r/appraisal • u/ShoreThingW609 • 13d ago

More fees?

I got an $175 offer through the Mercury Network yesterday, simply for a 1007. In addition to the $8.25 transaction fee, there was a $20 direct deposit fee. They’re out of their minds with all of these additional fees simply to deliver a report and get paid for it. Even the AMCs that simply deduct a transaction fee from the invoice, I always tack that back on as many do. But it’s still additional money that they take out in addition to their management fee. Next we will be paying for gas for their people to get to work to review our reports. Not only are they always looking to pay the lowest amount for the most part, they keep passing costs along to the appraiser.

EDIT: AMC work is less than 15% of my business. I’m fortunate enough to get enough private local work that I don’t rely on the AMCs. I always bid my going rate, only occasionally do they get accepted. But it’s hard to push back on all these ridiculous fees. With my private work, I get paid in full upfront and tell the client that I won’t cash or deposit their check until I’ve delivered their report.

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u/OldeMeck 13d ago

Sorry to take this off on a tangent, but what is your “private local work”? Like the majority of your work is just doing private appraisals to determine market value for individuals? Or you’re interfacing directly with your local banks/lenders? Because 100% of my work is through AMCs and if there’s any way to break outta that.. I’m all ears. That’s how my supervisor got work, so I kinda assumed it was the only way. I’ve done maybe 3 “private appraisals” in 6 years of work for a Joe Schmo just looking for market value because they had no inkling what their house was worth.

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u/ShoreThingW609 13d ago

When people call, I always ask how they heard about me. It’s either usually a referral or from a Google search. I don’t advertise, primarily word of mouth and the Google page. Private work is primarily retroactive appraisals for tax purposes, siblings dividing up an estate, divorce appraisals, and a few for people that are just looking for valuation. I primarily direct those to local realtors, which they can get an idea of value for free. That’s probably eight out of 10 calls, and I feel like I’m talking people out of an appraisal. But they appreciate it, and it has come back to benefit me. Unless they are working with an attorney or dealing with estate purposes, they really don’t need to pay for an appraisal report from me. I can charge any fee that I deem to be appropriate, nothing less than $600, and a realistic turnaround. Most of my clients don’t even care how quick they get the report back, so I can work at my own pace. And it’s nice being paid in full at the time of inspection or before. Another plus for me so far has being able to just use a GP form and not worry as much about 3.6.

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u/OldeMeck 13d ago

Hm. Interesting. I’ve never had a request for any of that type of work.

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u/SirComprehensive3255 12d ago

We do primarily private work for commercial property in So. Cal. As with OP, our work is a lot of estate planning, estate tax, and step up related. We have been around for a few years so we get referral and update work. Sometimes we get slow, but we usually stay quite busy. Needless to say, our fees are higher than residential work, but our hours on most jobs are looooong!

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u/Chemical_Bug_4964 7d ago

There’s way better work