Please help. Am I wrong in my thinking?

[CANative]

Quality doesn't always require an adjustment. Granite counters and hand shaved wood flooring is lost on dirt road rentals. A natural river rock fireplace might be an oddity in a tract house neighborhood but an expected amenity in a custom home on a country lane where all the corporate excutives from the nearby city live.

 

[Michael Tipton]

Jim,

I gave a course on Construction a few weeks ago in Fort Myers. 12 appraisers show up after multiple mailings. Most don't care to know.

As far as quality goes many dwellings are average quality with a few good quality features. I am the author of NAIFA's old training manual (They dropped it in 2005) for M & S and was part of M & S approved instructors corp back in the day. I have tried to hold a few M & S classes and cannot get enough people to attend. Most like their CE from people who are low cost and don't expect much from the student, i.e. reading the paper is OK.

Dennis, as you are aware, I took your M & S course when offered during last CE cycle. I would have taken the recent construction CE course if offered earlier this cycle. Business is slow in SW Florida as you are well aware. If offered when I do not have to be concerned about my budget, I would consider the construction CE course as one of my electives.

My last low cost CE class had me biting my tongue over certain comments made.

 

[Mztk1]

I have meet many appraisers who really don't know very much about building materials or why one is better then the other.

Take 10 apprasiers into a home with wood floors and ask them some questions about the type of floor they are standing on and what type of material it is and how much value it adds to a home and you will start to see the problem.

After 30 years in the building and remodeling business becoming an appraiser about 10 years ago was a bit of a shock!

Most of the people I met did not seem to know much about what went into building a home or why one materail was better then another.

I once sat in front of a home and because there was no chimmy sticking out of the roof my mentor noted there was no fireplace to me but when I pointed out that the home was new and might have a gas fireplace which is vented out an exterior wall and would not need a chimmy and he said let's take a look and sure enough there it was.

Builders some times like to add fireplaces and a gas fired one costs less to install and build.

Granite has been installed in many homes but the thought of having a material that has been used for years for grave stones never really appealed to have that on my counter tops.

Is a tile roof better then fiberglass shingles on a new home?

The tiles are not what make your roof waterproof it's the material under the tiles that do that.

I live in Florida where we sometimes get hurricanes what do you think is the first thng to blow off a roof ? The tiles. Any idea how much a barrel tile weights when it's flying through your front window in a storm compared to a fiberglass shingle?

A CE class in different types of building material and why one is better then the other might help many appraisers who look at this stuff all the time and then start making comments about the costs and why this is a upgrade.

How many appraisers know the difference between stucco over concrete and stucco over wood frame these are things you really should.

Just my opinion. Jim Hill

I was in building too Jim and I know what you mean, but get this:

When I moved to Florida 11 years ago I had the hours required to be certfied, with my last 30 hr course an NAIFA course called "Construction and the Appraiser". I sent in my log showing not the required 2 but 5 or 6 years of experience, I sent in my class hours with the adequate amount for cerficiation, and it came back saying I only qualified for Licensing because the Construction and the Appraiser class was not approved in Florida. It took me a week to find out why and the reply was it will never be accepted because the state sees no reason for the appraiser to have indepth knowledge of construction. Huh?

That was back in 1998 and I do believe that the state has since approved a construction class, but I was dumbfounded. I sat for the license test instead of the certified test, and to this day have kept it that way.