Im bouncing around the idea of getting my home appraisal license to help me with judging a homes worth for future investents. If I can make a secondary income while appraising houses on the side would be a plus. Anyone have any pros and cons to this idea? Thanks in advance.
Sounds like a good idea to me. Get some experience and then come back and tell us what other appraisers don’t. Herbster
Do the same rules that apply to Realtors/Agents apply to appraisers? As in you have to disclose that info right from the start?
i’mlost,
I spent 20 years as an appraiser and 10 years ago I gave it up and became a mortgage broker. I retired 2 years ago.
The reasons I gave it up was because of the lenders threats, loan agents grinding me to reduce my fee along with government red tape.
Appraising in itself is a lot of fun. But with all the things I mentioned it becomes work and not so much fun.
Appraising is a good thing to know when investing. Not only can you save money by doing your own, but you can do quick and dirty ones to figure what you can pay for a property, challenge tax assessments, use it to sell a property among other things.
I’m just finishing up a report on how a person can do their own appraisals. I will be offering it free so watch for it. I will also post it in my RE blog. The link to the blog is in the sig below.
I wrote an article on reducing your property taxes which has some appraisal info in it. Its in the blog.
Good luck,
donrock
P.S You don’t have to disclose that you’re an appraiser but use the fact that you are to your advantage. Do a good appraisal to show the seller what his property is worth.
donrock, before I got into RE investing I bought my last personal residence. I was there with the inspector and the appraiser showed up.
I asked what the house appraised for and she said it qualifys, I asked again but for how much did it appraise for and got the same answer. Whats the deal with that? I’d like to know. Herbster
herbster,
Regarding the appraiser’s refusal to provide you details:
Assuming the appraiser was required/hired by the bank/mortgage company where you applied for the mortgage, the appraiser has a contractual obligation to the bank, not to you. Also, per your post, it seems likely the appraiser had only completed the fact finding portion of the appraisal and not fully completed the appraisal at that time. He is probably as scared of lawsuits from providing incomplete information to buyers as investors are scared of lawsuits from tenants. It is also likely the appraiser’s contract with the bank prohibits him from providing information directly to the buyers.
Again, assuming you were getting the appraisal as a requirement of your bank/mortgage company, you paid the bank/mortgage company for the appraisal and are legally entitled to a copy from THEM, although legally you must request in writing. I’ve had a bank or 2 balk at handing over the appraisal until I reminded them that I was legally entitled to a copy of the appraisal under the Federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act and would not hesitate to initiate legal action to force them to hand over a copy.
jmd_forest