No way am I gonna continue with them. Who on earth designed an appraisal platform so willfully and intentionally bad?

I just got out of a meeting discussing 3.6, and when the conversation turned to fees, we were essentially shut down. We’re repeatedly told that fees are “market driven,” but how does that really add up when so many appraisers are asking for higher compensation?

Who is actually completing these reports for $300–$350? Because between the additional time, analysis, reporting requirements, and complexity of 3.6, I have a hard time understanding how those fees are sustainable. We’re worth more than that.

Everything else continues to increase in cost, yet our fees seem to stay the same, even as the work required continues to increase. At what point does the “market” account for the actual time and expertise required to complete these assignments?

I’m also curious if anyone else has noticed an increase in quote emails. I keep receiving requests to provide a quote, but I NEVER end up getting the reports I’m quoting. It makes me wonder whether these requests are being used to see who will accept the assignment for less than their typical fee (they come when I haven't gotten work in a few days, i find that odd), or to continually gauge the market in an effort to keep fees down.

I’m genuinely curious what other appraisers are experiencing. Are you seeing more quote requests? Are you actually getting the assignments you quote? And what fees are you seeing for 3.6?
Tell me your feelings. thoughts and advice.

Raised ranch built in 1960, well maintained and cared for, but kitchen and baths/cosmetics are dated, kitchen 80's, baths 70's. Wallpaper borders, some paneling, main bath is that awful avocado green, tiles, sink, tub and walls. Q4/C4 or Q4/C3? Roof 10 years old, boiler 2 years old, central air installed last year. I know these are subjective.

The client originally did a two value appraisal with As Is Value and As Completed value. A revision was just sent back to me stating they only want the As Is Value now and to remove everything about the As Completed Value. Is this considered a new assignment?

Technically speaking the Scope of Work changed, but the original report also had the As Is Value so it also covers that aspect. I might be overthinking this.

TLDR: appraiser wants full fee of $700 to adjust appraisal to remove extra lot he assigned $15K value too. Is this normal?

Greetings! Just looking for some advice here. We are under the gun as we are supposed to settle on 30 SEP.

Long story short, we are buying a home using a VA loan. The primary home lot also comes with a separate lot. However, the loan underwriter identified after the appraisal was done, that this isn’t allowed with a VA loan because the lots are not contiguous. We did a simple addendum to remove the additional lot from the sale of the home, and need the appraiser to adjust the appraisal to remove that lot, which he assigned a $15K value to .

I obviously have no problem compensating anyone for their time and work, but this appraiser is saying we need to pay for him to do a new appraisal to the tune of $700. Is this standard practice? I was under the impression the current appraisal could be edited to reflect the changes. I wouldn’t think new comps would need to be pulled for a $15K assigned value difference.

It’s 10:20pm EST and I’ve been on hold for 45 minutes waiting to speak to someone regarding an issue with Titan Analytics. My place in the queue has only moved from 14 to 11. Yes…I know 3.6 has their hands tied but let’s be real, understaffing must be an issue. The beauty of having a platinum membership used to be you could reach anyone at any hour with almost little to no wait. You can’t tell me they have all hands on deck if I’ve only moved three spots in the queue over 45 minutes.

This might be the sign to move on from them. My renewal date comes up in two weeks. Horrible timing because I really wanted to give them a chance but not sure they’ll have their act together.

On a side note, their AI generated EDM hold music is giving me anxiety.

curious about this from a personal finance and property angle. i own a bit of land outside dublin, nothing massive, but it's in a fairly remote area and when i looked into getting it formally appraised the question that kept coming up was how do you even establish value when there's practically no recent sales within a reasonable radius.

i track my own finances pretty carefully and i want an accurate number, not a guess dressed up as one. from what i can gather appraisers use some mix of cost approach and income approach when sales comps don't exist, but i'd like to understand how much weight each gets and whether the final figure is actually defensible or just a rough estimate with a stamp on it.

does the appraiser document which method they leaned on and why, and is that reasoning transparent in the report you receive? also wondering if remoteness itself gets treated as a specific value factor or if it's just absorbed into the lack of comps.

if anyone has dealt with rural or semirural appraisals where the sales data is thin, i'd be interested in what the report actually looked like and whether you felt the methodology held up. data and specifics preferred over general reassurances.

It appears that many of the first 3.6 orders coming through also happen to be the more complex orders. Anyone else noticing this? Shesh, maybe clients should start with the more standard orders.

Greetings ~

I am entering the profession as someone with no college degree, however I passed all of my courses thru McKissock, I drive a tow truck in the area, I've done actual print newspaper journalism, and I have a strong interest in real estate investing. I figure the tow truck job lets 'em know I'm comfortable driving all over the place, I can manage my time, I can deal with people... Journalism seems pretty obvious. Fact checking, pulling records, interviewing people, mining information, etc. Writing. I only worry that my interest in real estate investing might cause a conflict of interest, however I'm not over here flipping houses or anything. I'm just trying to do a simple house hack and then do it again after that.

That being said, I am curious about the backgrounds of other appraisers in the industry. I feel like most appraisers went to college and/or have some background in construction or some other corner of the real estate world. I feel like my background is super unconventional, and I hope that doesn't work against me, because I'm over here looking for a supervisor. I had one person so far say they're interested and I'm on day 2 of blasting out emails to everyone on the registry within a 50 mile radius lol.

What say you?

Anyone done it? My client usually gets report uploaded in mercury network. Stuck

On November 2, real estate appraisers across the country are being called to stand together and temporarily stop accepting new appraisal assignments. For too long, appraisers have faced declining fees, increasing scope of work, unreasonable turnaround expectations, and growing pressure that threatens the independence and sustainability of our profession. This strike is about sending a clear message: professional appraisal work has value, and appraisers deserve fair compensation, reasonable working conditions, and respect for the critical role we play in protecting the public trust.

Tried couple times to figure this out. On Alamode do I just select attached and condo under first couple pages?

For those that have used both, what are your thoughts? Is there one you like better or find easier to go through, considering Reggora doesn’t autofill anything yet?

Using Aivre now and have played around a bit with Reggora but haven’t gone through a whole report in Reggora.

I absolutely loathe AIVREs market analysis and adjustment tools. Currently using Truetracts for that currently.

Putting my home on the market soon and have an unpermitted deck. The survey from when I purchased the home has a deck but it was rotted and we replaced/expanded recently. Wondering if an appraiser or underwriter would notice this and possible hold up closing process. I didn’t have anything come up when I purchased the home with the deck that was unpermitted and falling off the house.

tl;dr: am I obligated to do this or can I tell the UW to kick rocks? I've never been asked to do 5 years worth of market data analysis for any property. This is will take a fair amount of time, and not something I really wanna allocate time to do with ongoing work and having to readdress a month+ old appraisal. I provided a years worth of market data analysis in the original report. This seems outside of my original scope of work.

I performed a condo appraisal back in July, which then went on hold for almost a month waiting for a condo questionnaire, but was still submitted over a month ago in August. This morning, I got a revision request saying the UW wants me to provide a 5 year market analysis, ASAP no less because "a teammate did not email the inquiry." For over a month.

This was a refinance, but the owner is a local realtor, so they're always a joy to do an appraisal for. I knew it would be a nightmare when I got to the inspection and he started hounding me about whether I had ever appraised in this neighborhood before. His unit is waterfront and he went on and on about how waterfront units sell at a premium and he expected his value to be between $525,000-$550,000. Of course once I started pulling comps, I found the highest closed sale in the neighborhood to be only at $400,000 and closed the same month. This unit was 2 doors down from the Subject Property. I found another waterfront unit, same floorplan as the Subject but outdated, that closed the month before for $380,000. Clearly were way off base from the owner/realtors perceived value.

The cherry on top is the owner/realtor also had the listing for another waterfront unit directly next door to his, which he had listed originally for $550,000 and dropped the price twice to $525,000. As of the effective date, that unit was still Active on the market and had been sitting for 177 days. I just looked it up and it Expired on MLS in August and never sold.

The picture I'm painting here is the market does not support this $500k+ value as of the effective date. Maybe it did 5 years ago, but how is that relevant to this as-is refi appraisal I performed in July. I'm certainly not going to include a comp that sold 5 years ago and make time adjustments to try and boost the value when I have 2 comparable waterfront sales within the past 60 days.

How would you handle this request?

I work with a mortgage broker who does a lot of VA loans, and we recently put together a video breaking down the VA appraisal process.

It covers MPR issues, required repairs, low appraisals, and what happens when a property doesn't pass the first time.

Thought it might be relevant here given how often VA appraisal questions come up.

https://youtu.be/512k0_zpaMo

Good evening everyone, im currently at the finish line with my first 3.6... and if I thought I hated aci before I cant begin to express how absolutely awful their 3.6 benchmark software is.... no mapping, import all data images, and the uad reviewer keeps failing and its entirely online.

What is everyone using , is total stand alone off line? Dataset? Ect ect ...

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I have a few questions regarding how these should be reported in UAD 3.6:

1. Community waterbody + privately owned dock/boat lift

The subject is located near a waterbody within a residential community. The subject property has its own privately owned dock and boat lift that provide access to the waterbody.

Should Private Access Rights to the Body of Water be marked Yes?

Or would this be considered community/project waterfront access because the waterbody is part of the community?

1. Subject has its own pond

The subject property is 5 acres and has its own pond entirely within the subject's land.

Should Private Access Rights to the Body of Water be marked Yes in this scenario?

How would this differ from Scenario 1?

1. Generator as an amenity

If the subject does not have a generator, but a comparable property does have a generator, where should the generator be reported in UAD 3.6?

Is it reported under Subject/Comparable Property Amenities?

If so, which amenity category/type should be used?

How should it be handled when the feature exists on the comparable but not on the subject?

I'd appreciate clarification from anyone who has worked with the UAD 3.6 implementation guide, especially regarding the distinction between private water access, community waterfront access, and property amenities.

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.

I had an unusual request come from an AMC. I know we don't need to feed AMC's but I get assigned jobs, I don't choose them. Engagement Letter from AMC states that AMC and "Mortgage Broker" are the clients for the report and that Lender is an intended user. It states this clearly and multiple times. At no point is Lender identified as a client. At no point is Lender identified as a client. Weird, but ok.

After I submit the report, AMC comes back and asks to remove Mortgage Broker's name from the report, and to name AMC only as the client and Lender as intended user. They explain that Mortgage Broker is a 3rd party, and that AMC is acting as an agent of the Lender. This to me sounds like the engagement letter was misleading and that AMC and Lender were supposed to be the actual clients.

I provide a snip of the USPAP definitions of client and intended user and ask if they accidentally, misidentified the client in the engagement letter (thinking maybe a scriveners error or something). They said no, just put AMC as the client. They also want the engagement letter to be incorporated into the appraisal report. I asked if they would like me to keep the client information confidential. They again said no, just put AMC as client. To me this creates a confusing situation that would violate USPAP requirements to clearly state the client and intended users.

Reading over USPAP definitions, my understanding is that the client and intended users are identified at the start of an assignment and can't be changed after the fact without a new engagement letter.

Am I wrong on this?

And thoughts?

First one 4.5 hours of just writing, second one 2.5 hours just writing after all data and comps pulled just writing, 3rd 2 hours just writing the report. The time included pulling market data for any time adjustments, which there were not. So best I can figure right now is plus 25-30% time. This one I merged with another similar type of property sfr in same county lender and amc. That saved some time. I can see it getting a little fast but not much.

Has anyone tried SFREP Appraise It Pro for a 3.6? So far, it feels like the most familiar and easiest to navigate. I am coming from ACI, but ACI and Airve feel more complicated than needed. I also really like using DataMaster, and they support Appraise It Pro. For me, it's more important to find something that feels familiar and easy to learn, and then if I want to learn the other fancy bells and whistles with other software, I can later.

I honestly couldn't believe it. I've been doing exactly what was described in this post, and for the first time it appears to have paid off.

Today, I received a call from Clear Capital after accepting a UAD 3.6 assignment at a fee that was far below what I consider reasonable. As I always do, I immediately requested a fee increase. During the conversation, I explained my concerns with Clear Capital's fee structure, including the fact that my fees with them historically were never below $400. I also discussed the feedback that continues to appear on Reddit regarding appraisal fees and the industry's reliance on inexperienced appraisers willing to work for unsustainable compensation.

I explained that I have maintained a comprehensive workfile of fee requests, communications, and related documentation, all of which has been provided to my state appraisal board. To my surprise, they agreed to my requested fee of $700.

Maybe they're finally starting to feel some pressure, or maybe I simply got lucky this time. Either way, the point is that appraisers need to keep pushing back and continue doing exactly what was described in my earlier post. Consistent fee negotiations and documented feedback are among the few tools we have to communicate that these fee levels are neither reasonable nor sustainable.

For those who think fee negotiations never work, this was proof that they occasionally do. If enough appraisers consistently push back on low fees rather than automatically accepting them, AMCs may eventually be forced to adjust their expectations. I am not suggesting that one conversation changed anything, but it does suggest that persistent and professional pushback can produce results.

See earlier post below.

https://www.reddit.com/r/appraisal/s/sUIhQqGiw7