"You can't make two things your number one priority." An interesting concept stated by Carol Roth, the author of
Entrepreneur Equation. This statement is a challenging one as I'm sitting here in my office thinking about all these reports I need to get out the door. Certainly your personal life takes precedence, or at least it should, since at the end of the day your career is really nothing more than a money-making machine to support the people you love.
That said, your goal should be to love what you do and don't just schlep through your (working) life.So let's kibitz about what should be your second largest priority in life, your commercial appraisal career. Do you go to the office with your head down, tired, unmotivated, and lethargic? Do you appraise only because you love coffee in the morning? Has excitement in your appraisal career been drummed out of you due to many years in the industry, perhaps you have a horrible boss, bad office culture or maybe you're just lazy? I find most appraisers are not lazy at all but have lost their priority.
The definition of priority can be discussed as precedence in date or position. So what's your priority when preparing your appraisal reports? For some, all they care about is quality. Other appraisers only focus on production dollars, while others enjoy creating phone book size reports. The great appraisers focus their efforts on providing the highest quality appraisal within the scope of work with the most pertinent market data and valuation methodology without killing unnecessary trees.
The definition of priority also relates to meriting attention before competing alternatives.
The commoditization trend of commercial appraisals due to Dodd-Frank, I believe, has changed our priorities. Until this law is revised or altogether repealed, commercial appraisers can no longer afford to ignore office efficiency. Either way, competition is not going away anytime soon.
You've been reading for years about technology buzz words, the cloud, CRM, best-of-breed applications, SaaS, document management, collaboration, enterprise-solutions, blah blah blah. If you're like most appraisers, you probably have ignored much of the tech talk.
Some folks (hint hint) have been working hard over the years to provide solutions that commercial appraisers will actually use. I think technology has finally caught up with our aspirations to provide easy to use, yet significantly impactful software solutions to substantively improve the appraisal process from order taking to report delivery.
Back in the day, prima donna tech people oversold business people. Many to this day still feel burned by that. This should no longer be the case. However, if you have any prima donna tech folks working with you now, fire them immediately. E-mail me if you need an ethical and knowledgeable tech person to remotely fix your PCs and servers, plus provide affordable hardware support. Business folks demand specific solutions to their specific vertical market and do not have time for unscrupulous and often lazy techs.
So ask yourself, what is your priority? Yes, you still need to get appraisals out the door, bid on new assignments and keep an eye on your accounts receivable. But this cycle will always be there.
Change your priority to focus on your office efficiency and systems. Create a positive culture in your appraisal firm whether it's just yourself or a large office. Since you have been busy cranking out appraisals, appraisal production efficiency probably has not been a priority for you. It is now.
If you would like to join a discussion about this topic or Appraisal Best Practices contact Jeff Hicks.
