks/S&Ls that keep loans in house but those businesses will eventually be bought up by larger entities that sell all of their loans. Start diversifying today.

Two things...1. If you don't buy the business do you actually believe that anyone else is going to...and...what happens if you don't accept their terms of sale.

2. I'd rather be buying a blacksmith shop or a plumbing business.

I still do a bit of appraising for the courts, mostly, but when I decided to close my office that had a good client base, I simply called all of my clients a couple of months ahead and told them..."Starting June 1 please send your orders to John or Joe or Connie at these phone numbers. They'll do you a good job."