Appraisal Matters

Every week we get resumes from persons who have completed their trainee license. Sometimes they even call us. Universally, they express a great deal of frustration with the difficulty in getting a job in our industry. The other day, someone asked me why it’s so hard to get a job.

Well, there are lots of reasons, but in my opinion, there are 5 that answer the question.

1. Commercial appraising is one of the hardest jobs out there. Oh, I don’t mean physically or mentally - it’s one of the most dynamic and creative. You could be doing an office building in downtown D.C. today, a shopping center in Northern Virginia tomorrow, a mixed-use building in Baltimore the next, a subdivision the following day, etc. The product is frequently different, the range of knowledge is different and the twists and turns in analyzing a market take years to learn. Even the same property type in different markets can be result in a very different level of analysis. Lastly, sometimes one single market dynamic is so important in an area that if you don’t know it, you’ll get the value wrong (there are lots of examples of this). The reasons I mention all this is, unfortunately, our school systems do not teach students how to think dynamically and how to "improvise, adapt and overcome", as the Marines are so fond of saying.
2. I remember reading years back in a study of the appraisal industry that the average size of 96 percent of appraisal firms is 5 people or fewer. To train an apprentice for 3 years requires tons of time on the part of the owner and/or senior appraiser. Small firms have lots of financial pressure (i.e. dis-economies of scale), so many senior level appraisers view training as too time consuming. For this reason, they just don’t hire trainees. Many view it as training their future competitors too.
3. Many commercial appraisers view skilled residential appraisers who are seeking to convert to commercial as stigmatized. They’re used to filling in forms using canned comments and if they do that long enough, many of them lose the ability to be creative and adaptive.
4. You have to know how to write. Period. So often, we’ll see a resume with spelling errors, no creativity in the layout, the cover letter does not sell and none of the jobs the prospective employee previously had show any skills that match up well with those of the appraisal profession. We’ve hired Ph’ds, persons who graduated with an MBA in Real Estate Appraisal, you name it, and I am amazed at how poor writing skills can be.
5. You’ve really got to want that job and this career. It has to show through on your cover letter, on the phone and in the interview. When you’re asked why you want to be a commercial real estate appraiser, you’ve got to nail that question. It’s not good enough that "the appraiser who came to my house spent 15 minutes at my property and I thought it would be a great job" (i.e. read "easy job").

This is a great profession if you hate being bored and like a mental challenge. Just make sure your strengths and abilities match up with the industry and keep plugging away.

John Simpson, MAI