Will A Team Work In Appraisal?

Beth Sigg

Northwest Real Estate Services

The typical appraisal model in business is the lone wolf working in a home office. Or an appraisal company employee working in a busy office but turning out appraisal reports alone. Will the team model work in the appraisal world? Below are a few reasons why teams in the appraisal industry don’t always work out.

• Our appraisal licenses are held by individuals, not by teams or groups.
• Some appraisers are introverts, not extroverts.
• Delegating tasks to others can be harder than doing it yourself.
• You think you can’t afford it- money nor time.

The time-cost of training a new employee, along with the monetary cost of paying them, may not be worth their output.

But now let’s see how a team approach could work in the appraiser field.

1.     It will grow your business beyond what you can do by yourself

You can only prepare a finite number of appraisals per day, per week, or per year. The only alternative, to make your business grow, is to learn the fine art of delegation. And to delegate to others, you need to trust that they care about your business and work with as much detail as YOU do.

2.     Delegating non-appraisal tasks can you save time

Labeling file folders, stapling reports, uploading reports to clients – do you really have to do these tasks yourself? Do you really have to pull public records yourself? Type and send the report yourself? It’s not true that only you can properly perform these tasks. Delegating routine tasks that are part of running an appraisal business but are not part of the appraisal process will free you up to grow your business.

Start by breaking down the appraisal process from beginning to end – from receipt of an order to report upload to the client. Let’s look at some tasks that are part of an appraisal business but are NOT appraisal processes:

• Opening emails
• Printing and logging orders
• Inputting orders into appraisal software
• Typing in legal descriptions, real estate taxes, assessments, buyer names, purchase prices, contract terms, site size, zoning, year built
• Typing in notes from field observations
• Typing in comparable sale data
• Uploading photos
• Storing photos in a database

None of these tasks need to be done by an appraiser. Sure, it requires an appraiser to search for and select comparable sales, but that doesn’t mean you must type in the data. Some successful appraisers who have learned to delegate tasks use trainees, other appraisers, or clerical workers to do these jobs. Imagine how much time off-loading these tasks will save you, while you move on to the next appraisal order!

3.     Selecting the right person is the key to success

It is not impossible to find the right person to join your team. Write down the skills you believe are important and brainstorm who you may already know that has those skills. It may be an appraiser who is tired of field work or an appraisal trainee.

4.     You’ll trust those working with you if you train them yourself

You’ll gain confidence in the art of delegation if you train the team member who will be doing the work. Once you’ve determined the tasks to be delegated, then train them for those tasks yourself. It’s a perfect time, when work is slow, to train someone to work with you. Although you may be reluctant to become a supervisor, taking on a trainee is a great way to grow your team. They’ll be anxious to learn tasks, have a basic understanding of appraisal and will learn the ‘back-end” while they learn the appraisal process.

Perhaps it’s time to experiment with task delegation to make growing your business work. It’s time-saving, and affordable, when handled the right way. Take some steps towards growing your business today!