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

[Zoe]

I'm not going to disagree with you that lay offs is a valid point to consider....

The only time I was laid off was not due to low appraisal volume but rather a banking decision not to have staff appraisers in areas of the country where there were no bank branches....
Around 1999/2000 Nations Bank purchased BofA and in the NE there were no branches so the 3 NE field appraisers and office manager were laid off....
Fortunately for all of us this is a period of high appraisal volume and lenders were contracting/approaching me to apply to be placed on their panel....
Sort of like the past 2 years....

Should interest rates pop up a couple of 3 points....
The entire appraisal industry will grind to a stop....
Be it bank staff, fee split staff or sole proprietor....
It's part of the industry....

No residential appraiser will be immune to a spike in interest rates....

Inflation will force it. Moratoriums and evictions and foreclosures are coming to bear.

You have to look at impacts of the moratoriums and eviction stops and foreclosure stops. It will have a bearing. Interest rates will also.

 

[glenn walker]

Nobody who is 55 to 60 years old will survive a Wells Cargo or B & A Staff Position in California. Especially one who has been self employed for 10 or more years . Another dirty little secret is if you get a complaint filed against you they do nothing to assist or protect you because you are State Licensed and on your own wheras in the old days as a Real Bank Employee you had certain protections but that ship sailed

 

[Alsie35]

Nobody who is 55 to 60 years old will survive a Wells Cargo or B & A Staff Position in California. Especially one who has been self employed for 10 or more years . Another dirty little secret is if you get a complaint filed against you they do nothing to assist or protect you because you are State Licensed and on your own wheras in the old days as a Real Bank Employee you had certain protections but that ship sailed

Suspect you are 100% correct. World Savings Bank was a great place to learn this business, it was run like a giant family business (because it was one), but its been gone for 13 years.

Why would ANYONE who is 60 years old want to go back into a modern, faceless, big bank environment (and start at 10 vacation days a YEAR )?

 

[George Hatch]

The bigger problem for someone who's been out on their own for a long time is what their ability is to go from being an outdoor cat to an indoor cat. Especially nowadays when every employee is but one misgendered pronoun away from getting canned. And whatever you do, don't make eye contact, don't crack a joke of any kind, and definitely don't be smiling at people. Those are all micro-aggressions.

 

[Joe Flacco]

Life is just easier when someone in the house has benefits. Especially if you have kids. My wife doesn't earn much but she has very good benefits and it is a big weight off my shoulders. One less thing to worry about.

 

[KenAZ]

BoA, Wells Fargo and even Quicken all do the same thing. I love being staff, but when the market turns they lay you off. (Happened to me 3 times)

 

[Alsie35]

BoA, Wells Fargo and even Quicken all do the same thing. I love being staff, but when the market turns they lay you off. (Happened to me 3 times)

Happened to me ONCE ... and that was enough.

 

[Overimprovement]

I would never work as an appraiser where there was a quota. It is demeaning. Plus each property is different and one hiccup along the way can cause unnecessary stress to meet some asinine quota. I am not a fan of quota in any line of work. So many of my friends over the years who had quotas were always stressed about them. When around colleagues its all they talked about' it dominated their lives. I think quotas can lead to unwise decisions and liability. Easy for a suit to establish a quota when the appraiser is signing the report.

On the other hand - I would consider doing review work for the evil empire. But I would need at least 100k salary knowing I will get let go once things cool down. Of if I decide I don't like the job at least I got a few good paychecks out of it .

I did recently apply for the review appraiser at Wells. Pay was up to 110 or 120 (cant remember exactly). Man, the application process was awful; just awful. So many nutty questions. I had to explain my experience in detail to a number of different scenarios. I thought my masters, designation and experience could speak for itself. The no reply email let me know I was no longer being considered. They wanted experience working within some kind of system I have never heard of and that no intendent res appraiser would have anyway unless you worked for a large institution as a reviewer before.

*Interesting note - I also had 2 recruiters contact me for review positions at Wells the pay was much less than the job I applied for. Working remotely for some Wells division in the NC/SC area.

Many times, they have their prospective match all lined up, but they have to go through the appearances of it being some open competition.

To OP's question:

I worked for a large bank for 6 years, couple different roles. The big money is in sales, and who you know at the bank. Big bunch of brown nosing snobs. There is no such thing as independent appraisals within a big bank. They can separate production from underwriting/valuation all they want on paper. But if the loan office is not calling you directly, its their boss calling your boss.

And they are pretty ruthless. One office I was in started with 5 commercial loan officers. When that market dried up (2006-2010 timeframe), it went to 4, 3, then 2. As I was next in line to be re-assigned due to nothing but seniority, I pro-actively jumped ship.

It can be very stressful (far more than anonymous revision requests and ROV's), and there is zero loyalty. Even less than AMC's.

All that said, IF you don't have to completely forgo independent work, why not try it for a month? You will know pretty quick (talk to co-workers who have been there a while) if its for you. If not, go back to your current job.

 

[Zoe]

Many times, they have their prospective match all lined up, but they have to go through the appearances of it being some open competition.

To OP's question:

I worked for a large bank for 6 years, couple different roles. The big money is in sales, and who you know at the bank. Big bunch of brown nosing snobs. There is no such thing as independent appraisals within a big bank. They can separate production from underwriting/valuation all they want on paper. But if the loan office is not calling you directly, its their boss calling your boss.

And they are pretty ruthless. One office I was in started with 5 commercial loan officers. When that market dried up (2006-2010 timeframe), it went to 4, 3, then 2. As I was next in line to be re-assigned due to nothing but seniority, I pro-actively jumped ship.

It can be very stressful (far more than anonymous revision requests and ROV's), and there is zero loyalty. Even less than AMC's.

All that said, IF you don't have to completely forgo independent work, why not try it for a month? You will know pretty quick (talk to co-workers who have been there a while) if its for you. If not, go back to your current job.

I don't think I would do that. I think I would apply for loan originator job or loan processor job or review job like somebody said to try out. She could probably get loan originator job or loan processor job in a heartbeat. She has so many options with her experience. It don't have to be a bank.

 

[George Hatch]

I got laid off twice by the same bank. They went on to hire/lay off 2 more entire appraisal depts in the years after that.