Kent,
I can understand where Andrew s coming from. The idea and purpose of an appraisal is more than just valuation purposes. It is to exemplify public trust in value within the entire real estate market. It is to look at more than just final sales prices to determine a market value of a home. And if you do the job right, the work itself is EXTENSIVE. Your average form filling appraiser may take 5-6 hours on a report, including driving time and inspection time. A single report for me takes anywhere from 8-12 hours. Going over scorns of data, dating back 3 years to establish market trends and forecasts. Calling some 20-30 agents versus just the 3-4 in my report...in which case, a lot of appraisers dont even do that. Adjustments in a report may be standardized and based on no real evidence. Pool adjustments may always be positive (when in a lot of markets here in CA, they have no value or negative value because of maintenance on many foreclosures). Point is, with all the concessions, credits, or incentives given to a buyer these days, just to get them to buy a home, a final sales price with a range based purely on size and recent sales is very misleading. 1 year ago when Nehemiah was available, there was 3% credits on all FHA sales.... Which equated to a concession adjustment on every comp, in essence lowering the sales price, in turn lowering an initial value range.
So the hard part for an appraiser becomes trying to tell your client....after you already gave them a range on a preliminary run, that the value isnt going to work, or may not work. We sometimes dont know until we actually do the entire report. In which case, I can see Andrew's point. Thats a lot of work for 'no' money... or half the fee, in an industry which is now facing the HVCC, which looks to totally destroy the profession in the lending industry altogether. Our fees are being skimmed, and reduced. With the introduction of the 1004MC form coming later this year, we have already started being asked for it, with no fee increase.
We are being hammered like no end. I can understand on your side too, fees are going down. But one major problem..... when the market is good... you do good. That is to say, a lot of your monies are commissioned on the sales price, to my understanding, so when the market goes up, your income went up. When the market declines, your monies decline.
In our case, when the market went up, I saw not one single fee increase over the period from 2000-2005. From there, they only went down. And part of that is our own fault, part blames the mortgage industry accusing us of price fixing, or inflating. So when you do get appraisers who warrant a fee for what they do, i just assume, there are other products out there that can give you a free valuation. Many AVMs can, some even charge to run those. What like, $25? So why we dont get something for them stems from our own competition and idiocy, but can also be attributed to the phrase 'you get what you pay for'.
Most guys i know that do it for free, typically have no clue. I only offer the included service to my regular, and loyal clientele. Everyone else, i charge them based on what they want. The only free service i offer them is a list of sales within a 1 mile area, and let them run it themselves, given some county information that my online sources say.