I just made the switch from commercial fee appraiser to commercial review appraiser two years ago. As other post-ers have indicated, what I do like are the regular hours, only working on weekends and holidays if I want to (and if I do, getting paid extra for doing it), basically getting to have a personal life again. I also work for a lender with a nationwide lending program, so I have enjoyed learning about other parts of the country and the travel to look at some of the properties we are making loans on.
The downside includes the loss of the ability to take time off when I want. Am stuck with the "accrued" time available, and the dress code. I do have to admit that the California dress code standard is much more casual than it was in Chicago so that has been an improvement. I took a substantial cut in pay to make this switch. After two years, I am trying to decide if the trade-off in pay is worth the additional time off. Or maybe it is just that after two years of having a personal life I have realized I didn't need as much personal life as I thought.
After reading many of the posts on this website regarding what the residential appraisers generally think about reviewers, I think that commercial appraisal reviewers must be a little more experienced than the residential appraisal reviewers. Generally the appraisers that I work with are very responsive when asked for additional information, corrections or clarifications. But I think a lot of it has to do with how reasonable the appraiser feels the request is to start with.
As mentioned in another post, the corporate atmosphere where you are going will be of critical importance. How much support does the Appraisal Department have from those farther up the ladder? If there is no support, you will be defending your decisions constantly, and it won't be much fun. It's never any fun to be the bad guy all the time. Where I worked in Chicago before making the move to California, the Appraisal Department was blamed for every loan that didn't make it through underwriting, no matter what the real cause. That company has now done away with its Appraisal Department altoghether. I am waiting for the foreclosures to start really spiking in about a year or so when the faked income statements and bad appraisals start coming to light.
Would I trade the experience? No. It has been great to see the appraisal business from the lending side. If I do choose to go back to fee appraisal, I know that I will provide better reports to my clients because I now know what they are looking for.
