March 30, 2011 - Appraisal Pictures

They say a picture is worth a 1000 words. This is true for appraisals also. I had a conversation with a client the other day. She was telling me about an appraisal she received and how bad the pictures were in the report.

My first thought to myself was, “the appraiser inspected the property, he saw everything, does it matter how good the pictures are?” After a second, I said “yes”. An appraisal is a report, and someone, in some other location who has never been to that house and does not know the neighborhood, is going to rely on your report. They are going to look at the pictures in your report, so why not take the best pictures you can? I am not talking about learning to be a professional Architectural Photographer, just know how to take a good picture that accurately represents the home, room or condition.

Here are a few tips:

  1. Know the direction of light. Try not to shoot into the light.
  2. Use a wide angle or fisheye lens. How hard is it to get those interior photos, a wide angle lens can capture an entire room.
  3. Depth, try and get as much of the yard, house and pool as possible. Step back, but be careful of those “yard bombs”.
  4. Try and center what you are taking a picture of.

Let me know what you think?

If you have any appraisal needs or referrals, please call me at 562-673-1138

January 22, 2011 - The Total # of Appraisers in Long Beach

I was curious as to the total number of appraiser there are in the city of Long Beach

I went to the OREA website looked them up. Then, I decided to see how many are independent fee appraisers and how many are not. Any appraiser listed as working for a bank or a government agency I assume are not independent fee appraisers.

So, we have a Total of 149 Appraisers in Long Beach, of which, 140 are Independent Fee Appraisers. Look at the number of Trainees, only 14. Do you think we are going to have a problem in the future as some Appraisers retire or leave the industry? That is a different topic all together.

Next I was curious to see how many closed sales of Condos and SFR’s there were in Long Beach for the past 4 months. I also wanted to see how this would average out to work for those Appraisers. I did not include Certified General Appraisers since they focus mainly on Commercial work. I also did not include Trainees since they can not really do work on there own. That left only Certified Residential and Licensed Residential Appraisers, a total of 84.

I then took the total number of closed sales and divided that by the number of Fee Appraisers, as you can see that was between 2.7-3.0 Appraisals per Appraiser in Long beach, not including January. I guessed at a conservative post HVCC/AMC fee for an appraisal of $300. Basically each Appraiser would be making $775 -$866 per month.

Wow!

This does not include the fact that appraisers from other areas come to Long Beach.

Basically, there is not enough work for the Appraiser that remain to make a decent living on, couple that with the low fees being paid and the fact that we lost most of our clients when the HVCC went into effect, it is no wonder the ranks are thinning.

To me this looks like a good argument to band together and demand a higher fee.

What do you think?

ZEITGEIST NOLA