Experience Log

[Yuyi1980]

:new_multi:

Good morning everyone,

I have a question regarding my experience log; I am in the State of Florida. I recently contacted the DBPR, but they referred me to my school provider since they couldn’t answer my question. My Cert is telling me that he is seen other experience logs and they should show the full address of the property including city and zip code, he is pretty much trying to be proactive, so we don’t get issues from the DBPR requesting this information. I find it very polemic, why? These logs are not designed to input a lot of information. According to what I have read, experience logs are supposed to contain enough information in order to be easily retrieved in case that it is requested by the DBPR. Also need to be consistent and extremely clear.

Straight question. Keeping in mind that these logs don’t have enough space to input all this information. Do you think that it is required to provide a full address including “City and Zip code” for subject and lender?

Thank you so much.....

 

[Wendy]

yuisbell,

Maybe a mod can move this to the Florida section for you. I'd think someone can give you a quick answer there. Sorry I can't help - logs were not required when I went 'round.


PS - Polemic - good word!

 

[MBD]

My trainee just applied a couple of weeks ago. We created the log in excel format and included the following columns: report date (in reverse chronological order), property type/form, full property address, full client name and address, work performed and # of hours.

I agree with your cert. Since the directions asked for client address, we put their entire address.

 

[Lynne]

My trainee just applied a couple of weeks ago. We created the log in excel format and included the following columns: report date (in reverse chronological order), property type/form, full property address, full client name and address, work performed and # of hours.

I agree with your cert. Since the directions asked for client address, we put their entire address.

MBD,
Will you keep us posted as to the results for your trainee please. I too have attempted to contact DBPR regarding logs (not for the same reason) & they were unable to answer my questions. My question was regarding the work performed, hours and reviewing reports I've done.

 

[MBD]

MBD,
Will you keep us posted as to the results for your trainee please. I too have attempted to contact DBPR regarding logs (not for the same reason) & they were unable to answer my questions. My question was regarding the work performed, hours and reviewing reports I've done.

Sure, I have lots of experience with creating log books.

 

[ARG Appraisals]

That log book was a pain in the ***. One trainee in my old office had his sent back 3 times. I learned from his mistakes and they accepted mine on the first attempt. What a royal pain in the ***, you are right there is not enough room to write anything.

 

[444nutman]

You can do an excel program with your log. I heard horror stories from my buddy. I hand wrote mine and I couldn't even read it but had no problem. I think the state just grabs like 1 out of 10 applications and decides to mess with.

 

[I'm-A-Survivor]

:new_multi:

Good morning everyone,

I have a question regarding my experience log; I am in the State of Florida. I recently contacted the DBPR, but they referred me to my school provider since they couldn’t answer my question. My Cert is telling me that he is seen other experience logs and they should show the full address of the property including city and zip code, he is pretty much trying to be proactive, so we don’t get issues from the DBPR requesting this information. I find it very polemic, why? These logs are not designed to input a lot of information. According to what I have read, experience logs are supposed to contain enough information in order to be easily retrieved in case that it is requested by the DBPR. Also need to be consistent and extremely clear.

Straight question. Keeping in mind that these logs don’t have enough space to input all this information. Do you think that it is required to provide a full address including “City and Zip code” for subject and lender?

Thank you so much.....

yuisbell,

Use the log form from the Florida DBPR website. Yes, they want the lender address for some unknown reason so you will need to use two lines. Make sure you read all the instructions as they are a little fussy with supervisor signature and date for each page!!! A friend of mine put his on an excel spreadsheet with the same headings as the DBPR form and he didn't have a problem. I filled in the forms by hand and sent into the State in May and didn't have a problem, just make sure to follow the instructions on the website. I hope this helps!

 

[Yuyi1980]

Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate all your advice. My biggest problem now is that I don't have the best relationship with this company and I don't have access to the files. I put the log together with the information I had available and I took with me before I left. I think as everyone else it is almost 2 years of work and it is time consuming to go back into it and amend everything. LOL! My ex-supervisor is kind of giving a hard time with any minor issues and this is the main reason I wanted to have other opinions from experienced appraisers on these painful logs. I remember back when I took MREA I was thought only to provide sufficient information for retrieval of the file in case of any audit from the DBPR. This same issue came up in class, What about the zip code and city? The teacher said it was not necessary. HUMMM! Is that so! I called the DBPR now and they don’t have a clue other than their requirements listed in the DBPR web which in my personal opinion should be a little bit better explained, for some of us supervisor haven’t played a significant role, every single thing is important and we should learn it well.


Lynne,

I was very irresponsible not to take care of log on a weekly basis. I thought I would end my two years with this company and trust me on this appraisal business is very volatile and you can be here one day and somewhere else tomorrow. Make sure your log is filled out at least every week. My other issue now is that according to the DBPR every page has to be signed coinciding with the last report dated in that particular log page; my Cert will not do that for sure. Regarding the hours of experience I contacted the DBPR and explained the situation I have where I have not way to access my files and provide an accurate time invested on every single appraisal. They suggested me to average out the hours and I made it like this:

-8 hours SFR 1004
-6 hours Condo 1073
-12 Hours Multifamily 1025
-4 Hours 1004D
-6 Hours 2055

They said it sounded like about right and if I did it this way, I should not have any problems.

I will keep posting my progress with the log and sharing with all of you what’s going on. I will gladly do whatever it takes me to get my log signed and done, but I want to be fair. I don’t mean to sound arrogant on this. It is very hard to go back and amend 600 files. LOL…..:Eyecrazy: see the attached PDF if you need a copy of the the log I also have it in excel, if any of you need it. please just send me an email to: yuisbell@hotmail.com

 

[GeorgiaCG]

It is very hard to go back and amend 600 files. LOL

Why do 600 files need to be amended? Were they not correctly credited to you?

The DBPR offers two downloads, one in PDF format and one in Excel format. I found the Excel format to be difficult to work with. The PDF format was extremly easy to complete. Using Adobe 7.0 or 8.0 Pro, you can type in each space all necessary data. As more data is written into the cell, the writing gets smaller. You can fit a very large amount of text into each cell before it becomes too small to read. Once you have finished entering data, you can save the file with your data entered. Remember, you have to have the Pro version of Adobe to do this. Unfortunately, it's not cheap, though you can find version 8.0 Pro online now for around $160 (do a search). The amount of time and headaches this saved me was tremendous. There may be other software out there that can do the same thing (edit and save a PDF), but this is just what worked well for me. I can't upload the sample I prepared because the file is 444K. Let me know if you would like it emailed to you. There is a glitch in the State's PDF that is pretty easily overcome. You'll see it.

Chris