One of the things that I have been told recently, "...Brian, people just don't know what you do for a living". While I'm sure some people fall into that camp, most people think I do something in real estate. Naturally when you hear that ambiguous term, you might assume I sell residential real estate or I am a Realtor. That is a correct, but not the whole story.
I am first and foremost a real estate appraiser, I started in 1997 as a college sophomore, really as a college job. I really had no intentions of being an appraiser past a few years, odd nearly 17-years later and I cannot imagine doing anything else. At the time I was a psychology major with a hope of being a social worker (I eventually got an economics degree). I was also on my own, I lived in an off campus apartment, and I did not have a lot of extra money. Social work gigs for college students tend to pay pretty close to minimum wage, and are not exactly glamorous jobs. The idea of making good money fairly quickly was a great concept.
So that's what I did, and soon after was promoted to being a commercial trainee for a small appraisal firm. The head commercial appraisal guy quit, which made me the the de facto commercial appraiser with 4 months of experience...at 19 years old. Looking back, probably not the wisest decision of my boss but I gladly accepted the position. I think a term my friend Tim Evans says all the time, "...you do not know what you don't know". Despite my lack of experience I learned quickly. Within a year I was running a department of a few other appraisers, within two years we doubled in size. We were appraising everything from apartments to large industrial buildings.
Within a year, like my predecessor, I wanted more money and eventually found myself without a job...and more importantly a few months shy of being eligible for my certified general appraisal license. This precluded me from getting commercial appraisal assignments or another job as a commercial appraiser. I did have a state appraisers license which allowed me to appraise residential. In a desire to eat and pay my bills, I launched KRES, Inc. Which I believed would be a temporary solution to my commercial appraisal problem. So I transitioned to being a residential appraiser and within weeks of opening my firm, I was busier than I could handle. Within a year, I had a small staff, within two years I had an office full of people, within four years we were appraising 50-60 residential orders a week.
Around this time Michigan started to real wobble, I started watching refinances and purchases disappear from our order que. Seeing the writing on the wall I downsized as quickly as I could, and transitioned into doing REO (Real estate owned by bank) work. In 2004 this wasn't popular (yet) and I was able to be fairly alone as an appraiser. Within a few months I had enough work for a small staff of appraisers specializing in REO appraisals.
In my heart I knew this wasn't a permanent niche, and eventually this trend of foreclosures would abate. So I started to go back into commercial real estate appraisal, having received my certified general license back in 2002. What an eye opening experience, work was much harder to obtain in the commercial world. I kept hearing "...you need to be designated". For anyone outside the profession the typical commercial designations are MAI and ASA, both take 4-5 years after licensing to obtain. Which did not make my commercial transition easy. But I was committed, and I started the pursuit of both my MAI and ASA.
So slowly I was able to get commercial work, while keeping one foot in residential. It was about this time I got my real estate brokers license, partly to make sure my friends and family had good representation in their purchases, and also to save myself on commissions when I sold my home. I never intended for it to be as lucrative as it has been.
While developing my appraisal business, I approached the Department of Veteran Affairs about why they pay so much above market rates on leases. I was told "...we are not at liberty to find spaces ourselves, we have to wait until someone responds to one of our needs for space". This began my first dip into real estate brokerage, tenant representation of the Federal Government. In the next 5 years, I would close $10 MM in lease transactions and travel the entire country doing lease due diligence work.
I started hiring real estate agents, and we were now doing commercial and residential appraisals and brokerage! I was also acting as a residential Realtor as well, helping friends & family but also other new clients.
Here is the thing, everything was going great until the floor fell out of the market in 2009. My residential appraisal business was entirely REO based, which was good when the market was crashing...I just never thought the Governor would sign a moratorium on foreclosures in the State of Michigan. This dried up all of my REO business. Residential and commercial refinances and purchases disappeared entirely, and my trusted Federal Government started a new thing called austerity and stopped leasing.
About a year prior I had an opportunity to do some property tax appeal appraisals, and was in the process of building that up... so I began the process of once again reinventing myself. By 2011 I was appraising for property tax exclusively.
Around this time I was approached by a regional accounting firm to help with some of their estate appraisals, purchase price allocations and internal audits. This began my tenure at Plante Moran, as the real estate appraisal practice leader. Next 3 years of work has taken me all over the country, Caribbean and Central America. Appraising resorts and timeshares, large industrial buildings, large landfills, golf courses, and huge portfolios. Intended uses were for federal court, IRS audit, FIRPTA, Fair Value (FASB), and audit compliance.
The crazy part of all this, I have had one foot in Plante Moran...one in KRES, Inc and another as a Realtor. Which is difficult seeing I only have two feet...
As of last week in partnership with Kelli Clark, we opened Ethos Real Estate (www.ethos-real estate.com) in an effort to consolidate our collective experience...and build something great.
In the following weeks I will put out blogs about what things help the value of your home, economic trends in real estate, and what not do with your real estate. Feel free to send a message if you would like a specific topic in a blog.
To answer the question above "...I am a commercial and residential appraiser and Realtor".
Brian Kirksey, ASA, MAI, MRICS, SRA
(248) 336-2086 x 101
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