Practicum Courses

[sdboltsfans]

Is anyone familiar with the practicum courses to satisfy work experience? I spoke to AQB and they advised me there are no approved courses in California. Does anyone know of any online courses that are approved?

I'm already licensed so this would be specifically to gain work experience.

 

[George Hatch]

Adding the nature of your inquiry with the "I'm already licensed" comment leads me to believe you have a trainee license and you have been unable to line up with a certified appraiser to obtain your experience requirements for licensure under the State Licensed Residential category.

To the best of my knowledge there are no approved "Practicum" courses anywhere in the nation at this point. The Appraiser Qualifications Board of The Appraisal Foundation opened the door to accept such experience toward the minimum licensure requirements a few years back so most of the states have gone along with that in theory. But in practice nobody has developed such a course to the point where any of the states have approved it. I don't know if anyone has even tried yet or if anyone is going to be motivated to try any time in the foreseeable future.

In your place I don't think I'd hold my breath. At any rate such a course would only get you halfway to the minimum number of hours anyway, and you'd be no more marketable as a trainee than if you had zero hours. In fact, showing up at the average sweat shop with half of your hours already completed might even make you less competitive than the raw recruit with no accepted hours.

 

[sdboltsfans]

Thank you

Thanks George. You are correct in regards to gaining experience and obtaining my training hours. I'm feeling pretty defeated these days. I'm finding it incredibly hard to find someone that is willing to take the time to train someone, especially someone with no experience. I guess all I can do is keep trying.

Thanks again for the information, and any other advise would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Brian Weaver]

Practicum offerings wouldn't be on-line. Half the course would be classroom. Half in the field. While we are writing rules in Illinois to permit them...I don't know that anyone has developed one yet.

 

[hastalavista]

The idea of a practicum course is a good one. The AI offers something like it for their designations. But the AI's course is obviously specialized for its objective; provide a demo-substitute that demonstrates the student's mastery of the appraisal process to the same standard that a traditional demonstration report achieves. But that's a $800+/- course one takes to create one appraisal report.

I don't see how a private course provider could design a course that provided, say, 200 practicum hours without charging a couple of thousand of dollars for the course; anything less, I do not believe they could earn a profit in the venture.
Obviously, I do not see a demand by potential students such that there is a steady-stream of applicants lining up to pay $2k each for the opportunity to learn the practical application of the appraisal process.

It seems to me that the only viable provider for a course like this would be a local junior college. I can see a college developing it as a certificate course (non-standard college credit course), but even then I question how much demand there would be.

 

[Trishg]

Appraisal Math *Cost Approach & Sales Comparison*

I really need a tutuor or an experience appraiser to assist me in learning coast approach especially depreciation. I have taken the Certified Exam twice falling short 3pts.


Trish from Texas