Time Required To Complete "typical" Residential Appraisal

[TD Morgan]

I have done only a few homes in my career. The time to complete each appraisal was far longer than a seasoned veteran could have done them, I am sure.

I would like to know how many hours it takes to do a typical appraisal. This should be for the actual work itself (including travel, inspection, data solicitation, verification and analysis, appraisal development and review.)

It should NOT include the overhead time to solicit or market business, communicate with client, or bill. If you have an estimate for these additional (and other) facets of running a business and can break them down on an "hour per appraisal" basis, please do.

(Please respond with anything that I missed.)

If anyone can respond and share the amount of time it takes to cover overhead, such as a full week of work, etc.

I also wonder how many one-man (woman) residential shops there are, compared to large firms. Has the AMC relegated most appraisers to running their own operations?

I am just curious what the state of the profession is for the average residential appraiser.

If the results from this poll are good, I would like to follow up with a break down of current residential fees. Now, I know that fee discussions can be touchy subjects, but I don't think that a group of geographically-dispersed appraisers could ever be charged with attempting to price-fix. It would be impossible to do so, given the current state of the industry. It seems as if most appraisers currently see themselves as "price-takers" rather than "price-makers". But I will leave this issue up for discussion.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Research - 1 to 2 hours
Sketch - 15 minutes
Inspection - 2 hours plus minus - (typical drive is about 30 miles, on site about 45 minutes)
Comp drive - 20 min to 2 hours
Inputs - 45 min. to 2 hours which includes keypunch, pulling up an aerial photo, plat, etc. and frequently, I go to the courthouse (50 mil round trip) to pull deeds in search of easements, etc. That adds 2 hours to any project.

BTW I write a narrative and believe that a narrative takes me no measurable amount of extra time over a form as I have templates for the approaches, the exhibits and photos, and the summary sections.

So each job is different according to the amount of driving necessary, and in several towns I work, you need to make a personal trip to city hall to find zoning, etc. since they have little on line. Outside the city limits - issues and more issues. Hard to predict when it will go smooth and when it won't. I've driven apparent "good" comps to find they are simply too old or in bad shape to use for a comp. And I may need additional comparables.

 

[TD Morgan]

Research - 1 to 2 hours
Sketch - 15 minutes
Inspection - 2 hours plus minus - (typical drive is about 30 miles, on site about 45 minutes)
Comp drive - 20 min to 2 hours
Inputs - 45 min. to 2 hours which includes keypunch, pulling up an aerial photo, plat, etc. and frequently, I go to the courthouse (50 mil round trip) to pull deeds in search of easements, etc. That adds 2 hours to any project.

BTW I write a narrative and believe that a narrative takes me no measurable amount of extra time over a form as I have templates for the approaches, the exhibits and photos, and the summary sections.

So each job is different according to the amount of driving necessary, and in several towns I work, you need to make a personal trip to city hall to find zoning, etc. since they have little on line. Outside the city limits - issues and more issues. Hard to predict when it will go smooth and when it won't. I've driven apparent "good" comps to find they are simply too old or in bad shape to use for a comp. And I may need additional comparables.

If you had to include the amount of time for communicating with clients (bidding, review process, etc.) and the time for billing and other facets of running your business, how much additional time would you think it takes (allocated to each appraisal)?

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

I don't bid but when I was in the RIMS system, it added 30 minutes or more to waste time previewing the assignment My invoice is the top page of the report and RIMS was a PITA due to having to bill a separate file. Banks? **** Poor Pay... They are from 20 to 90 days paying. Funny that individuals pay without being prompted. I have a bank assignment of six properties and its been two months. So I get to call them too. I knew better than to take on a bank client again.

 

[JTip]

typical appraisal

Boy that's a broad word. Typical meaning 1004? Purchase, refi, heloc? Heloc's are the best, no pressure, usually owners with ample equity (based on deed/mortgage research). Refi's are ok with minimal value pressure and expectations. Purchases are more work due to multiple human contacts with 'skin' in the game and potential value issues.
I probably provide a dozen different products for residential assignments so pigeonholing an arbitrary number of hours wouldn't help without knowing the assignment. 4 hours to 20 hours would be a good range with fees ranging from $350 to $1,000.

 

[Mike Kennedy]

Agree with JTip - polling data should reflect the dichotomy between Residential and Commercial as well as type of Residential (conventional,FHA, VA lending, non-lending etc.)

 

[bnmappraisal]

These are my approximate avg's for an "avg" SFH/report (1,000 sf - 2,500 sf) - I would say on avg the actual "time spent" from accepting an order to sending to client avg's 6-8 hrs*

Prep work - 30 mins
Drive to/from subject - 40 mins total - 20 mins ea way avg (I'm in an urban/suburban area; there are some areas I cover that are upwards of an hr though)
inspection - 30-45 mins depending on the amenities and how talkative the homeowner is
Driving comps - 15-30 mins (if I do this at time of inspection and usually take pics of MANY more properties (upwards of 15) that don't end up in my reports)
(Verifying info can vary from minutes to hours depending on the property and the agents picking up their phones! So I'm not putting a time frame on that)
Typing the report - 4-6 hrs typical 1004 UAD URAR

Office management? I don't know. I try to do it on weekends or sometimes late at night after kids go to bed. I would guess 1-3 hrs a week? (logging in files, accounts receivables, etc)

*These are for an "avg" home. The time goes up when dealing with other factors such as: waterfront, busy streets, larger dwellings - just to name a few. I've definitely spent over 20 hrs working on a SF property in my career

 

[TD Morgan]

Agree with JTip - polling data should reflect the dichotomy between Residential and Commercial as well as type of Residential (conventional,FHA, VA lending, non-lending etc.)

If the polling system allowed for more detail, I would have tried to add it to be more useful...

Given that the responses so far reflect around 10 hours, and given my understanding that fees are around $400 to $500, the net hourly return is $50 or less.

Can I presume that the hacks out there are probably doing crap-work for only $100 to $150 or so per appraisal, and getting only $10 to $20 per hour?

 

[Mike Kennedy]

The $250-300-350 gross res fee is alive and well across the country due to the 75-80% of mtg assignments channelled thru AMCs by the Top 5 Banks. Likely 80-90% including the other Banks which use AMCs.

concurrent thread discussion http://appraisersforum.com/forums/t...peting-against-others-to-get-AMC-work.208670/

 

[bnmappraisal]

Too true, Mike ... too true