Last week I got the opportunity to have drinks and nosh on "The World", the largest privately owned yacht on the planet. My wife and I were attending a social gathering with the CEO Council of Tampa Bay, an organization of which we belong.

It's a floating opulent condo cruise ship with very upscale private owners - think top 25% of the 1%. As the name implies, the ship travels wherever in the world the collective affluent group wish to embark. These pecunious condo owners can purchase a unit from $800,000 up to $10 million plus daily, yes that's right daily, maintenance fees of $1,000.  This does not cover food and drink. This primarily goes to cover the cost of the 3 to 1 ratio of staff to resident.

I had a discussion with my cousin the other day about how we might live our lives if we were this monied.  Commercial real estate appraising provides a very nice standard of living but often times is not considered to be a line of business of the uber-rich. Our discussion then led to the concept of what level of wealth are we motivated to earn? In other words what dictates how much money we desire and how hard are we willing to work for it. 

Honestly ask yourself, would you want to live on "The World"? Take a few minutes... it's actually a difficult task because it addresses change.  I don't think I am that motivated or driven to an income level commensurate with a cabin on the fourth deck, but I'm very motivated not to be uncomfortable.  In response to our current competitive appraisal environment, I am investing heavily in software and technology solutions to improve my bottom line.  Specifically my income per hour to its highest and best use.  This means no weekends, no holidays, and no super long days at the office.  I know I am not operating my appraisal firm to allow me to have a private golf professional on board to teach me a specific 36-round course via virtual reality technology as we sail to that actual Scottish Isle (yes "The World" actually has this).

Some appraisers worry about the Moody's downgrade of the US, the fiscal cliff, the Europeans spinning off the rails which echo's the words of Barbara Ehrenreich's 1980 novel "Fear of Falling".  She writes that "expertise - the currency of the professional - cannot be passed on or inherited by the next generation like wealth or property, the professional middle class lives with a constant "fear of falling" from its privileged place in society". Sounds like the 2012 discussion of a shrinking middle class. On the other hand, worrying about such things is not productive and I tend to focus on what I can control.   

But I ask you - where do you fall?  Are you driven to be the "big dog" constantly out-producing your competition by a wide margin or are you a Steady Eddy appraiser that is comfortable but not trying to set the world on fire.  Neither scenario is right or wrong.  But consider software and system solutions to automate your appraisal world to allow either scenario to play out with much less effort.  After all you, like "The World," must slow down once in a while and go into port to resupply your ship.

If you would like to join a discussion about this topic or Appraisal Best Practices go to our blog or contact Jeff Hicks.