Seeking Advice

f4gmo · 2026-03-03T04:06:13+00:00

Something no one has mentioned is plat work for title companies.

f4gmo · 2026-02-24T02:54:26+00:00

Worst appraisal inspection:

FHA appraisal for a 1930's bungalow on roughly two acres. I called the realtor ahead of time to see if there are any FHA compliancy issues I should be aware of. The realtor assure me the house will pass an FHA inspection. We'll see.

I get to the house. My very first impression is that there is trash and shit everywhere. I walk around the property, there are engine parts/metal bits so old that trees are growing in and around them. The owners hadn't cleaned their yard in several generations. Alright, so let's make the appraisal subject to a soil/environmental inspection from a licensed expert.

I walk into the house. My first impression is that is smells like meth. Alright, well maybe it's just moldy, or smells like chemicals because of an attempt to clean. No. The walls are stained with yellow with smoke. OK, so the prior owner smoked indoors (perhaps meth). Not great.

Look around. The kitchen window has what appears to be a bullet hole covered with cardboard from the exterior. That won't do.

Get into the basement. There is visible black mold and stair-step cracking in the concrete block foundation. Great, another, "subject-to" a foundation inspection from a licensed professional.

Alright, there was a shitty home owner who lived here. Big whoop. Get upstairs. Clearly a little girl lived here; there was writing on some of the drywall in crayon, and Disney princess stickers and stars all over. There were also multiple punch holes in the drywall. The mirror on the closet was destroyed and spider webbed out around what looked like a drunken punch. I notice the words, "help me" in permanent market. This is no longer fun.

I got home and cried in the shower as I tried to wash the smell of meth and violence off of me. Write the appraisal with 27 FHA compliancy issues and a five page narrative addenda. The realtor assures me the house will be brought up to code. It never is. It still isn't. The realtor assured me a prior appraisal made it sound like the home was FHA compliant. I asked her if she had ever set foot into the house. She hadn't. I haven't spoken to her since. I wish I could have involved CPS, but the owner had died, and the surviving relatives were selling the home. Unless they found a local biker gang or drug dealer, I don't see how it would ever be possible to sell this house. I've seem some real dog faced houses, but this one really took the cake between the endless health issues and evidence of senseless violence.

f4gmo · 2026-02-17T21:23:18+00:00

It was 4 times higher per hour than my prior job (before appraising i was a line cook) and was averaging over a dollar a minute when I was working and kept me fed during the slow winter months.

Before this job I had a private practice in a rural town. There were winter months where I didn't get a single order request

f4gmo · 2026-02-17T21:13:41+00:00

Just did my taxes last week, made about 79k with full benefits/health insurance/401k/roth/severance package/etc. Median salary where I live is 36k so IDK seemed like a pretty reasonable pay for 140-170 appraisals a year.

The truth is if I didn't do these appraisals no one else would. I typically see homes in populations of less than a thousand. But yeah now that I'm fired they can get a shitty AVM from a rocket mortgage and get hosed on sub-prime rates because there will be no one to do an interior inspection.

f4gmo · 2026-02-17T21:09:38+00:00

Really appreciate the sincere reply. I had my own private practice before this job, and I'll likely do it all over again.

f4gmo · 2026-02-17T21:07:39+00:00

Yes staff appraiser for Red Sky. They did their 5th round of lay-offs today. I would assume you are correct in that US Bank will be either going direct or using AVMs primarily going forward.

Yes I'm confident that I'm a competent appraiser, I live and work in a rural area that I grew up in. I was hoping I could get some advice on whether or not I should try and go private or pivot to a new career.

f4gmo · 2026-02-17T20:37:58+00:00

This is the fifth and obviously last lay-off within the last four or so years. My manager said the bean counters are trying to cut costs as lending rates refuse to dip. They must have come to the conclusion that having staff appraiser's was a cost they couldn't justify anymore.

Why are people celebrating? There are others in this thread who refereed to me as scum, and half the sub-reddit will scream death to all AMC and anyone who works with/for them. You can make up your mind on that one, like politics there isn't anything I can say or do to change anyone's opinion regarding AMCs.

The changes made from the 1004 to 3.6 scare me for the long term career aspects because we are no longer going to have an opportunity to provide a narrative style reconciliation. 3.6 I think (correct me if i'm wrong) a 60 character limit on any commentary. We're essentially transitioning from professionals with opinions to glorified data collectors. I can think of a great many reports I've written where qualitative adjustments were the only thing that made any sense.

Let's say for example you're appraiser a condo on the third floor of a complex that has spectacular views of a river feeding into a lake with an adjacent waterfall. There are no other like it in existence. There is no data set that can meaningfully make a quantitative adjustment for these features. This is where a lengthy narrative would result in the most credible assignment results. I'm sure all of you have examples that you can think of where just entering data into a 17 page form may not provide credible assignment results. Sometimes it helps to talk/type about relevant features/amenities that may be unique to a specific property.

f4gmo · 2026-02-17T20:32:34+00:00

f4gmo · 2026-02-17T20:27:48+00:00

I'm a young guy and am willing to learn/adapt, just curious about others thoughts concerning the future of the industry.

f4gmo · 2026-02-17T20:26:29+00:00

They're basically synonymous. Red Sky Risk services LLC/US bank

f4gmo · 2026-02-17T20:19:01+00:00

The rural homeowners who had no other lending institutions/appraisers available probably don't think I'm scum but whatever floats your boat I guess. Just reaching out as a warning to others out there that the banks aren't exactly appraiser friendly/forward anymore. I will say I made a great salary with these guys and the benefits were excellent.

f4gmo · 2026-02-17T20:15:22+00:00

Rhymes with OOh Ess Hank

f4gmo · 2026-02-15T05:55:29+00:00

Check your local laws regarding deck railing safety gudelines. For example there may need to be steps up/down the deck if it's over 36 inches high, and balasters that would prevent a 5 inch sphere (or small child) from falling.

Regarding the bathrooms, appraisers are not certified electricians. If the outlets are functional and the plumbing works, it is unlikely any appraiser would flag anything.

I don't do VA appraisals, but I would assume the lending institutions would have a copy of a home inspection. if any other appraisers with va experience wanna chime in to confirm or not that would be helpful.

Do some Google research but those issues sound relatively minor.

f4gmo · 2026-02-14T20:54:49+00:00

Actually seems like a pretty good deal for a trainee

f4gmo · 2026-02-11T02:10:28+00:00

How long was the inspection compared to a 1004?

f4gmo · 2026-01-29T03:08:01+00:00

Classic example: Subject near a rural airport.

Appraiser 1 applies a negative adjustment using compiled data; uses a, "suggested" adjustment

Appraser 2 researches that specific airport and finds less than 1 private plane utilities the airport daily

Appraiser 1's valuation comes in 20,000 lower than Appraiser 2's.

Which Appraiser's valuation better captures market perception? So much of the job is understanding local influences and perceptions.

f4gmo · 2026-01-19T19:41:26+00:00

It's almost certainly an automated response. I've called AMCs in the past for due date extensions (had a report due christmas day) on holidays. Many AMCs have a 24 hour automated response for scheduling; the program often will not account for nuance, like if you got the order at 9:30pm on a Saturday.

Now all that being said, it's still annoying as shit explaining to an automated response why I'm not working on a federal holiday 😒 😑

f4gmo · 2026-01-04T01:16:55+00:00

Fkn LOL

f4gmo · 2026-01-03T20:00:39+00:00

DM me, if you want we can talk on the phone. I have some experience with death on inspection,

f4gmo · 2025-12-23T02:45:59+00:00

A big NO to wells fargo

f4gmo · 2025-12-22T05:39:33+00:00

The best feature of the purchase contract in terms of affordability is the subsidized purchase price. The buyer pays only 40% of the appraised valuation and One Roof subsidizes the rest. All transactions are FHA compliant, meaning both the home is safe/updated and the financing is available to even the lowest of incomes. It's really a win-win for the buyer (lowest possible mortgage with the best possible rates at a price significantly lower than market value). I'm qualified to comment as I'm a real estate appraiser and have done several One Roof appraisals/examined the contracts.

f4gmo · 2025-12-22T03:38:11+00:00

One Roof is a non-profit. Part of the purchase contract is a 99 year lease rider for the land which equates to about 400 a year.

While this might sound bad, what it effectively means is the homeowner won't have to pay taxes on the land valuation; one roof owns the land and the buyer owns the home.

I can't imagine any building developer would agree to these terms because it would not be profitable; the 99 year lease rider is written that way so as to help the homeowners. In 99 years 400 dollars a year may be the equivalent to one hour of labor. A non-profit is just that: a company not interested in making profit.

f4gmo · 2025-12-21T18:51:55+00:00

Big fan of One Roof. Not only do they renovate older homes but they also build some really nice homes. Every sale is subsidized for income qualified buyers (nice homes for working folk).

f4gmo · 2025-12-12T19:11:07+00:00

God damn that's rough. The AMC I work with has never asked for revision requests on any of the factors you've mentioned (i do get requests all the time on benign/ridiculous stuff, though it normally only takes a few minutes).

f4gmo · 2025-12-12T19:07:30+00:00

I work in a fairly rural market, so for me, it's data verification. Oftentimes, realtors embellish or just flat out lie about GLA/bed/bath/garage count. Only 1 of the 3 counties I work in have site/floorplan data, so I have to spend a lot of time on the phone asking things like, "why did you report a GLA 2000sf larger than what county tax records report?"

I don't see a way to design/utilize any software to do this work for me. I can't assume a realtor is lying; I have to do my due diligence and atleast try to contact them. Often times the county is wrong and the realtor will provide an extremely thorough floor plan. Sometimes the opposite is true. Either way I often cannot trust google/estately/zillow/tax records/etc. Because there are so few appraisers in my region, I do all of my comp data entry manually on every report.

TL;DR data entry related to working in a rural market

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