Getting Started In Appraisal

[Steven Powell]

Hello all. I'm a 43 year old male living in upstate NY. I am a college grad and currently employed by a defense contractor but don't expect to be working for this company beyond July of 2004. My wife is a real estate agent and recommended that I might want to look into becoming a real estate appraiser. I've been talking off and on about doing this for the last 10 years but with a steady job, it was a low priority.

I have no prior experience in appraisal but got my interest in the career field from my mother who used to do paperwork for an appraiser in California. What interested me in this as a possible career choice was the variety of work involved, the opportunity to make a decent living, the ability to be on the go and outdoors, and basically not being chained to a desk 8 hours a day like my current job. I realize I may have to work for an established appraiser/appraisal company for a year or two until I get experience, but eventually would like to start my own company within 5 years.

What is the best way to get started as an appraiser?

What pitfalls should I avoid?

What type of training and certification will I need?

Anybody that may have advice specific to getting trained and certified to appraise in NY state would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[Wally Jones]

Steven

Welcome to the Forum! We look forward to hearing about your progress.

Go to the "Newbies/Appraiser Wannabe" section and read the "Knowledge Base and FAQ" posts. Then, read all of the posts within the Newbie section. Many of your questions will be answered there. Write down questions as you're reading all of the material and any that are left unanswered, please ask! I suspect there is a website for your state's appraisal board. That would be a good place to find out specific information about what you need to get started in New York.

Now, go do some homework! We'll be right here when you're ready to go further.

Good luck!!

 

[Dee Dee]

Originally posted by Steven Powell@Jul 11 2003, 01:42 PM
What interested me in this as a possible career choice was the variety of work involved, the opportunity to make a decent living, the ability to be on the go and outdoors, and basically not being chained to a desk 8 hours a day like my current job.

Steven, Welcome!

Hmmmm....
For the last week I've spent about 3 hours a day driving around in my car, 8 hours a day sitting at my desk typing reports, handling the phones and doing research, and about 1 hour a day when I was actually 'outside' inspecting houses.

Like you, I thought that appraising would be more of an 'outdoor' job, but the truth is that the majority of your time will be spent doing office-type work unless you've got an assistant that will do most of it for you and who you will have to coordinate with continuously.
There's no doubt that it beats the heck out of being chained to a cubby all day, but not nearly as glamourous as it looks to an outsider who only sees the appraiser doing the fun and easy (I think) part of the job.

If you can get an appraiser to let you shadow them for a few days....not just on inspections, but in the office as well....you'll get a much better feel for what the job entails.

Best of luck to you.

 

[George Hatch]

Of course, the location of that office is entirely within your control. What with the rapid advances in hardware, software and connectivity, you can pretty much work anywhere. Back when i was appraising mostly houses, I worked off my laptop (which was the size of a small suitcase at the time). The only times I actually had to be indoors was when I was researching my data, or packaging reports. I found that I could actually get more done, with fewer distractions, if I did the majority of my report writing while I was still out in the field.

The technology available now makes it even easier if that's your thing. Heck, take all your data with you, use your cell phone to do your verifications, take orders and make appointments, upload your PDFs from home. It can be done.

All that said, I spend a lot more time in my office at this point. I seldom appraise anything so straightforward as a single family res. Everything gets more complicated after that. But if I ever did go back to hacking houses, I'd probably do the technoappraiser thing again, 'cause it worked pretty well.

 

[Dee Dee]

Originally posted by George Hatch@Jul 11 2003, 08:04 PM
The technology available now makes it even easier if that's your thing. Heck, take all your data with you, use your cell phone to do your verifications, take orders and make appointments, upload your PDFs from home. It can be done.

George,
You're absolutely correct.
I keep forgetting that my situation is unusual compared to most appraisers out there :redface: .
Cell phones won't work in about half of the market areas that I cover thanks to the towering solid granite mountains, so when I do inspections and observe comps I often have to hustle back to my home office in order to have a working phone. A typical day for me is out in the field for a couple of hours, rush back to see who's called and to make calls, then I'm either typing or back in the field again. A real inconvenience compared to working down in the city but it's the norm up here.