Mass Appraisal Experience for Commercial RE

[Mr_Tibbs]

Hello All,

This is my first post and I was hoping to gain some insight from current CG appraisers. I’m a new trainee and may have an opportunity to work as a government assessor specializing in commercial properties. I’ve confirmed with my state board that mass appraisal experience would towards qualifying experience for eventual CG certification. My long term goal is to eventually obtain my CG license and start my own business several years down the road. I’m curious to find out if any others here gained their experience through tax assessing, how common it is, and general thoughts on that pathway towards certification. Thanks!

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

I know several employees of the assessor's office who were licensed. In fact, a CR that is actually the current director of the Arkansas state Assessment Coordination Agency is an appraiser with both assessor and private experience. One of my mentors spent 11 years as a commercial appraiser in the assessors office pre-licensing and she was able to license accordingly when licensing started.

Find a mentor, take report writing classes, and get a little experience and you should be able to run with that ball, especially if you have experience using regression methods.

 

[Mejappz]

Hello All,

This is my first post and I was hoping to gain some insight from current CG appraisers. I’m a new trainee and may have an opportunity to work as a government assessor specializing in commercial properties. I’ve confirmed with my state board that mass appraisal experience would towards qualifying experience for eventual CG certification. My long term goal is to eventually obtain my CG license and start my own business several years down the road. I’m curious to find out if any others here gained their experience through tax assessing, how common it is, and general thoughts on that pathway towards certification. Thanks!

I’m a member of the IAAO and strongly advise you to take their mass and single property appraisal courses. Don’t waste your time on courses from the AI or any other education provider if your goal is to get a certification through the assessment route.

The fee world is 30-40 years behind mass appraisal techniques, and by the looks of it, they have no interest in learning any of these methods. I would start by taking the IAAO introductory appraisal courses, then move on to the **Residential** mass appraisal courses, and eventually commercial. Keep in mind most mass appraisal techniques were developed on the residential side.

 

[RCA]

I’m a member of the IAAO and strongly advise you to take their mass and single property appraisal courses. Don’t waste your time on courses from the AI or any other education provider if your goal is to get a certification through the assessment route.

The fee world is 30-40 years behind mass appraisal techniques, and by the looks of it, they have no interest in learning any of these methods. I would start by taking the IAAO introductory appraisal courses, then move on to the **Residential** mass appraisal courses, and eventually commercial. Keep in mind most mass appraisal techniques were developed on the residential side.

Well, you can't include me in your "fee world" I guess.

I figure I am far more advanced than what is taught in the IAAO courses (last time a checked). My understanding is that they are still teaching old fashioned multi-linear regression. Not that they can be blamed for that. They are just working within the resources provided them.

 

[PL1957]

Well, you can't include me in your "fee world" I guess.

I figure I am far more advanced than what is taught in the IAAO courses (last time a checked). My understanding is that they are still teaching old fashioned multi-linear regression. Not that they can be blamed for that. They are just working within the resources provided them.

View attachment 57108

It’s a good thing you keep reminding us that you’re smarter than the rest of us, otherwise we’d forget …

 

[JTip]

A CR I worked with upgraded to a CG and used her tax assessment experience in her log book.

The state (PA) allowed 50% of the log to be assessment experience.

CHECK WITH YOUR STATE BOARD.

 

[RCA]

It’s a good thing you keep reminding us that you’re smarter than the rest of us, otherwise we’d forget …

I would go much further and state that IAAO Mass Appraisal is defunct, antiquated, no longer very useful at least in areas like the Silicon Valley. They are pretty much teaching the same thing they taught 20 years ago. Around 2005 I bought all their materials and was very much disappointed. -- Statistics from the 1960s or before.

 

[Mejappz]

My understanding is that they are still teaching old fashioned multi-linear regression.

Lol, well, you really need to recheck.

 

[RCA]

Lol, well, you really need to recheck.

I didn't see anything essentially different on the IAAO websiste. They may have new books, but for the most part there is little to indicate any substantive entry into for example non-parametric methods. Most of the courses cover procedural issues not related to data mining.

If you have some links that indicate differently please share them. It would be interesting to seem some evidence of progress in the field.

Mostly though, you have an aging Mafia of educators who are not capable of getting into new technology, but simply rehashing the old in a variety of ways.

It would be nice if I were wrong .... but the Mafia have built a sizeable fortification around their antiquated science of Ratio's and the like.

 

[RCA]

Lol, well, you really need to recheck.

In terms of timelines, most of the statistics used in real estate was developed before 1950.

MARS (Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines), which I use, was initially developed by Jerome Friedman around 1989-90. Of course software tools using the various statistical methods are always being developed, with various notable advancements in the subsequent years.

The real estate statistics establishment knows only what it knows and doesn't want to hear about anything else. These are mostly older people who have been in the field for decades and are mostly interested in protecting their turf.

- But it is an opportunity for others who want to break into the field. The current infrastructure will fail, just give it time.