Where Do You Think "geographic Competency" Begins And Ends?

[Meandering]

So how come...........

Again my question is, what is the line of demarcation between lack geo competence and simply not yet having done what SR 1-2 and SR 1-3 require? If the future unfolds as many expect, this question needs a clear answer.

Danny has the question........

George posts the poll..........

and

While there are a few good discussions that start out here every now and then, invariably virtually every good discussion thread gets completely ruined by a handful of the same kooks and idiots who make it virtually impossible to engage in any real, rational discussions of importance here, which is too bad, but it is what it is and is not going to change anytime soon.

Timmy gets upset you aren't giving them the answers they want?


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[Michael P Jacobs MAI]

I know a continuing education instructor that makes the point they can appraise anything, anywhere with Bing Maps. An INSTRUCTOR mind you, with a national commercial real estate appraisal firm. They say this right out loud.

 

[J Grant]

I know a continuing education instructor that makes the point they can appraise anything, anywhere with Bing Maps. An INSTRUCTOR mind you, with a national commercial real estate appraisal firm. They say this right out loud.

I do wonder whether if some commercial assignments might lend themselves to being better able to appraise without geo competency, if income drives the decisions of buyers ( and resulting prices), and the type of buyer for a subject property might consider an alternate property in another state or region that throws off similar income?

What do you think of his comment?

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

There are only 8 counties in this state

Arizona has counties larger than your state.

 

[residentialguy]

So with your cell phone show me the headlines from the three newspapers that cover the neighborhood I'm in.

and note how long it will take you to find those three different headlines in three different news papers.

You must have quite the trash bill getting the newspaper from every town and all the areas that you cover. I cover 15 counties there's probably 200 Towns in each County.... That's about 3,000 newspapers delivered to your house everyday. The tree huggers aren't going to like you too much . You'd take Sequoia National Forest down to a nub in about 2 months.

 

[Eli]

I know a continuing education instructor that makes the point they can appraise anything, anywhere with Bing Maps. An INSTRUCTOR mind you, with a national commercial real estate appraisal firm. They say this right out loud.

I had an instructor ask me a question along that line from corel**ic. He wanted to know who was competent to appraise a nuclear plant? I said I can if you give me enough time by association with experts. He said he would mark me off the list. Lol

He didn’t know nuclear from a hole in the ground.

 

[hastalavista]

Multiple choice poll. Check all that apply, and I'm leaving the "allow voters to change their votes" box checked so if you change your mind you might be able to change your vote.

This is a question about competency, not about licensing; so for the purposes of discussion please disregard all licensing and liability issues. Those are legitimate concerns, but they're also a separate concept and merit their own threads.

Other assumptions that are necessary to ensure we're working off the same playing field include:

- assume the assignment in question involves an SFR that's typical for its community
- assume you have access to the same data sources any local appraiser would have access to
- assume you have the technical competency to appraise that property type if it was located in your own back yard.
- assume your SOW does not involve having to move to that location


We're not referring to ALL property types and amenities an appraiser might run into, just the ones that most all of us already know how to do. Think typical SFR, not some uber custom on a lakefront or the morphodite trouse that Bobby Bucks lives in.

Yes; with the assumptions as a given, I can competently value an SFR in a market I've never been to before.
One thing I would expand upon in the givens:

assume you have access to the same data sources any local appraiser would have access to​

One of those data sources I assume are the one's I use in my backyard: Calling and confirming sales and markets with the market participants (brokers/agents).

 

[Michael P Jacobs MAI]

I do wonder whether if some commercial assignments might lend themselves to being better able to appraise without geo competency, if income drives the decisions of buyers ( and resulting prices), and the type of buyer for a subject property might consider an alternate property in another state or region that throws off similar income? What do you think of his comment?

Well, this particular instructor was telling us that Bing Maps is an effective substitute for an actual site inspection. But even with a site visit there's a lot of room for error and abuse and its just logical that local appraisers are a better choice.

A consumer of appraisal services can never tell when engaging an appraiser whether there will be issues only locals can detect and analyze. For example, most of us would agree that identifying the best lease comparables for proposed projects is almost random from the 30,000-foot perspective, and understanding the nuances between them well enough to project accurate revenue would be all but impossible. So, the appraiser would most likely place a great deal of weight on the borrower's proforma, essentially rubber-stamping it. I've been there, given assignments anywhere and everywhere for national firms when I was younger, and it was like groping in the dark. In most cases supervisors had some geo competency, but not always and at that level I didn't really understand the difference.

If I were a consumer of appraisal services, I would want to know how much experience the appraiser has in the local environment, and I believe that an appraiser clearly out of his/her geo competency is doing a disservice to the client (and public trust).

 

[Renee Healion]

Arizona has counties larger than your state.

What we lack in acreage, we make up in loquacity.

 

[George Hatch]

What does this poll assume- that someone from outside the area is going to physically go inspect the property and neighborhood to personally inspect, no matter if is hundreds of miles or states away?

Or does the poll assume the appraiser is doing it from their desk and not going to the area ?

I was actually referring to a typical appraisal assignment, not a desktop. but realyl, what's

George, do you cross state lines in review work or appraisal practice?

No.

Neither my book of work nor the types of clients I normally work with have changed since I hung my own shingle out in 1992. i mostly work on community-oriented CG stuff and the complicated residential stuff that doesn't directly compete with most of the SFR appraisers, much of it being proposed construction of the big customs or of condo projects and the like. I don't work on the trophy properties or the big regionally oriented stuff or in certain niches where the data is closely held like hotels and gas stations and such.

My loyalties to appraisers and the appraisal profession haven't changed in all the time I've been on this forum - which is way longer than most of you - my preferences for chasing client relationships rather than individual fees haven't changed. The two things that have changed are my exposure to the various perspectives out there and how many of the dots I think I've been able to connect between abstract and application. Much of that as a result of my participation on this forum.

I worded the poll to provide the maximum latitude for *consideration* - to prompt people to put a little thought into their response. I don't actually care what anyone's opinion ends up being because I think there are arguments to be made both ways. The discussion is the thing, IMO.

There have been a couple threads and lines of discussion that have brought the issue to my attention so you could say this thread is the result of that - because honestly, I had not given the question of "exactly what comprises geo-competency" a whole lot of thought for a long time. I've been on auto pilot just as much as anyone.