Brief background: I’ve been educating myself about RE for a couple of years.
I am seriously interested in learning about and studying for an appraisal certificate to start my probationary period.
I’ve never had an RE license or any other work in RE.
Thanks in advance.
extremely difficult to break into, especially since many appraisers are now experiencing reduced business levels.
check out www.appraisersforum.com (especially the newbie section).
good luck
I read an article the other day that analyzed real estate agent commissions. It seems that in the boom years, agents made, on average, the same as in bust years. This is due to the low entry “barriers” to become an agent. In boom times, more people become agents and the larger money pool is simply divided more ways. In lean times, people get out of the business and the smaller money pool is divided fewer ways.
Appraisers would probably work much the same way. Since there is no significant barrier to entry, don’t expect it to be a “lucrative” career.
In MD, after you have 75 hours of qualifying education you need to apprentice under a licensed appraiser for a period no less than 2 years and accumulate 2000 hours of experience. As most appraisers are one-man-bands, they aren’t interested in training their competition.
Then you need another 15 hours of education just to get a licensed to appraise properties worth $250,000 or less. In my area that won’t buy you a townhouse. Therefore you couldn’t even with a regular license, appraise anything in my area.
In MD it’s tougher to be an appraiser than an agent even though they probably make about the same on average.