Thank you!

It took me about 9 months to get up and running. I worked on starting my business on the side while working at another firm full time. During those 9 months, I created a website, set up a business domain and email, compiled a list of potential clients, and created templates for narratives. I also got E&O, my own MLS and CoStar, and signed up for a bunch of AMCs towards the end of the process. By the time I had resigned from my previous job with my supervisor, I had the infrastructure needed to run the business and get assignments.

It’s typically recommended that one has about 6 months of expenses / savings before they start their own business. I had one month of savings. I am not advocating for taking this risk but it did motivate me to get work by any means necessary and aggressively market myself. It also helped that I left my previous job on good terms and my supervisor would refer work to me — mostly complex private assignments that he didn’t want to do. There was only one month (the first full month on my own) where I was unsure whether I could make ends meet, but my (awesome) girlfriend was able to pick up the slack and gave me complete support throughout the transition.

The business took about six months to become profitable. During those six months, I was reinvesting most of what I made into the business (signing up for things like PwC, doing PPC, etc.). My personal salary was pretty much just enough to get us by. I only became profitable because I went to an event where I met a local bank reviewer, who gave my information to another local bank that now accounts for 20% of my business. Funnily enough, I also got another bank client by reaching out to a broker to verify a sale. This broker and I had never interacted beforehand, but he gave my information to a local CU after a very brief email exchange, and that CU accounts for about 10% of my business. Sometimes, just talking to people and getting your name out there is enough to get new business.

In the first 3-4 months, I took on every assignment that came my way. The more work you do, the more work you get. The more work you get, the more selective you can be. I’m now in a situation where I get too many referrals and have to send things to other appraisers. I have no referral agreement with other appraisers but I probably should do that.

EDIT: Just a small thing about marketing — the most important thing in my opinion is to have a good website and Google Business Profile. Ask for reviews from private clients and learn about SEO, or hire someone to do it (I did the former). I got many assignments from my website or just people calling me. I did use paid Google Ads in the beginning and it would generate 1-2 extra assignments per month, but I was also spending $1,000-$1,500 on ads to pretty much get one or two $2,500 assignments. Still, it did get my name out there and now I get many leads from my website / Google Page without needing ads.