What’s the Rush?
What’s the Rush?
Last week, a showdown was broadcast among three software providers to see who could complete a UAD 3.6 report in the shortest amount of time. I didn’t tune in because they charged to watch it. You read that right. They’re trying to extract more money from us so they can show us how they intend to extract more money from us.
Today, I received an email from another software provider claiming they can complete a 3.6 report in under an hour. For this one, they’ve been kind enough to allow us to witness this miracle of modern technology for free. And while it’s tempting to be amazed by their expedience, I’ll offer a counterargument: What’s the damn rush?
We all know that the more reports we write, the more money we eventually make. But that’s not exactly the point, is it? In a world of rubber-stamped appraisals being sent to lenders who increasingly view the appraisal report as a necessary evil, the focus lately seems to be bigger, better, faster, more. We’ve allowed AMCs and lenders to dictate the quantity of our profession at the expense of the quality of our profession, forcing us into a mad rush to produce.
We’ve all been slammed before, and it’s nice to be covered up in work. But when we take on more reports, we all know what eventually happens: quality gets sacrificed for expediency. We overextend ourselves, stay up too late, miss meals, and miss time with our families. Eventually, we make mistakes. In the end, when the quality of our reports suffers under the pressure to rush, we are the ones left holding the liability.
In an effort to make the process even faster, some of the worst AMCs have devised a brilliant plan: send undertrained and unlicensed people into the field to collect the data needed to complete an appraisal report, under the ridiculous premise that an appraiser doesn’t actually need to see a property to produce a credible analysis.
To borrow from the great Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting: “If I asked you about art, you’d probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo — you know a lot about him. Life’s work, political aspirations, him and the Pope, sexual orientation, the whole works, right? But I’ll bet you can’t tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel.” Sometimes, you have to be there to really know what you’re talking about.
I’ll save everyone the lecture about our obligation to protect public trust. I’ll also save you the trouble of looking for the section that says an appraisal should be completed as quickly as humanly possible. It isn’t there – not in USPAP, not in guidance from the Appraisal Subcommittee, not from the Appraisal Institute, and not from The Appraisal Foundation. Nowhere. There is no professional standard that says faster is better.
Accuracy matters. Credibility matters. Competency matters. Support matters. Judgment matters. Speed is only valuable until it starts replacing those things.
So once again, we find ourselves in a situation where the direction of our profession is being dictated by everyone except the appraiser. Software companies want faster reports, AMCs want faster reports, and lenders want faster reports.
But when something goes wrong, whose signature is on the report? Ours. Whose license is on the line? Ours. Whose livelihood is ultimately exposed? Ours.
So I have to ask: Where are the people who are supposed to be defending this profession? I have yet to see anyone with meaningful authority call this behavior what it is: a race to the bottom.
- What’s the Rush? - October 29, 2026
- The 3.6 Rollout: Chaos Now, Clarity Later? - September 18, 2026
- It’s Time to Take Out the Junk: AMC Practices Exposed - August 21, 2026
