Wrapping My Head Around The Desktop Appraisal

[Dale Smalley]

Desktops work ok in newer cookie cutter puds and condo buildings. But good luck getting those jobs and they are so infrequent there is no economy of scale for production. So even at $100 it is too hard to make any profit on these. I tried advertising to the public for these but only got calls from angry old appraisers. Yeah I can tell who you are.

 

[The Bob]

I was recently contacted about doing these. A Realtor inspects and takes photos, that is forwarded to me and I pick out 3 or more comps and fill in data from public records for a fee of.....................

$50


These were for SunTrust HELOCS

 

[George Hatch]

Again, it sounds to me like a problem with their technical proficiency.

A reviewer's primary job is not to appraise the subject property anew or to decide what the "accurate" value is, but to determine the overall quality and reasonableness of the original appraisal.

If you're working in good faith then what error or omission can they allege that resulted in the obviously unreasonable result? And why is anyone getting worked up over housekeeping trivia that they would want to impose significant discipline? That's not the role of a regulator. If a judge and jury in a criminal trial wouldn't hand down the prison sentence for a trivial and insignificant error then why is an appraiser regulator so hot to do it?

I've been appraising for 30 years and I've gotten involved a far more than my fair share of funky appraisal situations. I'm not a particularly meticulous appraiser and I make my fair share of mistakes. Besides that, my "disappointment" ratio is probably in excess of 30% so property owners are unhappy with my conclusions on a regular basis. And yet I don't generate complaints, leastwise none I've ever heard of from my state; and even if I did the burden of proof would be on them.

IMO, most appraisers who are getting disciplined by their states probably do have obvious and very avoidable omissions (more than errors) in their reports. I have this opinion based on my review work. On the one hand I've seen plenty of appraisal reports that I could defend to anyone and which I consider to be beyond reproach (so it's definitely possible); but there is an even larger percentage of appraisals that contain one or more omissions that would generate a negative comment if reviewed by a state board. Not to mention the reports I've seen that have serious issues with "unreasonable " from one end of the report to the other.

 

[George Hatch]

There is a certain percentage of appraisers who are completely justified in being paranoid about their exposure, but there's also a large percentage of appraisers who shouldn't be at all stressed about it because their work is fine.

 

[Elliott]

All appraisers are just one nick away from cutting an artery and having the patient bleed out or going on an African Safari and shooting a smiling gorilla (mistaking it for a Phone Monkey) and losing their license through the regulatory process.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

We've had two former forumites who were pillared over their work by the state. I've seen the work of one. If was fine, better than average. He had a complaint filed before and the previous investigator found no error. The next complaint went to then the new investigator and he picked it to death, so Greg quit and went to work for HP as a programmer. His wife was also an appraiser and she quit fee work and went to work for the assessor. The other was mentored by his brother and was going to Law School. He used to help me by checking comps in odd ball areas when I had both minerals and land to do. When someone complained that he should have valued a finished basement as GLA, the investigator reamed him like a step-child over his adjustment, then accusing him of "lawyering up". So he surrendered his license (CR) to avoid jeopardizing sitting for the bar.

 

[leasedfee]

There is a certain percentage of appraisers who are completely justified in being paranoid about their exposure, but there's also a large percentage of appraisers who shouldn't be at all stressed about it because their work is fine.

The most conscientious appraisers tend to be the most worried, and a couple of, lack of better words, hacks that I talked to said simply, "I'll just go do something different." The example I gave was 17 or 18 years ago, so I have definitely improved my appraisal skills. I also take twice the amount of hours to complete the same report that I would have done back then. The ability to report my finding prevents me from being accused of skimping on same-said which occurs in a Restricted Use appraisal.

 

[Tim The Enchanter]

so Greg quit and went to work for HP as a programmer.

And has probably not looked back. Much better prospects in that area.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

And has probably not looked back. Much better prospects in that area

Basically a local Realtor ran him out of biz. She filed a complaint every time he didn't "bring home the bacon" on one of her deals. He weather those complaints until the new investigator took over and started reading him the riot act.

 

[HF Mudd]

We're all one appraisal from being out of business. That's why I apply the risk/reward ratio to every order before I accept it.

I've turned down orders for being in areas with limited arms length transactions, for being highly atypical for their market, etc. not because I felt incapable of delivering a quality report but because I was worried that one of the parties (lender, AMC, seller, buyer, etc.) would be unhappy with the result to the point they had a propensity to generate a complaint to the state.