To be a CG or not be

[Mark K]

IMO, that income level in the residential field is not going to last unless you have a very unique situation.

I'd say definitely go for it if you have the opportunity. Age also comes into play. It will likely take a few years to make it worthwhile, If you're near retirement, I wouldn't bother. OTOH, if you believe that your appraisal career has a fairly long remaining economic life, do it. As others have said, it can open doors that would otherwise remain closed.

I took all of the CG classes years ago but never was able to get the experience hours. However, I had the opportunity to move into R/W work and it has been rewarding, more so than if I'd stayed in residential mtg work, and I was making good $$, similar to yours, doing nothing but mtg work.

I have only a few days left until my license expires and I'm done. Getting away from residential mtg appraising was the best move I ever made, no question about it.

 

[Gtary]

IMO, that income level in the residential field is not going to last unless you have a very unique situation.

I'd say definitely go for it if you have the opportunity. Age also comes into play. It will likely take a few years to make it worthwhile, If you're near retirement, I wouldn't bother. OTOH, if you believe that your appraisal career has a fairly long remaining economic life, do it. As others have said, it can open doors that would otherwise remain closed.

I took all of the CG classes years ago but never was able to get the experience hours. However, I had the opportunity to move into R/W work and it has been rewarding, more so than if I'd stayed in residential mtg work, and I was making good $$, similar to yours, doing nothing but mtg work.

I have only a few days left until my license expires and I'm done. Getting away from residential mtg appraising was the best move I ever made, no question about it.

Thank you. What makes you think that the income level in the residential field not last?

 

[Mark K]

Thank you. What makes you think that the income level in the residential field not last?

It's obvious (at least to me) that the big banks/mtg companies are doing their best to remove appraisers from the equation leaving more and more appraisers fighting for less and less. I think that if someone took a poll they'd find that most residential mtg. appraisers have not seen an increase in income in the past few years and that most have seen a decline. I expect this to continue.

Waivers, AVMs, hybrids, etc. will be the norm soon. Again, IMO (an opinion not shared by all, maybe not by many) is that a mtg appraisal does very little to mitigate lenders' losses when the borrower quits paying the mortgage. If this is the case, why bother with a full appraisal when an AVM or other product produces a number that's 'close enough'. When a borrower defaults the loss to the lender is usually a big number, much bigger than the difference of a few thousand $ that an AVM, etc. provides vs. a full appraisal. Some appraisers think they are a big component in the lending process when, in fact, they are a very small cog in a very large machine. They are currently needed so someone can check a box, little more. As long as FHA and F/F can continue lowering their standards knowing that the taxpayers will eat the losses, the system is not going to change.

 

[George Hatch]

Have you taken all the coursework yet? Those courses have a high failure rate on their own. In addition to that more than half of everyone who has passed those courses still flunk the state exams. (same for the CR and SL exams) In my state, anyway. Not everyone who wants to get the license is capable of getting there.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

"anything you can do to make yourself more better..."

beats morbider

 

[Zoe]

The more you know, the better off you are. Qualifying as a CG appraiser will even benefit you if you then only do residential appraisals. I see sloppy work and USPAP violation much less often from CGs doing residential work than from CRs doing similar work.

The other benefit is, you will have more tools in your bag for when you need to appraiser that weird property.

Do you see what the man or woman is bringing in a year? FYI, Hello?

 

[Zoe]

I got close one year commercial one year in commercial one year. They need to stay where they are.

I think artificial intelligence will change commercial world drastically. That is on horizon.

 

[Tiffany Gibbons]

Do you see what the man or woman is bringing in a year? FYI, Hello?

I'm a CG that upgraded from CR and only got close to that income a couple of good years. I was doing both commercial and residential and I worked 24/7 with no life balance. The expense for Costar alone made it impossible for me by myself to make money doing commercial. I loved doing commercial/industrial appraisals but aside from some big nightmare property I got a $10,000 fee for because no one would touch it, residential was what paid the bills for me. Especially after all those classes, not to mention the CG test is much more difficult (you will need to be great at Advanced Income Capitalization) and you have to make 83 to pass not a 75 like when the OGs took it when licensing first started and the test was easier as well.

 

[ucbruin]

"you have to make 83 to pass not a 75 like when the OGs took it when licensing first started and the test was easier as well."

Probably the easiest....
And I am on OG who took the 1st test....

 

[George Hatch]

I passed with 100%. My boss (25yr veteran working as the chief appraiser) never did pass, despite taking the test 4 times. My understanding of it is that the pass rate for the CG exam has never exceeded 50%.

Tiffany always complains about the situation but she doesn't seem to appreciate the fact that in the beginning nobody knew what to expect, nobody knew what it would take to pass those exams, nobody had access to pass-the-test prep materials, and afterwards everyone was 100% paranoid about losing their licenses over trivial issues. The familiarity breeds contempt for how the state would handle complaints and how the banking regulators would act during their bank examinations took several years to occur.