Form 2055 for proposed construction. Help please!

[Larry Lyke]

Caterina --

Another thought on your fees.

Since it's been a while ago that you set your reduced fee, are you now getting your fees-setting information from your Client or do you have some sort of parallel source that your competition really is charging what you're being told/hearing they are charging.

Very often, when a new Client is trying to place an order with me and they've laid out all the information I need, they ask how much I'm charging. As soon as I quote my fee, they say, something about that being high. The response is what are you paying? They state something that's $50-$100 less. BUT, I DO NOT RESPOND -- I'd rather be seen as too dumbfounded to complete a sentence or let the phone line go silent than get into a conversation about it at all. They have to make up their OWN mind.

HEY, I've got about 500 competitors in the Twin Towns here, within a 15-mile radius of my office. It'd be hard as Hell to compete with the LOW bidder. I'm sure somebody's doing appraisals for about $150 per URAR somewhere hereabouts.

 

[Caterina Platt]

Hi Larry,

Well, the majority of the info I've gathered has been:

1) working in another office, now my competition (I've kept that fee structure in my own shop for several reasons. One being that I don't want to undercut my former boss)

2) working on deals with other 2 other appraisers and discussing 'what should we charge for this?'

3) invoices I've come across in the past several years.

4) being on the Realtor/MH salesperson side of the transaction, I've seen quite a few on my buyer/sellers closing statements, no AMC involved.

5) what the client told me. Least weight has been applied to this comparable.

BTW, your advice on the landlocked parcel was right on the money. I delivered the appraisal tonight and found out what the buyer was verbally wanting to offer for the property. This report was done for the seller as a market value appraisal. No deal as of yet. Valued the land at $140K with access, $70K without considering potential buyer to be adjacent owner. Buyer made verbal of $75. Not bad for basically uncharted territory. Thanks loads!