Jeff Hicks, MAI President  Dohring Group RealWired!

At my 10th year Jesuit High School reunion, the general vibe was all about prestige and how much money people were making. At our 20th year reunion, the new measuring stick was who got fat. At the 30th year reunion, the talk turned to "has anyone died?" A natural progression I guess. I wonder what the 40th reunion will entail. 

In the spring 2013 Appraisal Journal, there is an article titled A National Profile of the Real Estate Industry and Appraisal Profession by J. Reid Cummings and Donald R. Epley, PhD, MAI, SRA. The article focuses on the appraisal profession as it relates to the overall employment profile of the US real estate industry.  This article is chock full of charts and graphs presented by much smarter people than me.  Having a high school tendency to use Cliff notes, I searched the article for the concluding bottom line which is the appraisal industry remains weak relative to the real estate profession and overall employment in the national economy. The report further concludes that "the data suggest that opportunities for future growth do exist due to an overall reduction in the number of people employed in this area in recent years."

If we had a nationwide commercial appraiser "reunion" right now, what would it look like?  Would it have a positive or negative tone?  Certainly you're going to have your pessimists likened to H.L. Mencken's quip "a cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin."  However, I think by and large the more progressive commercial appraisers are currently working very hard and plan to stay successful in the industry for the long haul.  Many look for better ways to produce their product despite the negative trend of commoditization.

One suggestion for "our people" would be to embrace a process for driving dialogue.  Perhaps someone high up the Appraisal Institute (AI) food chain and other leaders in the profession are reading this newsletter and will take heart and create a road map outlining a process to engage us.  To be clear, I am referring to all commercial appraisers in the US, not just those associated with AI. 

B.B. King's lyric, "Nobody loves me, but my mother and she could me jivin' too" illustrates a tendency of appraisers to believe something only when they see it.  It's in our best interest to shed the negativism and anxiety many appraisers feel about the viability of their economic future. 

It's time for commercial appraisers to come together as one entity with one voice.  What does that really mean?  I don't know.  Perhaps it's time for us to start a real discussion to change the direction of our industry and see where it leads.  Conversations can lead to ideas that can lead to a road map to facilitate leveraging our profession to the outside world. 

Here are questions that might get the conversation started:

• Are commercial appraisers relevant and do they provide "value" to the real estate process?
• How do the intended users view our product?
• Is it time to aggressively lobby to tweak Dodd-Frank to bring back our networking and relationships with lenders?
• If Self-Contained format is the new Summary for the 2014 USPAP, will 2016 mean that Summary is the new Restricted?  Is 2018 going to be a residential-like form?

As appraisers, we have the importance of ethical standards and providing unbiased opinions down pat.  However, we are leaving a lot of money on the table and losing panache.  It's time for a reboot.  What will we be talking about our next reunion?  I hope it's a confident tone with numerous success stories.  We graduated from high school, let's move on.