Is appraisal a reasonable stepping stone towards brokerage?
I just recently started a job as an appraiser with a smaller but growing tech type appraisal firm. I took the job because I thought it was interesting but would like to get into brokerage later on down the line. I wanted to know how effective is the information and connections gained from the appraisal practice able to be utilized in brokerage and generally how easy/difficult would it be to switch over later on?
[{"id": "igxnm08", "text": "Brokerage is a good stepping stone to brokerage.\n\nWhy delay the pain of the first 2-3 years of little/no money?  If brokerage is where you want to be and you don\u2019t want to dive right in, look for an analyst role at a brokerage firm.", "replies": [{"id": "igzhbct", "text": "Well said! Have money saved! Don\u2019t expect to make money the first 18 months. It\u2019s definitely a risk. But big risks lead to big rewards! The difference between your goals and achieving your goals, is discipline and consistency!", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "igxnrdr", "text": "Appraisal is a completely different career path with almost no crossover.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "igxobjl", "text": "I went from brokerage to appraisal.\n\nIn appraisal I learned more about the market rates, what things sold for, the pros and cons of retail, office, industrial and land. Also the benefits of building with concrete, or wood frame and how much rent would be needed for a deal to make sense. \n\n In brokerage you need to have some of that knowledge (not as much if you\u2019re on a team or under someone) but more importantly you need sales skills. \n\nBeing able to call 300 people and convert those into meetings is more valuable than the full in depth real estate knowledge.", "replies": [{"id": "igxwm3o", "text": "If you don't mind could you elaborate on some of the pros and cons of retail, office, industrial and land?", "replies": [{"id": "igy06yu", "text": "Yeah, two of these have a future.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}, {"id": "igyak2j", "text": "I misspoke when saying pros and cons. More like the nuances that go into a valuation of different property types. For example an industrial building vs a retail building. They\u2019re valued differently and other factors can matter or not matter. \n\nFor example, a hard corner near a busy intersection matters for a retail\nbuilding but doesn\u2019t do as much for an industrial building.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "igzgm5u", "text": "What is the benefits of wood vs concrete frame?", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "igy00ry", "text": "When you are a broker, your appraisals are FREE! They are called bovs \n\nDifferent skill set. Most appraisers I know feel bad bullshitting and selling things and really like excel. The thought of calling strangers up and talking to people is stressful. \n\nMost brokers I know cannot use excel and would rather go to the dentist instead of sitting in an office heads down writing any kind of report. This is why I have job security. If brokers were more like appraisers I would be out of a job.", "replies": [{"id": "igy1kmt", "text": "as a broker getting an appraisal license I agree with everything you just said lol.  Holy shit do I hate writing reports.  I'd rather talk on the phone for 8 hours and go to three lunches than spend 2 hours writing reports", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "igy58tm", "text": "That great! Can you message me the name of appraisal firm to see a the based one? \n\nI just left commercial property mamager\\operations role after 12 years to do appraising so I can work for myself. I will combine this with overage work, until I can buy my own buildings, I\u2019ll call you to broker my deals for you", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "igyde8z", "text": "I started off in Valuation and jumped into investments/REPE/brokerage. \n\nValuation gave me confidence on my deal analysis, but tbh, fortunately I have pretty good soft skills so I was well rounded enough to make the jump. \n\nMy take on it, tbh, is that many of your clients as a CRE broker are HNWI and aren\u2019t just looking for a marketing fulfillment, but also investment and wealth management strategy. If you can learn enough fundamentals from valuation, and you can make proper recommendations or send over good deals, that\u2019s where the value of starting in appraisal is.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "igyhach", "text": "Analyst is a stepping stone to brokerage. You learn the products the brokers are selling, learn the deal killers, and watch the daily routines of brokers.\nSome companies also give you a hybrid role of analyst / broker so you get a base salary as you start to bring in clients so you aren't left broke with no commission while building up your pipeline.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "igz2lsd", "text": "I started off as an Appraiser. Did it for five years, Did the courses, hours, etc to get my licensing and did full valuation reports for a boutique firm in a large market. At the end of my appraisal career I was making decent money but nothing great.\n\nI transitioned to a Debt Broker role. For me this was the perfect balance of underwriting and deal making.\n\nAppraisal experience will give you a great foundation and will be useful in your brokerage career. However, I would advise you to take a deeper look at your goals. You will make very little $$ your first 2 years or so in appraisal being a trainee and working on your licensing, then if you move to brokerage you will have another 2 years or so with little $$ before you build your pipeline.\n\nI don't regret my decision to start out in appraisal but hindsight I could have done things differently.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ih04ki8", "text": "No", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ih05oez", "text": "I think appraisal gives you a great foundation in real estate analysis, but the connections you will make will be much more on the debt side than brokerage.  Our clients are typically the banks, so our skills translate well into mortgage brokerage and underwriting.  My main bit of advice would be to talk with as many people in different parts of the industry as you can and try to decide quickly what you want to do.  As many others have said, the first few years in any of the career paths are very lean, but after that you will quickly escalate to a point where you will be taking a huge pay cut to change career paths.  I gave some thought to joining the underwriting team for one of my best clients, but it would have been a 50%+ pay cut from what I can make as an appraiser with a large shop.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ih07i8t", "text": "I\u2019m a CRE appraiser for one of the big firms in a smaller market. A mortgage broker I do a lot of work with said this better than I could recently. He\u2019s looking to hire someone and I think he wanted to know without directly asking me if either of my trainees were looking to jump out of appraisal, but in the conversation he mentioned he likes hiring appraisal backgrounds because he finds they have so many more \u201cat bats\u201d than other parts of CRE. Appraisal trainees work on an appraisal for at most a couple of days. We have to go over the nuances throughout that time and then they are off to the next property with a new set of CRE problems. Gives you a lot of exposure to a diverse set of CRE issues and property types over a couple of years.\n\nIf you want to go into brokerage though, I wouldn\u2019t spend more than 3 years tops in valuation. It will give you a lot of looks at a lot of types of properties. Good luck.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]