Appraisal Matters

This is not scientific, but I do all the bids for our company.  In March, April and May commercial appraisal orders for lenders were WAY down.  Some weeks we got none, which was unusual given the last few years.  We are always very high in search engines so we get a lot of Broker requests.  They completely died.  Thank God we have a litigation clientele too.  I’m not sure how bank only appraisers have survived this year.  One client who used to give us 10 a month, dropped down to 1 a month almost overnight.

Lenders were figuring out which directions to go, how to sell in the secondary market and they were just plain scared to loan.  In the last 30 days, bid requests are up.  They are not at the same level as before, but lenders are starting to open their purse strings.

I’m still having a lot of people who need appraisals who cannot pay for them.  Taking credit cards has helped, but commercial appraisals are a much larger hit than a residential one.  Many just don’t have it.

Eileen