ERC Report Form

[Mike Garrett RAA]

You assume I know what I am doing...LOL!

 

[Pat Butler]

Relo work is very satisfying because, rarely, does the client want to influence the value. They do want a sale to occur in the 120 day time frame which is now necessitating negative forecasting adjustments in most markets. However, the employer is also very concerned that their employee not get ripped off. If you come in too low, then it will be exposed if the employee lists their house and sells at a higher value. No matter what, your work will be based upon how close you can come to the anticipated sales price.

Most relo work requires that the two or more appraisers be within 5% of each other, else, another appraisal will be ordered. The market analysis required for the ERC form requires 'real' research to be done. It's not simply a bunch of checkboxes, and your work will be compared to the other appraisers.

Get the training done before you do your first ERC assignment. Otherwise, you can lose repeat business from clients very quickly in this business if you don't know what you are doing. Relo clients are serious about what they do and they're quick to recognize when an appraiser doesn't know what they are doing.

Take the online course at ERC as well as at least one seminar. Join ERC and read and study the ERC Appraisal Guide.... then take on your first assignments.

Quick tip-- you really have to spend some serious money advertising in the ERC Roster Guide under a lot of different cities if you intend on getting much business- unless you otherwise have your own sources for business. Spending thousands of dollars in advertising is not uncommon if you want to have a steady flow of work.

Consider getting the CRP (Certified Relocation Professional) designation. It's typically obtained by relo professionals themselves rather than appraisers, but its rarity among appraisers really makes it stand out. There are only 16 appraisers with the CRP designation in your state of CA. Why? It's a very tough test that requires self-study of literally thousands of pages of arcane relo knowledge.

Join your local relocation council. They are all over the country. It's a great opportunity to go to meetings where 99% of the attendees are potential clients.

I was at a two-day relo conference earlier this month with about 180 attendees and only two of us were appraisers. The networking benefits were tremendous.

Pat, CRP

 

[Mexilady]

Crp

Pat,

I took the CRP test years ago and failed by two points. I have ordered an outline for the Seminar from Daniel Bloom ($425-somebody please tell me it helps!) and I am going to try again this May. I have been a relocation appraiser for 15 years. It is not the appraisal part that trips me up, it is the tax, legal, immigration issues, global relocation customs, and moving household goods questions that got me last time. I agree with you that CRP makes the difference if you really want to get the business. Even though I have been doing all of the relocation appraisals in our office for 15 years, all my good "report cards" from the relocation companies come in my employer's name because he is the CRP even though he hasn't signed one of my reports in 13 years. Ouch! I am in the ERC book, but his listing has highlights, stars, flowers, etc., because he is the CRP, so they always ask for him. I like doing them for the most part because you actually get to appraise the home. Nice! Any CRP exam strategies-I have been listening to the mind numbing Conference CDs, reading "Mobility" articles and all the other stuff from ERC (including the powerpoints). Any advice would be appreciated. Oh and to the original poster, a great deal of my "transferees" are moving to CA, then they will probably get transferred again within next two years. Definitely take the ERC course.

 

[Pat Butler]

I attended an all day review session put on by my local council. However, while they did a good job with it, it was still obvious that so much stuff was going to have to be memorized. Pretty much everyone at the all day review session was from various relo corporations that had in-house training. If I did it again, I'd probably try to hitch on to someone's in-house training program by paying them to allow me to sit in. However, most were one-year programs and I didn't intend on taking that long.

I ended up making flash cards with the different facts on them. The problem, as you are aware of, is the vast amount of statistical information that they provide to you in their reports. I eventually created my flash cards in an attempt to memorize the executive summaries of those reports. I found that to be a very good strategy, as it seemed that those summaries comprised a decent portion of the test. I heard from a reliable source that either one, or two (can't remember), questions came from each of the articles in the binder. So I took my best shot at memorizing what I thought were the main points in each article and I memorized those.

Also, the tax information is extremely complicated. The problem is that some of the IRS decisions had multiple implications for the relo industry. So it was difficult for me to to write a simple summary on the flash cards. There's no way around having to understand those various decisions 100%. Try finding a local relo council where there might be a speaker on these tax topics. I sat through another tax session earlier this month just to stay up to date. You might even have to travel somewhere, but if you can find a multi-day conference then it might be worth your time. The big ERC conference is in Vegas next month, and you should be able to put together your own schedule so that you attend the appropriate seminars. Obviously, it's a big expense, but if you could attend that then you would pick up on a lot of reference material that you could study.

My brother is a CPA. He subscribes to all sorts of tax sites and he downloaded different opinions of those IRS decisions that I found to be more useful than the ERC stuff. I don't think I would have understood everything well enough without that additional material.

You mentioned that you had some Powepoint presentations. I got some newer ones from the review session that I attended. I got the impression that many groups use the same presentation around the country. You might want to call around to some of the regional groups to see if someone can supply you with additional Powerpoint presentations- ie- taxes.

Finally, there was one book that they supplied that provided a good overall introduction (actually, pretty comprehensive) to the relo industry. I made a lot of my flash cards from that book and it seemed to be a good decision.

If I can help out in any other way just let me know.

 

[Mexilady]

Great Advice

Thank you so much Pat, that is what I love about this board, everyone is so willing to help out. I was going to attend the Vegas seminar and take the test there, then my husband got laid off (he has another job now-but I'm still not able to justify a business trip, also my boss will be there-Vegas with your boss-no way!). Chip Wagner, CRP, IFAS was putting on a similar one in Chicago, but I had already registered to take the class in Dallas because I can drive there in 6.5 hours, so I just ordered the outline of the Daniel Bloom seminar in Vegas which is 300 pages long in itself. I have already been studying for months this time and I did not study at all last time, so I am hoping that will be enough. In any case, my Mom is going to Dallas with me for mother's day and we will have fun regardless of whether I pass it!

 

[Pat Butler]

Chip is a good friend on mine and he's doing appraisal part of the review for the CRC. You should be in good shape if you've studied that long. I remember from the outline that there were some portions of the test that were more heavily emphasized. I spent a lot of time on those. Luckily, I also have a real estate background so I found those questions to be really easy. Just get to work on that tax stuff :new_smile-l:

 

[Doug in NC]

Pat, how do you find out about regional/local relocation conferences? I haven't heard of any local conferences, I thought they were only held in large cities. I get regular newsletters from the local Realtor group, but don't recall seeing any information about relocation conferences in the area. I would love to kick my relocation volume up a few notches, but I can't justify spending several hundred bucks to travel halfway across the country for a meeting that may or may not help my business.

* I just received an email notification of costs to attend RAC Trac and the ERC conference in Las Vegas - a whopping $945! (and that is with the discount) Add hotel, food, and travel expenses to that.

 

[Pat Butler]

Doug, go to the ERC website (ERC.org) and you'll find a "news & events" tab. Also, as an ERC member you should receive weekly emails from ERC that also lists the upcoming events. And, the upcoming events are listed in Mobility Magazine.

If I remember correctly, there is also a comprehensive listing of the regional groups in the front part of the ERC Directory. Most of them have their own websites where you can find their schedule of events too. I can't seem to find a similar reference on the ERC website itself.

Yeah, ERC stuff is expensive. So many of their members are employees of large corporations and they obviously get their way paid by their employer. Us lowly appraisers cough up our own hard earned money. One of my biggest fears when taking the CRP exam was simply that I had dumped so much money into the course materials, seminars, and test fee that I would have been devistated to not pass the test because I would have had to pay an update fee to get a partially new packet the next year as well as another test fee.

At the review session I attended in the Chicago area last year, the majority of attendees were from out of state. And it was only a 1-day review session. Their corporations paid to have them fly in just for the day. The conference a few weeks ago was held at a 4-star resort (one of the old Playboy Clubs in the midwest), and it cost me and arm and a leg and a shoe..... fortunately, I brought the family with and they enjoyed the pool for a few days.

 

[Mexilady]

Chicago

Pat,

Thanks, you really made me feel better. Chip is who referred me to the Daniel Bloom seminar because I told him I couldn't do two trips so close together. Their seminar was at some famous golf course/country club in a suburb and I didn't want to drive to Chicago and then not get to stay in a hotel actually in Chicago-there's stuff I like to do in Chicago and none of it involves golf courses-I couldn't find a hotel near enough for me to roll out of bed and walk in the seminar, which is the only way I would have made it at 8:00 A.M. I don't like to drive in the city, put me in a cab or on a train any day. Not really the driving, but ditching the car when you want to go somewhere.

 

[Tom Weber]

I have been doing relo's for over 20 years. They require much research and analysis of the market. You don't need samples. Just fill out each section of the 2003 form (the most recent) with careful thought and facts. After my field inspection and viewing comps, I spend 5-6 hours filling out the form and shecking statistics on the MLS and writing about the subject market area in order to arrive at the "anticipated" market value, after a 120 day marketing period. That's why the fees are much higher than mortgae work.