Poll: Will you trade fee for volume in a slow market?

[J Grant]

If you are actually hurting and a couple months behind on bills you're not spending free time on AF complaining about low fees. You are grateful for every job you get that helps keep your boat afloat. Everyone here has their head above water, they're just pissed they have to compete.

A field is so overtaken by AMCs that the appraisers who work for them (since the AMCs comprise a large share of the orders ) are months behind on bills, and their only way to survive is to reduce their fees to such a low level that they are barely profitable - that is not a profession, or a profession worth going into IMO - unless one is a masochist or the exception wrt some special niche or connections for client base.
They are not pissed because they have to compete; they are "pissed" because the only way they can get work in an AMC environment is by ruinous competition.

 

[J Grant]

It's funny..... This thread going on at the same time as "TAF gone wild" thread. In the gone wild thread.... scholarship money is being pumped into the PAREA system to "blaze a trail" to enter into this "exciting profession" to build a workforce for years to come.... when current appraisers, depending on the location, are being starved out by competing with other appraisers with the lowest fee to win the job.....

The newbies lured into PAREA by false promises are going to be upset when they hit the real world for res license work -

 

[CGinMN]

A field is so overtaken by AMCs that the appraisers who work for them (since the AMCs comprise a large share of the orders ) are months behind on bills, and their only way to survive is to reduce their fees to such a low level that they are barely profitable - that is not a profession, or a profession worth going into IMO - unless one is a masochist or the exception wrt some special niche or connections for client base.
They are not pissed because they have to compete; they are "pissed" because the only way they can get work in an AMC environment is by ruinous competition.

You say potato, I say potato.

 

[alebrewer]

The newbies lured into PAREA by false promises are going to be upset when they hit the real world for res license work -

Probably depends on what their current situations are...

 

[Zoe]

Work is slow, there's not enough to go around and you're already a couple months behind in your bills. AMC#1 says the prevailing fee for a 1004 is $400 right now, but you can get more work if you bid $375. Which choice will you make:

Would you trade your wife for a pimp?

Don't play me boy.

 

[Tom D]

I never took lower AMC fees, and it cost me everything. So i have no symphathy for AMC appraisers. You all can burn in heck with your masters.
There always have been too many appraisers after certification, so the death of many only helps my kind.
That and most of us being pretty old will bring the future numbers down, leading to a more premium fee. And i mean the few left in the next couple of years.

 

[Carnivore]

The number itself isn't the point of the question. It's the same question whether the numbers are $500/$450 or $350/$250. The point of the question is whether appraisers will move off an all/nothing position if their work is drying up. Will they sit by and earn nothing while their competition limps ahead or will they continue to compete for work until starved out of the business and into a regular employment gig?

Get a different job is the functional equivalent of "I got starved out", which to be sure is a choice that some appraisers have already been making. "Get a second job" doesn't explicitly address the choice between holding the line on the fee or agreeing to less because you could do either if also working a 2nd job.

Tough choices to make. Those entering the last few years will likely try and hold out. The old guys & Gals will just retire if they can. It is the in betweens that are facing a tough decision. !. Get a Part Time Gig and try to continue full time appr. or appraise part time and work a full time 40 hr gig .

I know some Male RE Agents that work a 40 hr job and try to do re broker stuff part time. It works for them, but with cost their making just enough to keep a nice car and maybe go on a nice 1-2 week vacation every year.

 

[Tiffany Gibbons]

Work is slow, there's not enough to go around and you're already a couple months behind in your bills. AMC#1 says the prevailing fee for a 1004 is $400 right now, but you can get more work if you bid $375. Which choice will you make:

Don't work for AMCs. Made that choice a long time ago. I don't see that option. Flawed poll?

 

[Dublin ohio]

Don't work for AMCs. Made that choice a long time ago. I don't see that option. Flawed poll?

For the vast majority of residential appraisers that is unfortunately not a viable option. No matter what anybody says to the contrary

 

[Mark K]

I framed the hypothetical in a specific manner wherein you are already behind and are already hurting. I didn't frame it in reference to your specific situation right now.

"Work is slow, there's not enough to go around and you're already a couple months behind in your bills."​

Does that change your response? For some people it will and for others it won't.

I suspect that some still don't understand the fairly simple question.

In your stated scenario, HELL yes I'd take a $25 cut for more work, if I was still in that business. I think you'd be a fool not to if you were at the end of your financial rope. My family and finances come first. Screw my competition if they don't like it. I'm running a business, not some feel-good support group for people with too much pride and/or too little business sense.