character zero
Freshman Member
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2012
- Professional Status
- Certified Residential Appraiser
- State
- Mississippi
I'm new to this board, but maybe someone will be able to offer some helpful advice. I have a question regarding education courses offered for an appraiser to jump from a certified residential appraiser to a certified general appraiser. I've been an appraiser/broker in the state of Mississippi for ten years now. I'm currently a state certified residential real property appraiser. I have a very unique situation pertaining to the upgrading of my certification, as per the 2008 AQB requirements, & the fact that Mississippi elected to be a firm, rather than segmented state. I can't really get any answer from the Appraisal Board, although they have tried to help. They haven't encountered anyone else that is in the same situation as me, but I feel like nationwide, someone is (or has been in the same predicament as I am/have been in for the past 4 1/2 years. My scenario is this...I graduated from The University of Mississippi, with a BBA degree in Real Estate & Finance, back in 2002. So when i started as an assitant to the GA that I still work with, I had all of my education experience requirements met, all the way through General Appraiser requirements, except for the 15 hour USPAP class, which I took the first week out of school. I majored in Real Estate & finance in college, & upon submitting my transcript to the state board to see what classes I needed to take, in order to be able to sit for my first license test (after completing the required experience log as a trainee under my supervisory appraiser), I was informed that the coursework i took in college fully satisfied the education requirements of the Certified General Appraiser. (This was 2002-2003). So I was on my way, with all the education behind me, I just needed to bust my butt assisting my mentor, & complete my experience logs, & pass the tests as I was allowed to sit for each respective one. I trucked on along as a trainee, & was allowed to sit for the appraisers license test in 2003. I passed the test, & was awarded a license as a real estate appraiser. By this point I was a broker associate as well, but I mainly enjoyed doing appraisal work. I pushed on with my experience log for three more years, & in 2006, I had enough experience to sit for the certified residential appraiser's test. (I could have taken the GA test in 2006, but I was deficient on my experience hours at this time.) So I passed the test for certified resdiential & it was one of the best days I can remember! Times were good back then. I'm making a long story long, but just trying to illustrate what my scenario was/is. Upon getting my certified residential license, I thought (at the time) that all I had to do was finish up my experience log, & I could take the test to become a GA whenever I wanted to. So I was in no hurry at this point. Times were good, & we were so busy doing appraisal work (mainly residential but we did commercial reports as well), that i wasn't rushing to take this next behemoth of a test. In all honesty, I dropped the ball, by not keeping up completely with what was going on with the approaching AQB changes set to take place on 1/1/2008. I passed my RA test in September of 2006. At the time I didn't realize it, but I had just over a year to get all this additinal experience & to pass the test in order to meet the pre-2008 requirements. I didn't realize that in January of 2008, my appraisal education would be null & void & that I would have to start over on my education, almost from scratch, if I wanted to pursue a higher designation of licensure. Mississippi selected the firm scenario & I kept hearing some of my younger piers talking about driving to Atlanta to take a weeks worth of Income 1 classes. A couple of times I was asked by younger licensed appraisers if I wanted to ride to another state & take an AI class for qualifying education. I always replied that my education was grandfathered in, as I had my certification in 2008, & my education was deemed to be good all the way up to GA level. After a couple of guys called & tried to convince me that my education had been nixed, & that I would have to start over, just like these trainees were doing, I finally did some research & realized that they were right. If Mississippi had been a segmented state, then nothing would have changed for me, other than a few more hours of experience required, & possibly a harder test to pass. But since we are a firm state, I was rerquired to go back & re-take all of the classes that I took ten-fifteen years ago in college. I was in denial for the longest time, but I finally broke down & called the MAB, & I was informed that I would have to go back & take some more classes, but I wouldn't have to start from scratch. They gave me a list of classes I needed to take to satisfy the requirements. It was supposed to be a total of only 100 additional hours, but apparently 180 is what's required, because I have found no education provider that offers the classes in the blocks of hours that I am required to take in each. In order to satisfy the new requirements for the State of MS, I need the following:
1) General Market Analysis & HABU class - 15 hours
2)General Appraiser Sales Comparison Approach - 15 hours
3)General appraiser site valuation & cost approach - 15 hours
4) General Appraiser Income Approach - 45 hours
and last but not least
5) General Appraiser Report writing & Case Studies - 10 hours
---------------------------------------------------------------
Total hours needed ------------------------------- 100 hours
Okay, I work usually 60 hours a week, & don't have a lot of time on my hands to take classes on things I already know about, but this didn't seem too bad. Hell furthering my education would only make me a better appraiser, right? So i go to looking for these classes from AI & other providers. Turns out that all of the subjects that I only need 15 hours worth of, are only offered in 30 hour blocks, with a test at the end of the 30 hours, in order to get credit for attendance. The 45 hours of Income approach is offered as two 30 hour courses, & the ten hours I need in report writing is only offered as a 30 hour course. So after the MAB sent me a letter telling me which classes I needed & how many hours of each, I find out that none of these classes are offered in the hour blocks they required for me, but almost double the hours they told me. Instead of 100 hours away from work, I now find out I'll need 180 classroom hours completed away from my job/practice, in order to be able to send off my application just to sit for the test. This is assuming that my appraisal log of 3000 hours is given the thumbs up. So after I realized that these classes weren't offered as MAB advertised I called & spoke with them. They didn't have an answer for me, other than what I really needed to do was take 180 hours of classes instead of 100, as they'd previously informed me (or should I say misinformed me). So now I'm looking at taking all these classes & spending all this money, & I'm worried about losing my client base because I can't be on the job while in school. I'm sorry for the long post/thread, but how asenine has this industry become with their crazy requirements & regulations? Since when did we start discouraging people from going to college, or I mean telling them to go get a degree, but then upon graduation, they'll then need to re-sign up for the school that teaches appraisal. When did we decide that universities of higher learning with programs dedicated to teaching real estate & finance coursework up to a 500 level, is no longer applicable toward getting an appraisers license. My university had a very good real estate department. The then chairman of which, went on to develop software that just about every residential appraiser in the United States currently uses on a daily basis.Why is it that a guy that has been a broker & an appraiser for ten years, with no complaints filed, & who has had no trouble with the MREC or the MAB ever, needs to go back to school & start from scratch with stuff that he has been practicing for over a decade, as if he were a trainee. I would love nothing more than to further my certification, but with my senior partner all but retired, & the load of volume that we have had for the past few years, I feel like this move would be career suicide for me at this point. I cannot abandon my client base & just let some other appraiser move in on my buiness, can I? Does anybody on this board (who had the patience to sit through & read that crazy rant) have any advice for a fellow appraiser about how to approach this situation, other than just giving up on my dreams? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
1) General Market Analysis & HABU class - 15 hours
2)General Appraiser Sales Comparison Approach - 15 hours
3)General appraiser site valuation & cost approach - 15 hours
4) General Appraiser Income Approach - 45 hours
and last but not least
5) General Appraiser Report writing & Case Studies - 10 hours
---------------------------------------------------------------
Total hours needed ------------------------------- 100 hours
Okay, I work usually 60 hours a week, & don't have a lot of time on my hands to take classes on things I already know about, but this didn't seem too bad. Hell furthering my education would only make me a better appraiser, right? So i go to looking for these classes from AI & other providers. Turns out that all of the subjects that I only need 15 hours worth of, are only offered in 30 hour blocks, with a test at the end of the 30 hours, in order to get credit for attendance. The 45 hours of Income approach is offered as two 30 hour courses, & the ten hours I need in report writing is only offered as a 30 hour course. So after the MAB sent me a letter telling me which classes I needed & how many hours of each, I find out that none of these classes are offered in the hour blocks they required for me, but almost double the hours they told me. Instead of 100 hours away from work, I now find out I'll need 180 classroom hours completed away from my job/practice, in order to be able to send off my application just to sit for the test. This is assuming that my appraisal log of 3000 hours is given the thumbs up. So after I realized that these classes weren't offered as MAB advertised I called & spoke with them. They didn't have an answer for me, other than what I really needed to do was take 180 hours of classes instead of 100, as they'd previously informed me (or should I say misinformed me). So now I'm looking at taking all these classes & spending all this money, & I'm worried about losing my client base because I can't be on the job while in school. I'm sorry for the long post/thread, but how asenine has this industry become with their crazy requirements & regulations? Since when did we start discouraging people from going to college, or I mean telling them to go get a degree, but then upon graduation, they'll then need to re-sign up for the school that teaches appraisal. When did we decide that universities of higher learning with programs dedicated to teaching real estate & finance coursework up to a 500 level, is no longer applicable toward getting an appraisers license. My university had a very good real estate department. The then chairman of which, went on to develop software that just about every residential appraiser in the United States currently uses on a daily basis.Why is it that a guy that has been a broker & an appraiser for ten years, with no complaints filed, & who has had no trouble with the MREC or the MAB ever, needs to go back to school & start from scratch with stuff that he has been practicing for over a decade, as if he were a trainee. I would love nothing more than to further my certification, but with my senior partner all but retired, & the load of volume that we have had for the past few years, I feel like this move would be career suicide for me at this point. I cannot abandon my client base & just let some other appraiser move in on my buiness, can I? Does anybody on this board (who had the patience to sit through & read that crazy rant) have any advice for a fellow appraiser about how to approach this situation, other than just giving up on my dreams? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
