Mr. Wiley,
In the good old days it would have been pistols at dawn, but since were suppose to be professionals I'll just have to refer this to my attorney.
.
When I sat in Standards class in November of 1992 in St. Louis, Missouri, I met Danny Wiley. At the time he was a struggling barely SRA making I believe $28,000 per year. He was an SRA, mind you, with a degree from Vanderbilt, and he was struggling with what to do, as he'd been in this for 5 years and being paid, really, probably not much more than minimum wage. His mentor would not make him a partner. At that ponit in time, I had never measured a house. Danny's wife was managing a local Kroger grocery market. These are self made people today and Danny has, from the bottom, reached the pinnacle of our profession. I could be wrong, but Danny and his family are living the American dream. He's worked for everything he's ever had, as have many here. I've never seen him hold his position in our field over anyone.
That November evening, we sat at a bar and talked. He started sketching houses for a fellow as he was going through college while studying, I think nuclear engineering. Correct me if I'm wrong. Though I ain't no dummy and have done well enough, it was clear to me then and now that Danny is a genius in terms of mental capability and capacity. However, Danny had the ability to talk on my level, that being a mid 130's IQ with graduate honors, but no genius. That is a rare combination. He sat there and almost asked me, an absolute nobody, for advice as to whether he should go on his own, as it was clear that he wasn't going to be paid what he should be paid if he did not make a change.
He is a Vanderbilt grad, and I was a grad from a neighboring university. In the old days, George, you would have been dead. Thankfully we are not in the old days. That November of 92, Danny invited me went to his room and Danny showed me his multi thousand dollar pistol he used in competition. He's a crackshot and had spent a large fraction of his annual income on a pistol. Being in the south, we hit it off with good conversation. We all love guns.
I happen to like and respect most all of you. As far as my position on the issue, I don't care what happens so long as it puts more money in my pocket as a residential appraiser. I'm not sure which side that is on. That is my position, I just haven't picked a side. In my view, either way, residential appraisers will take it up the backside. This has been the way since at least the late 90's, if not earlier.
To this day, Danny speaks to me in classes, and he refers work from time to time. I do the same, when I can. I had a major fraud review case that I quite comfortable referred towards Danny as well as one other Nashville person, as I didn't do reviews at the time. Danny calls me and emails me upon occasion. He's not sitting on some high horse. He's got a bigger operation than I do, being a one man shop, but he is nice as he can be to me. He has not once talked down to me. He's not once held his superior understanding of USPAP or appraisal technique/methods over me.
Calm down, we'll lose either way, so everyone keep your panties out of a wad. The world and America's mortgage banking system will move on, either way. Remember, if it's under $250,000 you are not needed anyway. Farm Credit Services in my area of Tennessee has been using licensed appraisers as staff, for years. They are not hiring many appraisers anymore. Know who they are hiring? Evaluators. Evaluators are doing all kinds of farm "evals" up to $1,000,000 now. Guess what evaluators get paid? Evaluator pay < Appraiser pay, simple as that. It is my understanding that it is, and I quote: "working out real well for them".
We are nobody and are lowly insects, in the grand scheme of things. Let's get along folks. Make your cases, and no hard feelings. It ain't good out there for anyone. Maybe my view is slanted being in an area with some of the highest unemployment in the state.
For some reason I'm reminded of the local country music stars who have tried to stop downloading music from the internet. Garth Brooks even wanted to make trading used CD's illegal. Technology and information tranfer is a difficult thing to slow, as much as I might stand to lose from it.
