Does your appraisal business have a website?

[Joe Flacco]

You know like "private work" is very over rated. Attorney business can be good if it is consistent and repeat business. Appraisals for regular consumers / homeowners is over rated. Those people are still very price sensitive, you have to negotiate every assignment, you have to explain a lot of stuff up front, they might have questions afterwards, etc. I like clients that I know can send me X orders per month or year with terms and expectations set one time for all those orders and only in extraordinary circumstances have to renegotiate those agreed upon terms and expectations. I don't like wasting time on quotes and negotiating terms.

 

[Stone]

I don't want anybody contacting me because they found me on the internet or found me on some list.

I tend to agree. I have a very simple (four pages, I think) site that basically explains my background (and the company's background from when there were two of us) and what I do/where I work. It is basically there for people to see who reach out via email from recommendations so I don't have to explain my qualifications - I have it on my email sigs for that reason. About a decade ago I got a few requests to see my website and basically just put a simple one up on GoDaddy in a day for that reason. It never comes up in searches which is fine with me.

 

[bnmappraisal]

My jaw drops when I see "unclemarkappraiser@yahoo.com" on the signature page.

With all due respect, I beg to differ

I have a "generic" email similar to what you describe above. I think I started it soon after I got my CR, over 10 yrs ago.
Similar to my cell phone number, which is an out of state number, WAAAAAYYYYYYYY too many people have both now and I get business because of it (about 25% of my book is private/non-lending)

So to be honest, it's not about the ~$6/mo to "pay" for a new email, etc, (1 assignment would MORE THAN cover that yearly expense!) it's more about the LOSS of potential income from future business because someone has my card with email and cell # on it
I have (and often do) get calls/emails from people that I met years ago (upwards of 5 years!) that still had my info. If I would have changed either (my "generic" email or Out of State cell #) I would have lost out on that business.

I have yet to have one client (off the top of my head), lending or private/non-lending, say they would NOT hire me/my services because I have a "generic" email nor Out of State cell number
I HAVE had both types tell me they would not hire me/my services because of the fee(s) I charge (meaning they don't want to pay my fee for that particular assignment). I'm ok with that

 

[bnmappraisal]

You know like "private work" is very over rated.

Appraisals for regular consumers / homeowners is over rated. Those people are still very price sensitive, you have to negotiate every assignment, you have to explain a lot of stuff up front, they might have questions afterwards, etc.

I know we disagree on this, but I have to argue it

Regarding fees, I will say most of the "private work" they don't really try to nickle and dime me. Yes, some, balk at my fee(s), but many are "used to" seeing/hearing a similar fee because they have had appraisals done before and seen those fees (agents and homeowners alike). And I'm not talking some of the AMC BS $200-300 fees. Fees usually $400-500 min, sometimes 4 digits

I did have 1 lady last year call me up, ask my fee, etc. Said she'd get back to me. Called me back and said she talked to another appraiser who would do it for $100 less than my fee. She said she really liked me because of our initial conversation and that I had come highly recommended by the person who referred me, but wanted to know if I could match that fee. I told her the best I could do would be meet her in the middle/lower my fee by $50. She wouldn't bite. No harm, no foul. I lost probably a total of 15-20 min of my life total talking to her. It was going to be for a divorce anyway, so actually wasn't too disappointed in "losing" that one. I had subsequent referrals from the person who had referred me to her, btw, so I didn't even lose a "referral" from not getting that assignment

In my experience, the private ones are somewhat "easier." By that I mean, I can use "normal" language in my report (avg/good/below avg, etc) for things like condition, etc. I hardly ever get follow up questions after I send the report. I don't get the BS emails/calls/texts asking for "status update" (well, hardly unless I'm REALLY taking a long time to get it completed). I get paid my fee in a timely manner (usually COD or similar). I can talk to the client directly and explain things vs going through some middle man (i.e. AMC).

Both sides, I guess, have their Pros and Cons - lending and non-lending alike. Salut'

 

[Joe Flacco]

I always have people trying to put me on lists like some school district parents list or some church members list. I'm like no thanks.

 

[Stone]

With all due respect, I beg to differ

I have a "generic" email similar to what you describe above. I think I started it soon after I got my CR, over 10 yrs ago.
Similar to my cell phone number, which is an out of state number, WAAAAAYYYYYYYY too many people have both now and I get business because of it (about 25% of my book is private/non-lending)

So to be honest, it's not about the ~$6/mo to "pay" for a new email, etc, (1 assignment would MORE THAN cover that yearly expense!) it's more about the LOSS of potential income from future business because someone has my card with email and cell # on it
I have (and often do) get calls/emails from people that I met years ago (upwards of 5 years!) that still had my info. If I would have changed either (my "generic" email or Out of State cell #) I would have lost out on that business.

I have yet to have one client (off the top of my head), lending or private/non-lending, say they would NOT hire me/my services because I have a "generic" email nor Out of State cell number
I HAVE had both types tell me they would not hire me/my services because of the fee(s) I charge (meaning they don't want to pay my fee for that particular assignment). I'm ok with that

Agreed. I have a Gmail address. I could have gone with one related to my web page, but why screw around with trying to update clients with something. Nobody is not hiring me because of my email address.

 

[JeffSH]

With all due respect, I beg to differ

I have a "generic" email similar to what you describe above. I think I started it soon after I got my CR, over 10 yrs ago.
Similar to my cell phone number, which is an out of state number, WAAAAAYYYYYYYY too many people have both now and I get business because of it (about 25% of my book is private/non-lending)

So to be honest, it's not about the ~$6/mo to "pay" for a new email, etc, (1 assignment would MORE THAN cover that yearly expense!) it's more about the LOSS of potential income from future business because someone has my card with email and cell # on it
I have (and often do) get calls/emails from people that I met years ago (upwards of 5 years!) that still had my info. If I would have changed either (my "generic" email or Out of State cell #) I would have lost out on that business.

I have yet to have one client (off the top of my head), lending or private/non-lending, say they would NOT hire me/my services because I have a "generic" email nor Out of State cell number
I HAVE had both types tell me they would not hire me/my services because of the fee(s) I charge (meaning they don't want to pay my fee for that particular assignment). I'm ok with that

Agreed. I have a Gmail address. I could have gone with one related to my web page, but why screw around with trying to update clients with something. Nobody is not hiring me because of my email address.

I agree that a "non professional" email address isn't a big deal and there's nothing wrong with using SomebodySomething@gmail.com. It just rubs me the wrong way I guess.

That said, Gmail is amazing and 'switching over' to a new account is seamless. I have a few Gmail accounts that are auto-forwarded to my main personal email (also through google). Logging into my main account, I can send emails using whatever address I want to show. I have a bunch of filters setup that automatically label emails and only notify my phone only for what I consider important.

I even have automatic replies to certain messages. When I get a message from realtors or brokers (filtered by company email), I automatically respond with "Got it. Thank you!" It's usually just comps they selected or other irrelevant info that doesn't require a follow-up. They call if it's important. I also filter invoices and messages from certain people.

 

[jay trotta]

So no one uses newspaper ads, at all ??

 

[Joe Flacco]

I agree that a "non professional" email address isn't a big deal and there's nothing wrong with using SomebodySomething@gmail.com. It just rubs me the wrong way I guess.

That said, Gmail is amazing and 'switching over' to a new account is seamless. I have a few Gmail accounts that are auto-forwarded to my main personal email (also through google). Logging into my main account, I can send emails using whatever address I want to show. I have a bunch of filters setup that automatically label emails and only notify my phone only for what I consider important.

I even have automatic replies to certain messages. When I get a message from realtors or brokers (filtered by company email), I automatically respond with "Got it. Thank you!" It's usually just comps they selected or other irrelevant info that doesn't require a follow-up. They call if it's important. I also filter invoices and messages from certain people.

You can use gmail with your own domain name with google workspace.

 

[Joe Flacco]

Everything from google used to be free but they keep getting me to pay for more and more stuff. Now I pay for google workspace, storage for my personal account, Youtube Premium, and Youtube TV. Google is starting to get expensive man. I feel like Youtube Premium and storage should be included with Youtube TV.