Time Required To Complete "typical" Residential Appraisal

[Vermonter]

My "typical" residential assignment averages around 7.05 hours. That's client communication, setup, drive time, research time, inspection, comps and report writing. Used to be over 9 hours a few years ago. Cut down my coverage area to one county, use a mobile inspection device, reuse comps from my database, etc all got me down below 8 hours per assignment.

Have a time clock app on my phone that I use to keep track.

 

[Tom Woolford]

I've cut mine back to one county also. I've trimmed a lot of inspection time with mobile tech, but still find the single longest task is writing the reconciliation. Try as I might there just is no way to write one using text "clips" or boiler plate. It eats up 45-60 minutes per report alone. Occasionally I get lucky and all the comps can come out of the database and I've got a recent market analysis for that neighborhood, so I might cut it back to four hours. They are unusual though.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

I live in or within 9 miles of 4 counties, and it was not practical for me to limit myself to one county or even one state. As a non-residential appraiser I just "follow the money" and charge by the hour.

 

[Joe Flacco]

It's difficult to break it down per job because it's never one job at a time. I went out on my own in 2013. I was pretty slow my first year. This year I will probably average four to five assignments per week. I probably spend 6 to 8 hours per week away from desk for work purposes and spend another 40 hours per week on everything else like researching, writing. bidding and communicating with clients. I don't think I spend any more than 2 hours a week bidding, communicating with clients and accounting. I worked mostly with 4 clients and for the most part charged between $400 and $1200. I am hoping I can continue to operate this way every year but this was supposedly a pretty good year for everybody so I don't know.

 

[Michigander]

I find around the following for me at least (and I am a bit slow and deliberate) for a typical ERC (since I don't do mortgage work at the moment)

• Site observation and sketching at the house 1-1.5 hours
• Driving around taking comp photos 1-1.5 hours (and my work is all in a 1.5 county area)
• Market research on price trends - 2 hours
• Market research on zoning, highest and best use, etc around 0.5 to 1 hour
• Comparable search, outreach to agents, etc. 3-4 hours
• More comparable search because I didn't like what I found, and more outreach to agents 2-3 hours
• Go to open houses to look at competition 2-3 hours
• Write, write, write, 2-3 hours
• Go back and take more comp photos 1 hour
• Reconciliation and more writing 1 hour
• Print and proof 1 hour
• Finish assignment and scratch my head and doubt myself, and then print and proof 1 hour

Okay, some of that is not quite true, but you get the idea

Edit to add, I think about how our appraisals have life and legs, and because of that, it always seems like there could be more to add. At a certain point however, you just have got to finish the report. Kiss it and send it on its merry way.

 

[EddieB]

So the sample mode is 6-8 hours from field to filed which is where the majority of my residential assignments fall. And at $80 per hour that results in an acceptable fee well above what is now being paid. So what are we able to do about it?

 

[Joe Flacco]

I need to start going to open houses too.

 

[EddieB]

I need to start going to open houses too.

A growing portion of my business is providing appraisals for cash buyers. Realtors are the best source for that segment, the SOW is much more limited and the fees are in line.

 

[Michigander]

Open houses are very helpful in a few ways:

• It puts you out in front of some agents
• You get to see future comparable sales
• You see the competition for your subject property
• You can see market activity and listen to what buyers say if you are observant

 

[Joe Flacco]

A growing portion of my business is providing appraisals for cash buyers. Realtors are the best source for that segment, the SOW is much more limited and the fees are in line.

That's good. I'm not really wanting to go to the open house looking for business. I just want to go see the house. Probably just the ones at the very high end of the price range.