Well- training is a sort of multi-generational problem. Us geezers from the early 90s had two learning curves to master - our computer and our USPAP/education issues.
But we were trained by typewriter driven appraisers - pre-licensing. So we were not being trained in the technical aspects we take for granted today. We had to learn that on our own, and much of our self-education was to speed up the writing, and adopt the digital technology and equipment we take for granted today. We got the Zen of appraising while teaching ourselves computers. Our only (at first) and best tool was the 12C - which was limited in what it could do. But our instructors were oriented towards the $/SF and "the book" that
@ucbruin talks about.
So our trainers knew no more about computers - perhaps less - that we did. And every appraisal supervisor I had save one was an agent or broker, and she was married to one. Every appraisal instructor I had for my basic courses, right up to the CG was a broker in addition to appraiser. True professional supervisor-trainers were rare and usually had all the trainees they wanted. So we ended up with that first generation of newbies becoming trainers. Some were creating appraisal mills to crank out volumes of work and thus created yet another generation of appraisers who were either less skilled or were simply sloppy production appraisers. None of them could meet the coming standards, but they were not being held to a standard...except a low one.
The only good thing to come out of the Crunch Years of 2007-2012 was a demand for more appraisal skills. It has been a hard transition for some. And again, many with a limited clientele comfortable with the level of reporting never took the time with the newest generation of appraisers to teach them good techniques to support what, often was perfectly accurate adjustments. They honestly never tried to quantify such, just used the grid to adjust until the numbers were as close to each other as possible...which is all that a sensitivity grid does for SF.
One aspect of the secondary market and why I quit it was that the forms and all the forms have an element of being more of a check list instead of real information that delves with value. Who gives a hoot about wainscot? And who has ever adjusted for the difference in NG or propane? The only place I ever knew that mattered was in a poultry farm where NG can same tens of thousands of dollars per year over propane. Reducing the report to a checklist valuable only to the cryptic interpretation of a computer reading it, means the future appraiser needs to learn the specific term that keeps the bell from ringing rather than focusing upon an accurate description.
An additional downside with these coming forms is that the general public cannot read them. Therefore, the appraiser is saddled with providing 2 different styles of report depending upon who is going to read it - the Fannie computer or a real human. That burdens the appraiser with just that much more to master all while attempting to cheapen the cost of an appraisal. I don't get it. I got $300 for an appraisal back in 1994 for a house that the town average was $60,000. Today, it's hard to consistently get $600 for a house that costs $600,000....why are lenders so focused upon reducing the cost of an appraisal when they earn 30x the cost of the appraisal in the first year of the mortgage.
