The End of *most* Full Time Appraiser's ?

[J Grant]

One of the problems with staff jobs for appraisers is that if times get slow they are let go ( rhyme ) - and then they have nothing to fall back on, they lost all their clients etc. The senior positon folks such as a regional manager may be immune but I doubt regular appraisers are -

An independent fee appraiser at least has some work during a lean time and retains their clients for when things pick up - that said, either end is more vulnerable than ever and whether on staff or inpdenet, the new tech and new products such as WAIVERS reduces and profiteer deciosn to use PDC collectors to inspect - the combo reduces volume of orders or fees - (or both)

Commercial is vulnerable too as AI can cover certain applications, especially with prompts the narrative writing and income cap, though their more diverse client base and type of properties and lack of AMC gouging fees due to a bundled fee works in their favor.

 

[JTip]

NCDot has a job available in Raleigh that any appraiser would qualify for, and it pays $60k with all the bell and whistle benefits.

Combine with 2 or 3 fee jobs during the evening or weekend and you are sitting pretty at $100k+.

 

[George Hatch]

I had an office for a few years back before the meltdown but it was because I was sharing office space and expenses with another CG. He retired so that was the end of that. He literally sold his home for a nice profit 1 month before the SHTF and retired at the same time. He and his wife (college instructor) moved to Oregon.

CG work actually pays significantly less than residential when the SFR markets are hot, but (and this is significant) it's far more stable when the markets run cold. It pays to service the client relationship and prioritize your regulars instead of chasing individual fees. And yes, there's supply/demand of effect in our end, too. The competition factor just isn't as intense as for the residential appraisers. I bid on all my assignments and some of those bids don't go anywhere. Meaning, I lose some of those bids due to either being too slow (backed up) or sometimes because of the fee itself.

 

[glenn walker]

Back in the day, I carried business cards AND a brief case. Even had a real office.

Up until about year 2000 most appraisers in my area had a real office and often a full time office manager and other appraisers working. We actually got out of bed and checked in.

I had mine separated from our real estate office. We carried business cards and casual dress but not Hawaiian Shirts Flip Flops and Shirts with Ted's Surf Shop on them. The office adjacent ours was attorneys and two civil engineers. Those were times when we had to interact in person with bankers and lenders.

The big change came when AMCs and apprasers became order takers.

One on this forum one who taught USPAP live courses said loan production appraisers had been rounded up and herded them like cattle into becoming a Commodity that was traded on the AMC exchanges like wheat, Corn and gasoline futures. I used to laugh because by year 2000 it was so true.

 

[alebrewer]

The big change came when AMCs and apprasers became order takers.

I'd disagree just a bit and state that the big change came when they busted up the broker/appraiser relationships. There is absolutely no doubt that relationship needed to be busted up, but it did change the nature of the appraiser's role. Instead of being 'the' appraiser for several brokers, he/she became one of many appraisers on an AMC or lender panel. That's quite the psychological 'hit'.

 

[George Hatch]

I actually have to be mindful to not do too much work for any one lender. It's not healthy for them to become too dependent upon a single appraiser or for the appraiser to become too dependent upon only one or two clients.

 

[Non Sequitur]

Working for yourself is great....
If you're getting work....

True enough.

When AMCs and national firms partly supported by grant money from our regulators compete for the same assignments, that makes them competitors with unfair advantage. It's a flat-out conflict. But TAF, the ASC, the GSEs, and definitely not the appraisal institute, care enough about independence and public trust to stand up for independent appraisers or an independent appraisal process.

The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed. Enjoy it if you have some business, staff and firms will eventually get that too.

 

[J Grant]

I'd disagree just a bit and state that the big change came when they busted up the broker/appraiser relationships. There is absolutely no doubt that relationship needed to be busted up, but it did change the nature of the appraiser's role. Instead of being 'the' appraiser for several brokers, he/she became one of many appraisers on an AMC or lender panel. That's quite the psychological 'hit'.

The impact came from the economic result, not the psychological hit.

For lenders or loan wholesalers who do not use AMC's, there is no fee completion for rebular orders ( the panel all gets paid the same C and R fee in a region for non complex press. ) The copprut mode of the AMC compensation coming from a split of the appraisal fee due to the HUD bundled fee was the collateral damage from the mtge broker/ relation ship being broken up.

Not all mortgage brokers were bad, but many of them pushed for value, but if appraisers said no they would usually back off - or replace them with another client. The irony of it is that most AMC;s do not perform any real third-party firewall against value pressure, since AMCs' first priority is to keep their lender clients happy, and that means a minimum of "killed deals" from appraisals.

That means many appraisers are stuck due to supply and demand imbalance from volume control of AMC's working for them - either as hamster in wheel volume on staff or fee pnale, and the result is apprasiers on mortgage end have the worst of all worlds - value pressure still in play but done differently, low fees, intense turn time pressure and scrutiny.

Why few are training and all are telling newbies get a commerical license or don't pursue this - a few res will do well, those of us who have done well had to fight to get the good clients and are vunleable to change any day regardless - good luck out there - the few who do well on res will have advanced training, education (SRA or college courses in statistics RE investing etc ) and /or work in remote areas or find a specialty in demand. There are some government assessor positions worth exploring.

 

[alebrewer]

The impact came from the economic result, not the psychological hit - in my opinion.

Fixed it for you.

The rest of the rant is simply regurgitated from prior rants - no response merited.

 

[George Hatch]

The CG play isn't a silver bullet for the newbs. TBH, I think the appraisers who go straight to CG work without spending any time with 1-4s are limiting themselves even if they don't intend to get involved in the GSE work. I connected some dots on the CG side that I might not have necessarily grasped at the outset if not for my exposure to SFR appraising. I think every CG-wannabe should put some time in on the CR side first.

Aside from that, a lot of residential appraisers enjoy that mix of outside vs inside. The CGs don't get that. More days at the desk and fewer days on the road. I always spend WAY more time on research on these properties than I do when appraising a house. If a couple of you are fretting the new UAD then that's a sign that CG work might not be a good fit for you.

For example, it's not uncommon for me to spend 4 or 5 hours trying to cobble together a rent survey that makes sense, and most of that time is not spent writing the report end of it up. I commonly spend more time in research than in report writing, which would not be apparent from reading the report itself.