California General Appraiser

[JackKemp13]

Hello all, I am 20 and looking to get into the appraisal field as my dad is in the residential side, for the last 30 years. He is always telling me General is a much better way to go, and that its easier than residential, but I always think he is not a general appraiser so what does he know. Anywho if anyone here is a California General Appraiser, and would like to answer some questions for me, please feel free to DM me or drop a reply on this post.

Thanks All.

 

[George Hatch]

You can ask your questions in the open, that way if anyone else comes along with the same questions they'll be covered, too.

 

[JackKemp13]

You can ask your questions in the open, that way if anyone else comes along with the same questions they'll be covered, too.

Fair Enough, I guess I'll just list some questions.

How Long have you been in the business, and how many years in General?

What Part of California are you in?

What was your income, last year, and maybe an average if you give me that over the last 10 years?

Do you have a niche market? Such as Hangars, Strip Malls, etc.?

Would you Recommend this job for a younger person, or do you think it's a dying career?

Thank you for your answers, I will let you know if any more questions!

 

[George Hatch]

Fair Enough, I guess I'll just list some questions.

How Long have you been in the business, and how many years in General?

I started in 1985 (appraising houses) and qualified for my CG at the inception of licensing in 1992.

What Part of California are you in?

SoCal

What was your income, last year, and maybe an average if you give me that over the last 10 years?

The minimum wage in California in 2022 is $15/hr. I usually make more than that.

Do you have a niche market? Such as Hangars, Strip Malls, etc.?

My focus is on community-oriented properties (Main Street) but I appraise most property types, like multi-family, retail, office industrial and some special use types. I probably appraise more vacant land than most appraisers and I even appraise some homes every year (not the easy ones, though).

Would you Recommend this job for a younger person, or do you think it's a dying career?

I think it's hard to predict which careers will thrive or die over the next 40 years. Technology is already leaving its mark on many occupations, including ours. Most people end up working 3 or more occupations during their lifetime. People change as they get older and so do their priorities. So the better question might be what the career prospects are over the next 15-20 years and within THAT context I'd say the prospects for CGs will probably remain pretty stable. But I also think the prospects for residential appraisers will continue to be fairly stable over that time frame, too. What I think will change will be preferences among the users of appraisals, which in turn means that those appraisers who are willing to adapt will do better for themselves than those who refuse to adapt.

In other words, I think your priorities and your flexibility and your level of self-motivation will continue to be the bigger factor in how this occupation will work out for you. The one thing you want to understand about CG work is that the learning curve is much broader than for appraising 1-4s; that's because our scope of practice is so much broader. But by the same token, I think it's a mistake for anyone who straddles both residential and commercial markets to ignore the residential trade altogether. If your dad is already involved in appraising SFRs then my recommendation is that you put at least a few years into learning that before diversifying.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Do you have a niche market? Such as Hangars, Strip Malls, etc.?

That's where it is at. Find a specialty. Agri appraisers are in short supply - especially knowledgeable ones, and even shorter supply are people who value elevators, processing plants, agricultural stores, fertilizer plants, river and ocean docks for grains, etc. But airports and hangars would be a great speciality...I am not so sure that the big Mall is viable in the future, but I did know one appraiser in Florida who specialized in those. Traveled a number of states doing them.

 

[Surf Cat]

Hello all, I am 20 and looking to get into the appraisal field as my dad is in the residential side, for the last 30 years. He is always telling me General is a much better way to go, and that its easier than residential, but I always think he is not a general appraiser so what does he know. Anywho if anyone here is a California General Appraiser, and would like to answer some questions for me, please feel free to DM me or drop a reply on this post.

Thanks All.

Did you ever go out on assignments with your dad? Help measure, photograph, search for comparables on the MLS, or help him fill out the form? Did he ever talk you through why he was doing what he was doing and what his reasoning was for doing so? Is so, did you find it interesting?

I did all the above with my kid and he was bored stiff.

 

[JackKemp13]

Did you ever go out on assignments with your dad? Help measure, photograph, search for comparables on the MLS, or help him fill out the form? Did he ever talk you through why he was doing what he was doing and what his reasoning was for doing so? Is so, did you find it interesting?

I did all the above with my kid and he was bored stiff.

Yes, I have done all that since I was probably 16 at least with going to inspections, and seeing how he measures houses, and everything else with that talking to the realtors, photographs, and sketches. He recently showed me how he found comps on the MLS, although he has not shown me how to fill the form out yet, I have seen it, it's daunting at first I suppose lol. I definitely find the career interesting especially compared to some other options out there, and I really like the self-employed aspect about it, and he works however much he wants and does not have stress at all of a boss or something. I am currently taking my trainee courses of Mckissock.

 

[Surf Cat]

That's excellent. The autonomy of being an appraiser is one of the best things I like about the profession as well. Sounds like you're well on your way. Having your dad as a mentor and a signer of your experience logs is a big plus in current times.

Best of luck!

 

[Tiffany Gibbons]

Hello all, I am 20 and looking to get into the appraisal field as my dad is in the residential side, for the last 30 years. He is always telling me General is a much better way to go, and that its easier than residential, but I always think he is not a general appraiser so what does he know. Anywho if anyone here is a California General Appraiser, and would like to answer some questions for me, please feel free to DM me or drop a reply on this post.

Thanks All.

You will need a 4 year degree to become a Certified General, unless they dumb down the current requirements. What is your degree in?

 

[RCA]

Most appraisals, across the board, residential or commercial, are like a House of Cards, when the properties become complex, - built on the injection of subjective opinion at critical parts of the appraisal where solid evidence is lacking for one reason or another.

Sometimes it is indeed a very tall house of cards, invariably constructed inside complex Excel spreadsheets where you see DCF values injected from Argus, subjective percentage adjustment tables created by the appraisers, with complex dependencies between various cells across numerous sheets in the the Excel workbook/files. All held together by a kind of fragile thin chain of dependencies thread that can easily break.

Just imagine a large appraisal company with hundreds and thousands of such reports, from the far corners of the earth.

So, given the low pay, and fright of an appraiser who asks to many questions (or what have you), there is always a big demand for the "right" appraiser.

However, I would say in fact, there is more of a demand for analysts to support the commercial appraisers. - Everyone wants to be a licensed appraiser. But, the fact is, you are better off spending your time getting good at data analysis. You will have a solid future, as you can get better paying work in other domains.