Geographic Competence

[NC Appraising]

The "local" appraiser who does that is cutting almost as many corners as the out of town appraiser who does that.

I agree. I also some what agree with your stance on the term geographic competency. Should be separated. You can have one, both or none.

My personal real life example:

Our family owns a development firm. We use to own a SFR building company until we sold it. Our best friend is a MAI and is also a developer. Needless to say that we know our town and the values like the back of our hands.

So we had a property appraised. Two appraisals were ordered. One appraiser has over 30 years experience in the area and the other has over 20 years experience.

Both produced inadequate appraisals. Will not get in to it here.

So we were sitting around the office and discussing the appraisals. I asked the MAI and my uncle this: "does appraisers really know what the hell they are doing"?

They said no. Are they just pulling data without knowing how to apply it? The MAI and my uncle does it, negotiates it, knows the back stories, develops it, knows the actual costs, etc.

I have always wondered this also. I read a article a while back how a group of appraisers came in low on a agricultural property because they did not correctly estimate the "tiles" and how much value they actually contributed. One of the appraisers had vast experience appraising these types of properties.

As for residential appraising, I see the same things. Out of the area and next door appraiser pull three comps and move on. It makes it twice as worse when it is a "super" appraiser that covers 4+ counties does it. Listen to Nancy....Just Say No.

 

[George Hatch]

There's seldom a good reason to be stretching SFR appraisers all over creation. It's not like there are any shortages locally. And sure, it always takes more time/effort to reinvent the wheel than it does to retread the wheel you used a couple months ago. This means its usually more profitable if you can constrain your area of operations.

But by the same token there's also a distinction to be made between being incapable of doing the work vs being unwilling to do the work.

The incompetent service is the result of failing to do the work appropriately, regardless of the cause of that failure.

 

[Eli]

Sounds like client pressure again in a different tune. Or client incompetence in a similar light. Just hit the bullseye quick dagnamit.

Where is @Mike Kennedy ? Lol

The sad part is laws and regulations are being broken. Hopefully that will change soon with more individual state governments, state coalitions, and others involved.

 

[jay trotta]

Many years back, when we actually developed our own Client base (Lenders), it was the Client, that after you developed a Trust with them, would ask you to push into different area's (at least in my case) and therefore, you would have to develop the criteria (USPAP) of competence to provide the work requested. Even back then they had "Quality Control" & Review avenue's to use and would receive input on your work. If they felt you weren't Qualified or Competent, it was simple to not request work from you in those area's and/or require assitance to raise your game level.

As for Desk Tops, IMO they go hand In hand with Field Work, it would be extremely difficult to only do "Desk Tops" alone without any real time experience (Field Work); I believe you develop a knowledge & skill level from field work that cannot be replaced by "data alone", that is stone cold science and IMO fails to meet the art aspect. If they did not need the art aspect, why don't they just do the Math (science) on the Foreclosure & REO work ??
Because it does not work.

 

[NC Appraising]

Sounds like client pressure again in a different tune. Or client incompetence in a similar light. Just hit the bullseye quick dagnamit.

Where is @Mike Kennedy ? Lol

The sad part is laws and regulations are being broken. Hopefully that will change soon with more individual state governments, state coalitions, and others involved.

No client pressure. For estate purposes. No sales price.

Word of advice....dont rely on realist for the zoning ...