Tony-

One of the first desktop assignments that I saw had and appraiser fee of $45. The AMC has to disclose their fee, which was $255. I spit coffee out my nose laughing.

Its all about their fee and turn time, quality be damned.

My acceptance contract was sent with every BID included the phrase (Liability limited by the fee paid) I didn’t even believe that. I also stated the job would begin when the fee was received. I relented on that, but it did limit the clients, and collection fees. I enjoyed my business for 57 years.

APPRAISERs follow this guideline, and you will be just fine.

You need an actual website. Not an Alamode sh*t website.
Basic SEO that’s all you need.
Register your address with google and bing maps.
Pay google ads the minimum and ensure you only target your market area. $35 a month.

You are the expert in your market, and let everyone know it. Agents are a gold mine for making money. Partner with an LO reach out to agents. Just call the Broker and let them know you want to be a part of their Tuesday morning meetings. I estimate five new non-GSE deals for every 45-minute agent meeting I do.

I have made a hard six figures with this site, and it’s only a few years old. You are welcome to poach from my technology.
appraisaldeficiencies.com

I have as much work as I want. I just trained my 27 and 21-year-old sons and their friends to take over my firm. I do not care if rates are at 9%. It does not matter. If you need an appraisal, you need an appraisal.

Learn to code? Deal with SQL and calling massive troves of data into unique organizational patterns for meaningful insight reform and advisement to systems and business structure managers using C++ & Python and the likes? Meetings and daily zoom calls… Looked into it and even brushed up on syntax. The thought of being tied to the desk staring at code all day long.

It’s not a good fit for everyone to be truly independent. How many times must the GSE’s fail to provide liquidity protection before people finally understand how valuable the appraisal service really is? Poisonous protectionism is when central planners and bureaucrats, in an attempt to mitigate risk, actually create vastly more complexity and risk than would have been present in the absence of government planning and centralization. With government insurance to boot.

Bear in mind that during the last crash when appraisers were still primarily on 1004 time consuming reports, we lost tens and tens of thousands on lengthy suspensions and revocations lists. Somehow over the course of a few years a hundred thousand appraisers vanished and never returned. Sued out, washed out, kicked out. Now with half as many appraisers alongside increasingly exponentially concentrated workflow, those caught in this mess could get absolutely slammed.

Not sure – ask a stockbroker.

How many times have you had an irate BUYER when the valuation comes in below the amount they have offered? Think about that. They don’t want protection – they want to close. It’s farcical. How many times have you been thanked for protecting a buyer……………….29.5 years and ZERO. Hope my second generation Appraiser has an alternative plan.

Fox guarding the henhouse. GSE is sort of a misnomer these days. This is a private consortium of international lenders and investors which is subsidized by taxpayer dollars and subsequently drives the majority of American real property lending policy. It would be better at this point to wind down the GSE’s and decentralize lending. They blew right past the charter and then some.
https://www.fanniemae.com/about-us/corporate-governance/fannie-mae-charter

I checked with a few big box companies like MCS, they indeed only pay $7 per property inspection photo set. Radian Homegeneous pays appraisers $50 for a hybrid third party inspector report that you sign with your own million dollar insurance policy and license. Mowing a lawn pays more and the same companies know this, as they order a wide range of services. The time saving junk they’ve been doing with the insurance industry and field services oversight is now supposedly the new reliable standard for appraisal.

Anyone have hot leads on forensic review firms hiring remote? For getting away from GSE work, have to disagree. Well over 300 million American consumers deserve fair protections. Their financial safety and well being, is our financial safety and well being. Their risks imposed by this ‘restraint of trade’ and destructive re organization are our risks. We must continue to fight for fair reforms for appraisers, and consumers. As a home owner it is frightening to think my next valuation request for mortgage lending may be completed in such a careless manner absent of meaningful safeguards and attentive professional service, aka third party inspectors and hybrid reports.

According to IDC “Worldwide spending in the artificial intelligence market is set to grow in 2022 to $432.8 billion on its way to breaching the $500 billion mark by 2023.”

If you have a young family member or friend who is considering a career in appraising have him or her watch this YouTube video which has over 4.2 million views. Allow them to draw their own conclusions as to whether or not this will be a viable career choice over the next 30 years.

https://youtu.be/xvNvj7ku5pY

Remember this about MISMO:
MISMO stands for Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization.
MISMO is a subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association. (Let that sink in)

As for trainees, I’ve never had one and never will. My children in college have shown interest in becoming an appraiser, and I told them to find another career path. This one is dead, and rife with over-regulation and never ending liability. I’ll be doing appraisals until the cows come home, but our time on this farm is very short.