Did you appraise in the 70's and 80's? Looking for stories...

[jay trotta]

Actually, remember getting calls (not often) from an UW or 2, with a few Questions here n there, but for the most part all was good. Have a building/Realtor background, so I would get everything nobody else would take. As result, would get a lot of projects of additions, alterations. environmental issue's etc. (fee was commensurate for the work) and the boss and I would decide appropriate fee structure, due to required research and time.
Back then it was actually interesting and rewarding work, today if it's on the net that's all that's needed apparently.

 

[Essexfenwick]

Orders from phone or fax

MLS was dot matrix printouts

Rufus Lusk and Sons delivered bi weekly courthouse settlement updates and public records microfiche.

Appraisals were done of forms with pencil then typed by office staff.

Comp maps used rub on arrows made by forms and worms which always came with a rubber fishing lure worm. They also made the appraisal forms to type on.

Had a photo guy who worked out of his house.. picked up film in morning dropped of pictures in afternoon. Photos stuck on with 2 sided tape

Every afternoon appraisals stuffed manilla envelope and courrier delivered to numerous different lenders.

When I was hired in 1985 it was a massive refi boom. I mean every house on every street type of refi boom. We had a filing cabinet full of written up orders. Turnaround was up to 3 months

A couple drawers were June. A couple July and a couple August

We were printing money.

 

[Elliott]

Appraisers are a lot like cattle. Just like cattle buyers will rarely find a reason to pay a premium for any critter, appraiser clients will rarely acknowledge anything appraisers might be doing or right, or that is useful, nor will they pay a premium even if they recognize some benefit from an appraiser. However, there are always reasons to discount every critter. If a calf is born on a cold, windy winter day in these parts, tails and ears and extremities with limited blood supply are often frozen. Six months later, when the evidence remains but any health concerns are long past, those animals are almost always discounted in the sale ring. When was the last time you heard that short tails or short ears affect the rate or efficiency of gain in any living being? Likewise, appraisers with little cash (or blood) are always squeezed for the last drop. Time to turn into a turnip, I guess. They always told me you can't squeeze blood from a turnip.

I learned from Clarkson's Farm that when a pig is born it doesn't know its a boy or a girl, so a runt pig could be kept another season as a fluffer for the boars. But short of that, if your keeping a runt, then that isn't 'farming.' I'm coming up on 5-years out of farming and last year I had to pay NIIT.

 

[themole]

1975: Pocono Mtns, PA. I started in the mid 70's and each week I used to collect the "BOOKS" from the local MLS office that would give you the photos' and information for residential comps. Eventually your shelves would be stocked with hundreds of "books" that you would keep for retrospective appraisals and data. For Commercials appraisals I had to visit the courthouse and look at their "STEMP(SP?)" book, now called county records, and locate a potential comparable and then map out the route and travel from comp to comp to take a photograph. I had a box of film with ISO film speeds of 20 to 1000 and used the 800 or higher speed for fast moving subjects, dimly lit situations or when using a zoom lens in low light conditions as in getting the last possible photograph as the sun sets in the west or I would use ISO 400 speed for good contrast in day light photos or ISO 20 to 200 when you have a lot of available light. and jocker to the film developer who would have the photographs ready the following day. At that time, you had to knock on doors to verify information that you might pick up from the county records, the "books" or elsewhere. Appraisals were completed by only real estate brokers with very little direction or insight from the real estate commission who, at that time, oversaw the appraisal profession. I still have my Vivitar camera, and I liked to experiment with different trick lenses, ISO speeds to adjust the depth of focus and the depth of field, as a hobby. I have an adapter and can hook my Vivitar to the telescope and take vivid photographs of the moon's craters, stars and the universe. Times have chaged

 

[Flakey]

Kept an order pad in my briefcase. When I delivered a report, a lot of times I would get a new order. We used polaroid instant photos and would glue a pic of the front only to the report. Sometimes, if it was a potential foreclosure, someone from the bank would ride with me and talk to the homeowner while I did my thing.

War story. One fine hot day, I was doing and inspection and the very cute daughter of the homeowner asked if I could give her a lift to her job at the mall on my way back to the office. Now this was when it was not uncommon for folks to get around on their thumb, including women, so it was not too unusual. Anyway, we were about a block from her house when she asked me to stop so she could pick some Tiger Lilys growing along the road. She was very cute, so I agreed. While picking the flowers, she stumbled into the ditch and landed on a badly decaying dead dog. She was traumatized and crying and covered in dead dog. The stench was awful, so I refused to let her back in the car. So off she went walking and crying as I drove away. When I got back the office, the phone rang and it was the bank. Seems her dad took exception to my lack of valor. I received a good talking to about interacting with the banks customers and got let off with a stern warning. It taught me a good lesson. The next time I was at the mall, she wouldn't have any thing to do with me either.

 

[JTip]

1975: Pocono Mtns, PA. I started in the mid 70's and each week I used to collect the "BOOKS" from the local MLS office that would give you the photos' and information for residential comps. Eventually your shelves would be stocked with hundreds of "books" that you would keep for retrospective appraisals and data. For Commercials appraisals I had to visit the courthouse and look at their "STEMP(SP?)" book, now called county records, and locate a potential comparable and then map out the route and travel from comp to comp to take a photograph. I had a box of film with ISO film speeds of 20 to 1000 and used the 800 or higher speed for fast moving subjects, dimly lit situations or when using a zoom lens in low light conditions as in getting the last possible photograph as the sun sets in the west or I would use ISO 400 speed for good contrast in day light photos or ISO 20 to 200 when you have a lot of available light. and jocker to the film developer who would have the photographs ready the following day. At that time, you had to knock on doors to verify information that you might pick up from the county records, the "books" or elsewhere. Appraisals were completed by only real estate brokers with very little direction or insight from the real estate commission who, at that time, oversaw the appraisal profession. I still have my Vivitar camera, and I liked to experiment with different trick lenses, ISO speeds to adjust the depth of focus and the depth of field, as a hobby. I have an adapter and can hook my Vivitar to the telescope and take vivid photographs of the moon's craters, stars and the universe. Times have chaged

Called STEB reports, State Tax Equalization Board, good guess though! We still use them today, got friendly with the assessors and they send monthly reports/updates via electronic mail on your interweb computer. Excellent point of beginning for locating comps (especially vacant land).

Most senior active appraisers around here are late 90's trained, but I do remember one when I started. He was in his late 80's, drove a 30 yo Rolls and sat down on your living room couch asking "so, what do you need?". lol

Being trained in the early 2000's, I fully remember one hour walmart 35mm photo = one hour olive garden lunch, reusing comp arrow stickers a dozen times, fax machine orders rolling out = MONEY, landline comp checks, UPS/Fedex accounts knowing those guys on first name basis, the OLD 2055 (RIP loved you), comp books (which I still have).

Upgraded to Sony Mavica 3.5' floppy, held maybe 10 pics, each file got its own floppy. Upgraded again (via appraisersforum member Goodpasture) to a mini disc Mavica which held around 40 pics a mini disc. TECHNOLOGY!!!!!!

Good times for sure.

 

[mike lay]

Thank you all for the info and anecdotes.
One of my personal favorites was from a guy I met at a conference 15 years ago. We were talking about underwriter requests, and he said when he started (1970's), a revision request was when the bank president called him and said, "do you really think it's worth that?" He would say, "yes", the bank president would say "okay", and that was the end of the revision request.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

I was evaluating mineral leases in the 1980s and working with impacted banks in Oklahoma. I kept at least one from taking mineral rights at inflated prices for backup to existing business loans.

 

[LarryJewell]

Forms and worms were big. FHA had a fee panel in that time frame. You may be before forms and worms. Appraisal report was pretty simple. I started in 1985.

I was on the FHA fee panel back in the 90's, before they moved the Ft Worth office to Denver

 

[Carnivore]

Interesting I got my license Feb 1993

So I just looked at it and it was issued by the North Carolina Real Estate Commission. So I can't recall when the NC Appraisal
B
Board was created.

So yes I did all sticker stuff on maps and trips to photo place etc