canadian data sources

[John Hopkins]

Roy,
Thanks. BTW do you have a website for CNAREA?

 

[Roy Somers]

John, try this.
http://www.cnarea.ca/

 

[John Hopkins]

Roy,
Thanks for the info. John3

 

[Vernon Martin]

For anyone following this post who is curious about how I ended up finding sales data in Alberta, Alberta has an online land titles registry which is organized by range-township-section numbers. After getting a parcel map from the town of Lamont, I was able to look up the sales history of every parcel in town (not a big town).

For any unemployed appraisers out there, Alberta has jobs, jobs, jobs in the oil and petrochemical industries.

VM

 

[Vernon Martin]

Rics

Thanks, wondering if they recognize MRICS (Member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) course work, designation experience, etc.,? the AI (USA) has been opening many of its doors to other non-US organizations over the last several years.

I have seen several posts inquiring about RICS over the last few months. I recently went to a joint seminar presented by AI and RICS, too. Since I started my career at a chartered surveyor firm known as Jones Lang Wootton, I will share my perspective.

Working alongside members of RICS, I was impressed with the amount of college course work they had taken. I think that the UK has a more comprehensive program of academic real estate instruction. I teach part-time at California State University, which professes to have a real estate major, but only offers 4 undergrad real estate courses.

On the other hand, RICS reporting standards are much less than AI standards. I know because AI told me that the work I did under the RICS standards did not qualify for experience credit. Furthermore, Jones Lang Wootton charged appraisal fees as a percentage of appraised value, a definite no-no in the US.

Because of this, I assumed that RICS had no clout in America, but now I have seen recent collaboration between AI and RICS. RICS is offering a senior professional route to the MRICS designation which does not involve testing or work samples, just an application and a one hour interview, but they advertise that the MRICS designation is equivalent to an MAI designation. They have also advertised that about 70% of the candidates through the senior professional route are getting the MRICS designation.

Their recent president was an appraiser who lost his North Carolina certification due to disciplinary action. I have previously seen his name on "do not use" lists at two employers I worked for. His wife, a residential appraiser, also holds the MRICS designation despite not being a certified general appraiser in any state. Thus, they don't seem to exercise the same selectivity that the Institute would exercise in designating MAIs.

In terms of international clout, I have generally heard that the MAI designation is more internationally recognized than the MRICS designation.

I'm not sure what advantage AI has in cooperating with RICS.