McKissock Ditches PAREA
On January 1, 2024, McKissock announced that they were pulling the plug on their PAREA project. The primary factor contributing to this cancellation was the substantial resource cost, which exceeded initial estimates and resulted in a higher-end price for customers. This decision was made with the recognition that a higher cost would create a new barrier to entry into the appraisal profession, potentially hindering individuals from pursuing a career due to financial constraints.
After careful consideration and thorough evaluation of various factors, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the McKissock PAREA project. We understand that this news may be unexpected, and we want to provide you with a clear understanding of our reasoning and the steps we are taking moving forward.
One of the primary factors contributing to the cancellation is the substantial resource cost required to provide a product of the quality we envisioned. In our pursuit to deliver a premium solution, the associated costs exceeded initial estimates, resulting in a higher-end price to our customers. Regrettably, we recognize that this higher cost would inadvertently create a new barrier to entry into the appraisal profession – specifically, a financial obstacle.
Our commitment to fostering inclusivity and accessibility in the appraisal profession is unwavering. We believe that the imposition of a prohibitively high price would run counter to these principles and potentially hinder individuals from pursuing a career in appraisal due to financial constraints.
This decision in no way reflects a diminished commitment to the appraisal profession. On the contrary, we remain steadfast in our dedication to providing innovative solutions and supporting the growth and excellence of appraisal professionals like yourself.
In light of the cancellation, we are actively exploring alternative solutions to address the challenges faced by individuals entering the profession. Our team is dedicated to finding creative ways to ensure that quality education and training is accessible to all aspiring to excel in the field of appraisal.
We appreciate your understanding and continued trust in McKissock. Your insights are valuable to us, and we welcome your feedback as we navigate this new phase together. If you are interested in partnering with McKissock on alternative training options for gaining experience hours to become a licensed appraiser, please provide your contact information and opt-in here.
Thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely,
Nancy Gerome
Vice President, Valuation & Property Services (VPS)
General Manager, McKissock Appraisal
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Did McKissock drop PAREA because of appraiser backlash or lack of interest?
“potentially hinder individuals from pursuing a career in appraisal due to financial constraints”.
Well……it costs so little to become an attorney or a medical doctor or an accountant. (sarcasim)
Okay…..so attorney’s, doctors and accountants actually have status and offer a real salary to live a decent life.
So now I can either work in fast food or be an appraiser?
It’s no surprise that the PAREA effort to bypass the traditional method of appraisers mentoring trainees is quickly being squashed once AMC’s were given the go-ahead to swoop in and take a chunk of the appraisal fee for themselves. As someone who has never had to endure the soul-sucking experience of working for an AMC, I’ve been told the horror stories from my long-time appraiser friends who weren’t so lucky. It’s like having a middleman between you and your client, except this middleman is more interested in skimming off the top than actually helping you do your job.
That is absolutely true. I have come to learn that all AMCs have absolutely no interest in appraiser support. Their one and only goal is to protect and serve their clients at all costs with no regard whatsoever for the appraiser. Yes some of us have to work for AMC’s to survive. I have fooled myself into thinking that some really do care about me. That’s the only way I’ve gotten through it and will continue to get through it during this last stretch.
As expected PAREA is failing faster than a student trying to pass a calculus exam after a night of heavy drinking. The real reason behind the decline of residential appraiser training is as clear as the fact that pineapple does not belong on pizza (seriously, fight me on this). These so-called “experts” like TAF, McKissock, and the Appraisal Institute are too busy trying to sell their overpriced courses and fancy designations to acknowledge the elephant in the room: AMCs have sucked the life blood out of the appraisal business faster than a vampire at a blood bank. But hey, at least they’re making a killing off of it, right? Talk about a real-life version of “Twilight” – except instead of hot vampires, it’s just a bunch of hucksters draining the life out of an entire industry.
Great post!
Definitely was. I was at the ARROW conference in 2017. It was just in its infancy. I think they had started the research the prior year.
Printing and laminating for when I need a good laugh. Love every word
Well my my my as Homicide Hunter would say. Not at all surprised. What a joke the whole idea was anyway. As time goes on more and more people will finally realize all the mistakes they have made trying to improve upon the way forward for Appraisers. Sad thing is most of us will be gone by the time the sun sets on these new ideas and they will be wishing they left us alone and let us do our jobs for which we are well trained already. It is always about money and Mckissock wants to make money not lose it! Bye bye!
I really liked that outfit for years but moved away several years ago. I never had to be a trainee. That system doesn’t work so well. Before licensing the lenders were on the hook regarding the qualifications of the appraiser they used.
Plus, what’s the incentive to enter a profession of ever diminishing returns where GSEs are actively narrowing the field of practice,, costs of PAREA aside.
I think this is the Institute’s brain child.Anyone confirm that?
Definitely was. I was at the ARROW conference in 2017. It was just in its infancy. I think they had started the research the prior year.
I didn’t even know McKissock had a PAREA program, I’ve taken several classes from them and have overall been pleased with the offerings, but this whole model is on-line, the PAREA does involve a supervisor of some sort, something McKissock to my knowledge has ever offered. Is there some rule as to how many ‘Trainees’ a PAREA supervisor can take on?? A Certified appraiser could only take on so many post HVCC per the guidelines, did the ASB drop that restriction too?? probably. PAREA is doomed, its expensive, who is going to roll the dice on a program like this, it doesn’t give the appraiser what they need, guidance and experience.
Turns out relabeling existing class content then reselling that for marked up prices over and over again was not going to cut it this time around. As if McKissock cares about affordability of their products, please. One imagines they had serious complications trying to set up ‘virtual inspection’ classes as well. I wrote them a letter some time back, something about destroying your own business model. Maybe the were worried about educator side liability, having realized parea itself is doomed to fail and they did not want all the students blaming them. Either way, good news.
‘AMCs have sucked the life blood out of the appraisal business faster than a vampire at a blood bank.’ FHFA, for the years of effort put into analyzing the appraisal industry, that’s the primary influence point they clearly ignored. One can not competently analyze the appraisal industry in relation to mortgage lending, without first acknowledging the damage and harm caused to appraisers and consumers alike by the appraisal management industry. How come nobody refers the amc industry to the DOJ? Their operational methods would be clearly illegal in almost every other industry out there. Answer that.
LOL! I remember the ARROW conference of 2017.
The discussion was on bringing in fresh blood. PAREA was being introduced and was just being pursued as a possibility because so many appraisers wouldn’t bring on trainees. Finally Frank (if I remember correctly) got up to the microphone and went off about the elephant in the room. He said the room is full of appraisers who report on economics everyday, and the result is, bringing on trainees is not economically viable or many would do it. He proceeded to name the profitability issues starting with AMCs taking half the fee. (Much of the conference was underwritten by AMCs.)
Guess the chicken has come home to roost! ???
PAREA was an idea in 2017, was discussed at the 2018 AARO conference, and was officially announced as an accepted method to become an appraiser at the spring AARO conference in Seattle WA in 2019. It is the brainchild if the appraisal subcommittee and the appraiser qualifications board. The only one that has a PAREA program is the Appraisal Institute. Their program was approved by TAF in the spring of 2023.
According to the Appraisal Institute the cost to attend their PAREA course is:
AI PAREA for AI Professionals: $3,995 – so, almost 4 thousand!
AI PAREA for Non-Members: $4,425 – so, almost 4 thousand five hundred
According to AI; One of the benefits of AI PAREA is that you can complete the program modules at your own pace, with required mentor check-ins. They anticipate most participants will finish the program within 18 months, including 12 months for the practice assignments and immersive activities, and six months for the three final assignments.
Their web site says they are developing a scholarship program, as is the appraisal foundation.
Appraisal Institute, asb, asc, taf, all of them, absolutely failed nearly the entire industry, because they were too scared to stand up to lenders and their insider amc connections. That’s real independence right there.
https://jobs.smartrecruiters.com/InfinityInternationalProcessingS/92106745-appraisal-reviewer?utm_source=ziprecruiter
The ‘amc industry’ has apparently devolved to fourth party outsourcing. I seem to remember when it was the lenders responsibility to pay for that, and appraisers did not have to share half their fee, to cover lender side expenses.
Thanks for the background Robert – Excellent information.
One down.
Two to go.
I just finished the Mckissock 94 hour appraisal training program for georgia while working my concrete company. What is one to do after all of this ? I did not know that it was going to take sooo much time to achieve this goal. there needs to be a better way.
Well, when you hold peoples entire financial futures in your hands, it’s important to be prepared with the right skill set. Preparing a faulty appraisal with faulty data and unreliable research is akin financially, to building a bridge which fails and hurts people in the construction world. Would you trust a concrete installer whom just bought their way in to the industry, or would you want training and consistently reliable safety records? Same thing with appraisal.
Now that you’ve gotten through the class, two years of apprentice time, then you can be ready for solo. Read the entire FNMA selling guide, Dodd Frank Reg Z, FIRREA, HUD handbook, your own states total real estate manual (read for all three, mortgage, realty, and appraisal). Backread WorkingRE magazine and many articles from this website. Back read Appraisal Scoop website. Buy the software, get the insurance. Don’t play around with PAREA or you’ll always be at a disadvantage and will be consistently passed over for appraisers whom came correct with the apprentice model. I worked for nearly free for four years for this license, many of us went through similar apprentice periods. If you can get paid well while being an apprentice, consider that a bonus but do not expect such luck.
Statistically, well, I’m not entirely sure, nobody puts up statistics for this sort of success rate consideration. I’d imagine nine out of ten people whom took the class never actually make it to licensing status. Then nine out of ten whom make it to licensing won’t have staying power. First you pay for the class, then you struggle with clocking your apprentice hours, then many fail the PSI tests, and for those whom pass, then there is financial hurdles. Then there is liability and operational burn out which washes out a substantial volume of people. Get ready to pay many thousands of dollars a year on education, insurance, and expenses for the rest of your life. When we talk about over a hundred thousand people leaving their appraiser licenses behind over the past ten years, that’s a true story, something not to be taken lightly. Not having a boss is pretty darn nice though. We don’t own businesses, we own jobs. If we are not on track and up to speed, all it takes is one poorly produced appraisal to ruin everything. So get used to slowing things way way down if you want to be a successful appraiser over the long term. Hope that helps.
You need to find a mentor or try another place like the Appraisal Institute for the PAREA program to skip the mentorship route and get licensed and certified on the fast track so you can go out on your own. BUT GOOD LUCK with that. I can tell you my mentorship was invaluable for me to really learn the business. Then you have to learn how to run a successful Real Estate Appraisal business and it may not be like your concrete business. You do have to do simlar things like marketing, accounts receivable, accounts payable. You have to learn how to use the appraisal software program and how to choose the one that is best for you. It is not as easy as one might think. It will be difficult to find work unless you want to work for AMC’s who will take the cheapest and fastest rate so you will have to work 2 to 3 times harder to make the same money that us experienced, well qualified Appraisers do because we went through all the training and learned how to produce reliable reports so that we could keep our business running.
You better be up to speed on the bias allegations that many Appraisers will face moving forward if owners do not like your value. You better have a bullet proof appraisal file.
You see most people who think about getting into this businss, all they see is when we are in their homes and what we do and they think WOW this is a great way to make money…it is so easy. You come to a house, take pics, measure the home, ask some questions then leave and make alot of money! I cannot tell you how many people said to me wow I want to get into your business. That is when I stop them dead in their tracks and say WHAT YOU SEE NOW IS THE EASY, FUN PART. The hard part comes when I get back to the office and spend hours doing the analysis, reconciling the numbers, comparable sales and listings and then putting together the report into the software program.
Don’t think you can run 2 businesses at the same time either! It won’t work. Appraisals are all about meeting deadlines and when you fail to do that you lose work rapidly!
Good luck but I wish you had researched what all is involved before you spent 90+ hours trying to get into this business. You are just at the very start of a long process.
Tenacity and determination are the two most important qualifications to reach your goal. You either make up your mind that you’re going to grit your teeth and get through it, if you can find a mentor, and just put your helmet on and go for it. If you don’t have tenacity, you might as well just chalk that one up to “something I learned that I’ll never use.”
Mr Peters, you’re looking for this; / jobs board, new appraisers, etc.
https://appraisersforum.com/forums/
Anyone have anything solid why McKissock pulled back other than speculation? For all the hassle we give them, still like them more than the rest. Sometimes I can save a lot of time on CE and the classes are either easy or challenging, depending on how you approach student engagement. Previously published documents indicate 8 different companies working on parea class systems development.
https://www.appraisalinstitute.org/the-appraisal-profession/parea/parea-faqs
https://aaro.net/AARO/files/52/52a2c20b-681d-4cdb-a987-57a0219031bd.pdf
https://www.appraisalinstitute.org/the-appraisal-profession/parea
I had this bright idea perhaps jump to CG with parea, sounds like a no go. For outsiders looking in, important to know ‘demin values’ as that relates to federally regulated lending. Because with only a licensed and not a certified residential, you basically won’t get any work anyways. Anything over $400k and you will not be qualified to complete the service, probably won’t get accepted anywhere in lending in the first place, due to that limitation. Wait for the certified program instead. There is nothing to go around right now anyways. Appraisers are dropping left and right at an accelerated pace due to FHFA’s mandate for Fannie and Freddie to automate appraisers out of existence.
Our experience with the AMC’s IS they require an additional 3 years in the field experience BEFORE they will privilege you to their panel; amazing as that sounds!
I’ll bet you two rabbit pelts, a bear skin, and a bottle of coca cola that a day one certified residential appraiser can call up twenty different amc’s, and get approved with most if not all of them same day. Then they can spend the next few months clocking over sixty hours a week to complete an infinite chain of competently developed fee quotes for absolutely free, and hope to land a handful of sub par high complexity discount fee requests at less than half rate. Then they can feel like they are busy whilst juggling more free fee quotes and answering a never ending chain of amc report revision stipulations for that work they since regret taking on in the first place.
Imagine putting in all that hard work and effort to be a real estate appraiser and wishing you would have chosen lawn mowing instead. Welcome to real estate appraisal in the age of appraisal management companies. The property service managers literally pay the lawn crew substantially more than the appraisers, and that’s a cold hard green as a fresh cut lawn fact.
Thanks everyone I appreciate all of your feedback and so quickly to I spoke to someone from Mckissic yesterday afternoon and doing some research found that the reason the Parea Got ditched was that it was around $17,000 to go through the program. I was referred to the CE shop if I had continued interest in taking that virtual program. The person I spoke with was very helpful and answered many questions I had about licensing also since Georgia state commission never picks up their phone or answers my emails fun fun fun. Anyhow I’m sure this will all work out for something creative
Reviewing PAREA licensure details published by AQB and it looks like someone can be fully licensed with only 3 reports written and never having been inside a property. Does anyone else see some potential issues here?
This is my first post.
Took 1st appraisal class 1977 – did 1st appraisal in 1977 and last appraisal 2023
Taught 1st appraisal class 1991 – Taught last appraisal class 2021
I have a BS in Business (economics) and an MS in Geography (land use)
I am a CT State Certified General Appraiser (1991) and licensed since 1989
I taught USPAP since 1992 and I am an AQB Certified USPAP Instructor since 2003
Taught live classes in 10 states for… (yes them)
I did not complete any Continuing Education that was due 1/31/24
My License expires on April 30, 2024
I am not going to renew – I’m OUT
It was very good until it became good
It was good until it became average
It was average until it became fair
It was fair until it became like it is now
It was a good run for many years and I am sorry that it had to end this way for me
I wish the best for the rest of you
Enjoy your retirement.