This post was prompted by a survey I saw on the AppraisalPort website. The survey question asked appraisers if they worked at a second job to supplement their regular appraisal income. It seems with the slow real estate market and the implementation of the HVCC last year, business has slowed down for a lot of folks or income has dwindled as a larger share goes to the Appraisal Management Companies (AMC’s) . The survey showed that of approximately 5,000 voters, 30% felt like they would have to supplement their current income with another job in the near future. Almost 18% currently have another job, and 8% take on another job when work slows down. If you add these figures up, you have almost 56% of appraisers who are currently working a 2nd job or will have to soon.
I have noticed a slow down in the appraisal work I do for mortgage lending and income as well, so I am attempting to take a proactive role and diversify my client base. In addition to mortgage lending there are other “non traditional” appraisal services that I offer. These include marketing appraisals (for FSBO sellers as well as Realtors), tax appeal appraisals, appraisals for bankruptcy, estate planning, foreclosure appraisals, and PMI reductions (although this has slowed down recently due to falling property values).
How about you? Have you taken on a second job or plan to? Have you diversified your appraisal services? If you have diversified what type of appraisal work are you doing? I would be interested in hearing from you.
Good day…I’m one that has been in the industry for 20 years and HVCC nuked my mortgage base. Any suggestions or feedback on how to get non-mortgage appraisal business?
Mike, I hear you. HVCC has really changed the way we do business. I too am working on generating more “non-mortgage” appraisdal business. I am not where I want to be yet but I will tell you what I am doing to get there. I am working at diversifying my business with other “non-traditional” types of appraisal business like I mentioned in another blog post. I am marketing to real estate agents who come into contact with a lot of people. They may not be able to stear a mortgage person my way for a particular job but they can pass my name along to someone needing an estate appraisal, divorce appraisal, or pre-listing appraisal. I let homeowners know that I can help them set a list price for their home if they are a FSBO or even if they are listing with an agent and the area they are is difficult to get a BPO on. I am also marketing to lawyers and accountants for other types of appraisals.
Something else you may want to consider is how you are currently marketing. With the increase in social media and the use of the internet there are a lot of things you can do online through Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube to name a few. The one important thing though is not to rely on these things entirely, but to get to know people through them and then make one on one personal connections to build relationships. I hope these ideas are helpful to you. Let me know how things are going if you do implement these ideas.
Tom, I think you are right, I think diversification is key and there is a lot of non traditional appraisal work out there. Business has slowed down for me but I am still fairly busy.
Bryan, thanks to ideas from you and others I am learning more ways to “get noticed” online , to grab more of that non traditional work.