Staff Appraiser for Wells Fargo or B of A? Pro's & Con's

[JTip]

What is it you REALLY want?

100k a year?

Benefits?

Free computer?

 

[glenn walker]

I was a staff appraiser for Corelogic, and our two main clients were BofA and WFargo. WF was a Pain in the A_ _. They used a company called OPUS (online professional underwriting services) who were not appraisers, and were picky as all He_ _, They kept a strict scorecard on every appraiser, and many revision requests were incorrect. The dispute process took weeks even months to get it off your scorecard.
B of A was much easier to please. To this day, I shudder when I see WF on an appraisal order, and often decline just for that reason.

I'm assuming that might be the same scenario working directly for them, but I don't know for sure.Wek

 

[glenn walker]

Maybe just take the job and see how it works - You will know within 90 days if its a good fit and if so God Bless You -The truth is nobody can tell you how its going to work out : )

 

[Alsie35]

Not much to add to what's been said .. don't know WF Bank appraising, but the World Savings Bank appraisal brass took over the WF Bank appraisal department post-merger ... so if its run like WSB was when Rick Langdon was in charge (I think he is still the top appraiser at WF), it probably wouldn't be bad .. *BUT* ..

What if you want to take 2 months off to go visit/spend with family and friends on the other side of the country, or overseas for example? You are talking about switching to a "Less pay for more work, no vacation" kind of job. Fine for a 20-something newbie appraiser looking for experience ... but ..... do you REALLY want that kind of job at this point of your life? Or is it the lack of support staff that's wearing you down?

That's why I would NEVER go back to that life. I value my freedom and the ability to decide how much I am going to make this year.

 

[Mejappz]

I would not take on a staff job for any of these bankers. What they want is high production; they want a widget to sign off the compliance document.

 

[Zoe]

There are many different jobs in a bank besides appraising. You might get foot in door and decide you want to do something else inside bank. Like residential mortgage lending or commercial lending or something else on the deposit side of the bank like wealth management. There are many potential different routes you could go in the bank. That is a Pro. Your fringe benefits are a Pro also. You will have basically many of the same fringe benefits of anybody in the bank based on their criteria in order to earn those benefits. The personnel person could help you if you want to change routes in the bank. You might be good in the personnel department. I forgot about that department. The compliance department you would be good in. The appraisal dept is just one small part of the overall compliance dept.

Once you get foot in door, you could talk to the personnel director over you and say I might be interested in working in a different department.

 

[ucbruin]

Not knowing if you are currently working as staff or sole proprietor or fee split....
I'm assuming that there is something in your current situation that has you pondering a change....

My 1st decade of appraising I worked for SPNB/BofA as staff appraiser (1987-~1998)....
By my 5th year or so I thought our fees were too low, but that's the only thing I found negative about their system....

We had freedom...
We had paid vacations....
We had all the bennies....

For me the only downside was not being able to accept assignments from other sources....
Which could be an issue when the bank raised rates or fees until the congested processing pipeline cleared up....
Obviously this could have a significant impact on appraisal volume....

Women with young children liked the system as well....
As they set their own schedule....

 

[Zoe]

You got the marketing department also in a bank that you could pursue. You have options if you don't like the appraisal dept when you get there. The personnel dept usually likes to move people around inside bank first if they want to move instead of hiring outside. Now once you get to upper level management, things change a little, but you would have options.

 

[George Hatch]

These banks are notorious for bringing appraisers in when times are good and then laying them off when the volumes dry up. So you take the pay cut (compared to what you can make working for yourself) when times are good and then you get dumped back into competing for assignments at exactly the wrong point of the RE cycle when times are tough.

There are other reasons for taking a staff position, but if you're looking for security and stability then you definitely want to be careful with your assumptions.

 

[glenn walker]

Not much to add to what's been said .. don't know WF Bank appraising, but the World Savings Bank appraisal brass took over the WF Bank appraisal department post-merger ... so if its run like WSB was when Rick Langdon was in charge (I think he is still the top appraiser at WF), it probably wouldn't be bad .. *BUT* ..

What if you want to take 2 months off to go visit/spend with family and friends on the other side of the country, or overseas for example? You are talking about switching to a "Less pay for more work, no vacation" kind of job. Fine for a 20-something newbie appraiser looking for experience ... but ..... do you REALLY want that kind of job at this point of your life? Or is it the lack of support staff that's wearing you down?

That's why I would NEVER go back to that life. I value my freedom and the ability to decide how much I am going to make this year.

World Savings days were real staff appraisal and easy peasy jobs and so was wells fargo back in those days those Ships sailed a long time ago --like 30 years or more ago : ) LOL