Hey all. I'm an appraisee trainee who is currently worked under a commercial appraiser. I'm curious - for a trainee, what is a typical level of involvement or mentoring from a mentor?
Currently, I receive some limited help if I ask for it, but I'm generally left to figure things out for myself.
I was trained by an MAI and I was not allowed to inspect anything commercial by myself as a trainee unless it was vacant land. He was the one signing and he wanted to see the property if it was improved.
I am not sure if you are talking about inspections so I will continue.
As to writing reports, he had me read past reports and he had me use them as templates. I would write a section of the report and he would have a red marker and cross off stuff, put notes in the margins and have me re-type the section. At first it was the site or neighborhood and then we moved on to Highest and Best Use, then sales comparison, then Income Approach and Cost Approach.
He was supportive but did not hold my hand. He tortured me in some ways. I also found support on the internet and actually this forum at times. Back then I didn't post questions but read as much as I could.
I currently have a trainee. I resisted for years but I am retiring in about five years so I wanted someone to serve my community like I do. Her first assignment was bad timing and she kind of got thrown under the bus. It was 153 acres of mostly wet-lands which is kind of challenging. Then she did a bunch of farms which was easier. I told her from the beginning to do as much as she could and to follow the template as much as possible and also give me a value.
Her first assignment was tough and she really struggles with Highest and Best Use and we talk about that all the time. Her value was $200,000 different than my value but it was a learning experience for her as are all the assignments.
I do commercial (not much), residential and farm work. I take her to all inspections and pay her for the time even though I do not need her to help me inspect a residential property and it costs me money. Today we did two inspections and drove comps for a residential property. The whole time we are in the car we talk about appraisal stuff. Today it was appraising houses in an area that is zoned commercial. We also talked about verifying sales and knocking on doors.
I resisted a trainee for years but at my age I want someone who can replace me for the litigation work and the farm work to serve my community. Is she the right answer? I don't know yet. But I am going to train her the right way and she will either succeed or fail.
To throw a wrench into the situation my residential assistant is having serious health problems that she informed me of last week. So I am now throwing residential stuff at my trainee. Previously she did nothing residential. Well now we have to throw that in. I told her that sometimes people work 30 hours a week and sometimes people work 60 hours per week and this was going to be 60 hours a week for the next few weeks.
She has one farm to complete, a "farm" that is a corn maze to start on and three residential assignments to complete. I told her tonight that she needs to call all of the listing agents for the three residential reports tomorrow to confirm the sales and the conditions of the comps and she might need to call the selling agents too.
She will do what she can, and will get a lot of stuff wrong but we will work on that and correct what she gets wrong. Anyone training a new appraiser needs to do it right and that takes time and will be frustrating sometimes.
