Posted by Ndwa on 10/4/06 3:22am
Msg #150090

Appraisers are on the same boat

as we are with the real estate market slow down. I had a good chat exchanging business idea with an appraiser for my house yesterday. I was contacted by an online appraisal service that the lender use. They required payment by credit card over the phone before assigning one to come out. What ticked me is they charge $450+change while the local going rate is only $375 for the home value price range (my LO got an ear full & he's paying for the $75 extra).

Long story short, LSI was mentioned in our conversation as one of the many appraisal brokers out there. The competition is fierce now as lenders forgo having a list of what they called their "approved appraisers" due to litigation of appraiser jacking house value to meet the LTV ratio. Some broker would offer as little as $250 per job and they'd shop to find one who would take it. These brokers take 30-45 days to pay like SS. He'd got 3 on collection as we spoke. There's new law that required the appraiser to be on site with a trainee, so what's the point of having to pay an apprentice (cutting your own fee) when you have to be at the job site. Better think twice before heading in that direction.

Reply by NCLisa on 10/4/06 6:59am
Msg #150098

They have to be on site with the trainee for the first 50 appraisals. Which they should anyway. The trainee process is so the trainee can be taught to do an appraisal correctly. All the classes teach you is the math, ethics and what you are supposed to do. No hands on experience. There were too many appraisers sending the trainees out, without every having measured a house before. This insures that the trainee gets the correct training before they are are on their own. If more appraisers don't take on trainees in the coming years, they will just pass a new standard requiring that all appraisers have one trainer every 3 years or something like that.

Reply by Nate_MN on 10/4/06 11:03am
Msg #150150

I think what Ndwa is saying is that the Appraisal Management Companies (AMC's) require the supervisor to be with the trainee. It has nothing to do with the 50 appraisal or hour requirements the licensing board might require. In Minnesota, to move from trainee to the next license level you need 2,000 of experience. If you assume an appraisal takes 4-8 hours that is somewhere between 250 and 500 appraisals to move to the next level. Some AMC's stipulate that trainees can't do appraisals on their own, they don't care if you have done 350 appraisals, their policy is that the supervisor must be there for the inspection.

Reply by PJM/MI on 10/4/06 8:35am
Msg #150112

When I had to re-fi my house (due to my nasty ex-hubby), I found out that an appraisal is just an opinion of the person who does it. The first appraiser was a "newbie" with only 1 yr. under her belt. She appraised my house at $30,000.00 LESS than what I owed. (After I had put on the new roof, new windows, new carpet, and new bathroom 9 months before she showed up).
My second appraiser had 8 yrs. experience, did a complete and full appraisal of my home & property, took lots of pictures, and appraised my home at where it should have been. His fee was $75.00 less than the newbie.
He told me that there has been a huge influx of new appraisers..just like in our business. Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon hoping to make the "big" bucks. And like us, he has to frequently go to homes where a newbie has been there first and pretty much blown it.