Commercial appraiser job for city vs private
Am considering an offer as an entry level appraiser for the city. The reviews I’ve all read all about private appraisal companies where you have to bring in business. Working for the city I feel this would be a slightly different role. Any one have any insight on what this job would be like
[{"id": "f474t35", "text": "I am a commercial appraiser for King County (which surrounds Seattle) determining assessed values for property taxes. I prefer this job much more than the previous fee appraiser jobs I had at firms like Colliers. Back then, I got paid based on how many reports I produced, so not only was that stressful since my pay was unreliable and directly linked to how many nights and weekends I worked but it also caused a quantity vs quality conflict. If I took my time analyzing a property and produced a high-quality appraisal, I got paid less. If I rushed and produced as many reports as possible I got paid more, even if those reports were garbage. And every low-quality report I produced increased my risk of getting sued because banks use appraisals as insurance policies. If a deal falls through because a property turns out to be worth less than the appraisal stated, then they'll look through the appraisal and find a reason to sue the appraiser. During my time at Colliers, they had to deal with a lawsuit where BoA sued them because a housing development foreclosed due to a lack of utilities available at the street. The appraisal said there were utilities available at the street because it was written by a new guy who just copied and pasted that from another report and didn't take the time to confirm it. \n\nNow that I work for the county I don't have to balance that quality vs quantity conflict. I get paid a steady salary throughout booms and busts, the unionized culture means I work 4 days a week and am discouraged from working beyond my scheduled 35 hours per week, health insurance is fully paid for, I get 3 weeks paid vacation, plus more paid sick leave than I'll ever use, a pension, a bus pass, gym discounts, and I have a specialized focus where I appraise the same group of properties every year. That group of properties numbers in the thousands and we use mass valuation models rather than appraising one at a time, which is a very different mindset but I got used to it after a couple of years. I don't see myself ever going back to the fee appraisal world. Maybe I might make more money there if I worked really hard, but it's not worth the stress in my opinion.", "replies": [{"id": "f489izf", "text": "Excellent insight thank you! Sounds way better then the private appraisal company", "replies": [], "depth": 2}, {"id": "f4abqib", "text": "Great answer here,  I had a very similar experience. \n\nWhen I made a similar move, the public employer looked very highly at my fee appraisal(private) experience.  also,  understanding appraisal methodology made me better when dealing with assessment appeals.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}, {"id": "f4rdbau", "text": "is there any room for upward movement? or pay increases", "replies": [{"id": "f4rloam", "text": "Pay is very transparent, based on a table where your position is paid in a given row and nearly everyone moves right one column every year. A new table comes out every year with a cost of living increase. Every move to the next column to the right is around 2.5% and cost of living increases are usually another 2-3% so most get 4-5% raises every year until they got the top pay in their row after around 10 years unless they get a promotion.\n\nPromotions put you in a higher paying row and come with at least a 5% raise initially but the main benefit is that you don't top out on the pay table as soon, giving you more years of raises than you'd get otherwise. Commercial appraisers start in the \"commercial appraiser I\" position and most get a promotion to \"commercial appraiser II\" after a handful of years which comes with a bit more responsibility. A few of those get promoted to \"senior appraiser\" which supervises a team of commerical appraisers. In my time here I've seen two seniors get promoted to \"commercial division director\" (1 right after I was hired and another 5 years later) which manages all commerical appraisal duties for the department.  The promotions generally only happen when someone retires; I haven't seen anyone quit for a reason other than retirement in my 6 years at the county. But the average age is something like 60 so everyone expects more retirements to come.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]