Well, we've all had the privilege of experiencing 2008's slippery real estate slopes. One of my favorite colloquialisms from my dad is: ‘What doesn't kill you will make you stronger'. I dub that phrase 2008's Appraiser's motto.
With the trifecta of bad luck, greed and bad decisions appraisers took some hard knocks.
To be honest, I sat on these first two sentences since the end of 2008. I remember what Mary Thompson reminded us all... be positive.... And I have been, but I had lost all ambitions to write to an audience of down trodden appraisers about hope. Sure, I'm nervous about what the HVCC do to appraiser relations in May. Sure, I'm a bit bitter about being over-scrutinized on nearly every appraisal report that is submitted to a lender. Sure, I wonder if after all these years appraisal really is such a noble profession after all... I know appraisers still (should) believe so, but we're certainly the red-headed step children of the real estate industry. We all know that... we've known it since our internships.
How many of us had the time in 2004, 2005 or 2006 to catch our breath and watch what would become of real estate's good fortune? The repercussions would not to be ignored. ‘What goes up must come down'. As a real estate professional, I will reword it more appropriately to ‘What is inflated past its tension points will find itself on the auction block.' We're not done with this downward spiral, but I think many of us are getting into the groove and catching the wave.
To all my hard-working ethical appraiser friends out there, there is good news: There will be fallout. Your competition will move on to new careers. Hopefully they will be the Skippys.
Here's to 2009. Breathe easy. It will get better.
Comments(5)