Strategies for raising fees

[George Hatch]

That is true- to a point.
There is still a thriving local artsan and farmers markets as well as certain retail stores, not everyone wants to shop big box/big ag/ or buy the same mass produced merch - there is still demand for local profesionals etc - though the above also has been a disruptive force, many manufacturers simply sell online now or through Amazon combined with some brick and mortor stores.

Some specialization required

 

[djd09]

were they stealing appraisers intellectual property in 1985...and using to turn then into the state, label them old white males, and let the scum bag mortgage brokers do appraisals with no inspection or USPAP...

 

[Non Sequitur]

Actually the appraisers managed to dodge the bullet that hit most others starting 40 years ago when big box destroyed small business in many community's.

What had allowed appraisers to continue was it's so small nobody had tried to capture it's market and like the local baker, black smith or shoe repair essentially an-artisan guild type of operation.

I think we dodged a bullet in no small part because most of our clients did until Dodd-Frank. Now community banks are a dying breed and most mortgage brokers are funneling through large wholesale lenders. Our clients are consolidating and bringing us along for the ride.

 

[DTB]

This is exactly why I have volunteered to contribute the unpopular minority report to the discussion. Winter is already here and I doubt the situation is going to improve for most appraisers, myself included. Everyone should be giving significant consideration toward what comes next for them because where we're at right now is only going to get worse for most of us. Quite possibly all of us. Except for those of us who pass on before we get passed on. My own appraisal practice may or may not be viable by the time I get to 2035. If I get to 2035.

Everybody knows how much it costs for any service person to darken your door, as appraisers what is that charge? Usually only considered when a client cancels and you seek a trip fee.

Does a service plumber know more than an appraiser? I doubt it. Does he have licensing renewals on the order of appraisers? Nope. Continuing Ed. requirements the same? E&O or subscriptions to pay for? Nope.

So why do they get $400 for 30-60 minutes of snaking out your main line?

Because people WANT the service. We've been selling something most users don't even want.

I know most appraisers aren't big on selling/marketing...so go into something that people WANT. You won't have to sell it as much and if you do sell a little bit, you're crushing it.

 

[J Grant]

Everybody knows how much it costs for any service person to darken your door, as appraisers what is that charge? Usually only considered when a client cancels and you seek a trip fee.

Does a service plumber know more than an appraiser? I doubt it. Does he have licensing renewals on the order of appraisers? Nope. Continuing Ed. requirements the same? E&O or subscriptions to pay for? Nope.

So why do they get $400 for 30-60 minutes of snaking out your main line?

Because people WANT the service. We've been selling something most users don't even want.

I know most appraisers aren't big on selling/marketing...so go into something that people WANT. You won't have to sell it as much and if you do sell a little bit, you're crushing it.

Though plumbers are well paid (not quite $400 for 30 minutes ), they are well paid hourly, BUT that is also due to their enjoying (like most businesses and professionals) a big and diverse customer base -a consumer is allowed to select and hire any plumber or plumbing company they want. So there might be (for example ) in a city or town within X distance, 40,000 potential customers for 80 licensed plumers ( for example )

If that demand channel shrank to ten companies controlling 75 % of the plumbing orders, and the other consumers are not allowed ot order directly, now 80 plumbers are competing for work from 10-20 outlets. The demand is concentrated, and if you combine that with the companies ordering plumbing getting compensated from a split of what the plumber's fee is, it drives down the amount reaching the plumber. er.


The bulk of res lending work was always lender work and was always regulated, but the shift to using AMCs, with their profit interests pushing them to lower fees, is what compressed fees. The problem on the res license side of appraisal is that there are very few customers outside of mortgage lending work to sell and market to. Which is why we see only a trickle of people entering the field for a license.

 

[DTB]

BUT that is also due to their enjoying (like most businesses and professionals) a big and diverse customer base -a consumer is allowed to select and hire any plumber or plumbing company they want

The problem on the res license side of appraisal is that there are very few customers outside of mortgage lending work to sell and market to

My point exactly.

 

[George Hatch]

"profit is inherently immoral" is a line of reasoning that only a socialist could love.

It's okay to not be a socialist.

 

[J Grant]

"profit is inherently immoral" is a line of reasoning that only a socialist could love.

It's okay to not be a socialist.

It is also okay not to support nearly all the wealth funneling up to the 1%. And nobody said profit is immoral
But stacking a system so the workers and middle class get squeezed to send more and more of the wealth and profit to a small upper tier stinks - I can not understand the fierce defense of it.

 

[George Hatch]

It beats working for the govt. Most appraisers do not aspire to become "Property of the State".

 

[J Grant]

If being a socialist means fighting back for some pay parity to workers and middle class, what is so horrible about that? The term is flung about reckelessly as real socialism is very specific and quite different than that.