Bill, glad you addressed this again. A hundred years or so ago, I posted a proposal for an hourly equivalent billing structure that would work nationally or on a state by state basis equally well. for those interested it can still be read at:
http://www.mfford.com or http://www.appraisersguild.org (C&R fees).

Its along read so just skip to the end and them go back if it interests anyone.

As a profession we have allowed non professionals to label our appraisal assignment types by the report types most commonly associated with them. This focused attention on form differences rather than appraisal assignment differences. I do not do “1004 appraisals”; nor “1025 2-4’s”. I appraise ‘specific, defined and researched interests in the property rights’ associated with them. Doing this and everything associated with it encompasses far more work than a form suggest; or that an AVM is capable of.

I research ALL orders prior to accepting them. Only then can I estimate how long it will take in man hours; and determine how much I need to charge.

When up to 80% of residential work gets filtered through AMCs and thus may contain 10 to 20 pages of engagement requirements (must have 4 sales, 2 active or pending listings, MLS pictures not permitted, cost approach, FHA like inspections for con. loans, utility and system checks, farm lists of all narrowed down sales, pictures for everything, etc. etc.), then the question of what is your C&R fee is way to simplistic.

We need to role back what is considered typical of the day, and ask what the C&R fee is for a standard USPAP compliant report. The non USPAP requirements pushed upon our profession day after day, year after year has at times in my opinion added an additional 50% of EXTRA time.

In the past, I have made the argument that my local car wash has figured out what there time is worth down to a few minutes (vacuum is extra, tire dressing is extra, spot free rinse extra), and that my local fast food place has figured out an extra dipping sauce is 10 cents, BUT the powers that be think blocks of time (hours) are free when it comes to appraisers.

I would ask all to answer the C&R fee question as to what we are most likely being asked to do, rather than what Fannie & Freddie require.