The brokerage firms are used exclusively because of there major E&O policies. Theoretically, the brokerage firms should be well integrated with the rest of the departments of those firms, but the problem is those departments operate in the realm of reality while appraisers largely report fiction to satisfy client needs. The national independent appraisal firms do the same, but they don't get the same clientele due to their lower E&O policies. Of the four national brokerage firms, C&W is the only one that operates with any semblance of ethics. The rest just drive fees and fee splits down the point it's just not worth your time. IRR has never recovered from offices defecting largely to Newmar, but also JLL and to a lesser extent BBG. Valbridge has wasted 8 years producing what is arguably the worst report writer conceived. Virtually all offices, with a few exceptions like Kansas City, are C level firms at best.
If you have an MAI, it is far better to partner with 1 or 2 other MAIs and work for smaller banks and law firms, especially with the tax appeal market booming. Especially with software such as ValCRE, which is superior to every report writer the national firms offer, the national firms with their fee splits and deducts are just not worth your time. You can do four $2,500 jobs per month working part time and make what the average MAI makes working for a national firm.
Don't believe anything about their research or comp databases. I've done multiple litigation assignments where nationals all reported different lease terms for significant comparables. Are there a few guys at C&W and CBRE who do nothing but office buildings all day long and just use whatever the office brokers tell them Sure. But, at the height of Covid-19, every national firm was actually trying to claim Downtown Manhattan was 90% leased. Of the nationals, Colliers is the worst - reviewing their reports is literally painful to the eyes with their color schemes. .
The greed of the few at the tops of the nationals has resulted in a unique situation where by and large, clients who desire fictitious appraisal reports go to the national firms, and the staff fabricates comparables, rates, and whatever else is necessary to satisfy client demand. Institutional clients have a list of the appraisers who are considered reputable at the national firms (they do exist) and smaller banks increasingly go to independent or small groups of MAIs who got sick of the lies, the low fees, the low fee splits, etc.
In reality, the national firms by and large routinely violate USPAP, undermine the public trust in our banking and financial system, discredit valuation as a serious profession, and operate as a cartel in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
In the same way that residential AMCs have started to fade away to the point you can make more appraising houses than working at CBRE, the nationals are losing competent MAIs. We have reached the point where they must pay their staff more, but the greed will never truly be swept away.
What is required is something akin the SEC where the right of the entire firm to offer appraisal services can be revoked for serious violations of USPAP. If CBRE could lose their license to offer appraisal services as Arthur Andersen did, not only would our profession gain immediate esteem once again, the national firms would likely collapse. I still see reports all the time with 3% growth rates across the board in Argus - GDP growth hasn't exceeded 3% since the 1990s? maybe 2006/7? Virtually all investors are projecting 7-year holds due to uncertainty regarding interest rates, yet 50 basis point increases over the going cap rate is still the norm even though everyone who is not an appraiser knows in 7 years interest rates are going to be significantly higher meaning terminal capitalization rates are going to be 200-300 basis points higher at least.
And the we have the flagrant violation of Appraisal Institute Guidenote 12, which makes it abundantly clear that any time market conditions are unstable, a Level C fundamental market analysis is required. We are now 1 year and 3 months since the pandemic commenced, and the number of reports with real supply and demand surveys and forecasting are rare.
Really, the work product of the national firms is largely criminal. If you want to make $150,000 lying day in and day out, go for it.. But you can easily make the same amount working half the hours, iif you know how to market, have maintained relationships, and refuse to participate in any dutch auctions