Just as an aside, it's the marketing of UBER and Amazon that is amazing , rather than the technology . Their technology is rather simple, use computer connections or apps on a smart phone to place orders. Beyond that, their retail services are very traditional in nature. Amazon at the end of the day for its retail goods distributes items one can buy without them, and there is no difference between a pair of Nike sneakers whether you buy it on Amazon or walked in a store and bought them or bought them online from a retailer. Amazon is just very good at capturing customers, offering Prime, free delivery etc but the goods it delivers are traditional same old stuff. Same with Ubers, its' a marketing strategy ...saying it's a ride sharing service instead of a taxi. Whoop ee doo, at the bottom line , taking a ride in an Uber service gets you from point A to point B same as a taxi does and in the same time. It's not like the Uber driver can go double the speed limit and get you there faster.
The originators behind UBER and Amazon and any other mega success company is their marketing genius ( and ruthless business practices ), since every other retailer or cab company or person for that matter has access to the same technology.
The problem appraisers have is we are marketing morons. Barely anyone knows who we are or what we do. Plenty of appraisers have local websites but there is no large outreach to public umbrella high visibility websites for appraisals , aka our version of Amazon. As long as our "marketing" is sitting around waiting for lenders and now AMC' s to give us work, whether it is traditional appraisals or hybrids, we are going to be stuck in the lower earnings portion of the business world.
