Want an appraisal? Take a ticket and get in line
As if the real estate market does not have enough challenges already, the nerdy fellow who arrives, clipboard in hand, to peg the value of your home is getting harder to find out there.
The number of appraisers across the Bay State has plunged over the past three years, falling to 2,871 this year from 4,048 in early 2007, the Massachusetts Board of Real Estate Appraisers reports.
The shortage has already led to a slowdown in a key part of the home sales process, with appraisers pushing back against demands by lenders for a 48 hour turnaround, Steve Sousa, the appraisal board's executive vice president, told me for my weekly column that I write for Banker & Tradesman. Instead, appraisal firms are telling lenders they might have to wait as long as a week.
As problematic, there has been a dramatic fall off in the number of apprentice appraisers looking to enter the field as well.
Post bubble federal rules that severely restrict the kind of work aspiring appraisers can do, making them less economical to hire, loom large right now.
There were more than 1,600 trainee appraisers back in 2007, earning their keep by going out and doing home inspections and reporting back to seasoned residential appraisers.
Today there are just 470 trainees at work here in Massachusetts, hoping to survive a daunting, two year training period on low wages in hopes of getting a start in what should be a solid profession.
Meanwhile, in another warning sign, those appraisers still out there poking around homes and doing comps are growing older. More than half of appraisers at work here in Massachusetts are 50 and older.
If you are out there buying or selling right now, what's your appraisal experience?
