Going for the Licence

[Jody Doyle]

I am going for the Massachusetts licence and wondering if anyone else on the forum is in the similar place as I am?
Jody

 

[Kristin Sinnott]

Massachusetts

I am going for the Massachusetts licence and wondering if anyone else on the forum is in the similar place as I am?
Jody

Hi Jody:

I am in the same place as you are. I have finished my 2 years of experience for RI and MA and have been at the same company for 7 years. I am having a lot of trouble with the applications because I am the only trainee in the office. I have passed the RI test but no one can give me a straight answer whether I can use that test for my MA license since it was through Promissor.
Do you know how many hours of experience MA will allow for a multi family, drive by, sf, etc? Sometimes appraisals can take a couple hours while others will take days.
I am having a hard time with the application and I was wondering if you had any advice?

 

[Larry Sherrell]

I'm in Mass.

I'm in Massachusetts. Have another year + to go before I get my license. Where are you located and for whom do you work?

-Larry

 

[Jody Doyle]

going for license

I work on the South Shore of Boston. The office is in Braintree, The Appraisers Collaborative. I live in Cohasset. My trainee license is valid until Dec. 06. I have 2.5 years experience and have done about 2 appraisials a week.. 168 reports under my belt.. 5 hours is the min. for hours I will log for an assignment and many took days, 12 hours and some will log as 18 hours. I am now going to take my excel spreadsheet of assisgnments and do it in the format the State asks for to get my application process started. I have found my education certificates. I took classes from the MBREA (Mass Board of Real Estate Appraisers, Dedham, MA)

In addition, I have purchased the Learnappraising.com online exam prep.

On a bit of a frustrating note, this process will cost over $800 , hours of preparing and my split won't go up as I am already fortunate enough to get split equal to licensed appraisers.

At the moment, business is slow. Much different from when I first started and the other appraisers were booking weeks out.

I'd definately like to talk to someone else preparing for the exam and maybe set up a study group? When I go take the exam, I want to feel really ready. I have months to prepare and am starting NOW!

I have learned a lot from this forum and thank those who have provided good answers!

Jody Doyle

 

[Kate]

I wish I was in your shoes. The Mass board is a cake walk compared to NH. Mass actually lets you choose the appraisals you want them to review. NH picks randomly from your log and then calls the clients randomly to make sure the report you sent is exactly the same as the report you submit.

As for studying for the test, I like learnappraising.com and have used it a lot. However I know people who say they have found wrong answers from that site.

 

[Kristin Sinnott]

Jody Doyle:
Someone else in the forum said that in MA they go by a point system, 2 points for a multi and 1 point for a single family. They also said that MA requires 240 points. Do you know if this is correct? Like you said some appraisals can take days so how would this point system be accurate?

As for the test, I took it in RI and I failed the first time. They will not tell you which questions were incorrect. I have plenty of books that might help you, but I am sure that you probably have most of them.

Thank you,
Kristin
kristinseclipse@hotmail.com

 

[Jody Doyle]

Experience Log

The handbook, revised in October, 2005 for Massachusetts, defines an hour of experence as verifiable time spent performing appraisal tasks.

When I started keeping track 2 years ago there was a point system but it has changed.

With the application you must include true copies of 10 workfiles as defined by USPAP. The ten workfiles must represent 10 different months from the experience period and may not include drive-by appraisals or 2055.

My trainee license is good till December, 2006 which isn't that far off considering what needs to be done and learned.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Jody Doyle

 

[Highlander416]

I am a Certified Residential Appraiser in Western, MA.

I would suggest going for the Certified Residential level, not the licensed level. Down the road, you would probably want to upgrade anyway, and would have to resubmit a new log, along with all the fees and taking another exam.

Mike

 

[Jody Doyle]

License application procedure

I appreciate the encouragement from members on the forum to go for the Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser. To help me decide I need to clarify if the transaction amount of $1,000,000 is the lending amount or the sales amount. The lending amount is the opinion of the Mass Board of Real Estate Appraisers. For my own sake however, I want to have it confirmed by the State License Board and I haven't heard back from them.

Also, I believe that the test for a License and for Certification is the same, the needed test score is different. Does anyone know the answer to this in Massachusetts?

Jody

 

[Highlander416]

The Licensed catagory is being phased out in many states. If you go for the Certified level, the transaction amount is a non factor. It is hard for me to find any benefit at all in going for the licensed level. Out of curiousity, why are you even considering it at all?

mike