Bidding Jobs: Just Part Of Being a Professional
Mar 22, 2026
Over the years, I’ve watched frustration boil over in our profession—especially when it comes to bidding assignments with appraisal management companies. I get it. I’ve felt it too. But a couple of recent conversations forced me to step back and ask a harder question: are we reacting emotionally, or are we responding professionally?
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: we are being asked to act like professionals. And sometimes, if I’m honest, we don’t always do that as well as we think we do.
Being a professional doesn’t mean racing to see how many reports I can crank out in the shortest amount of time. It also doesn’t mean spending endless days on a single assignment and wondering why the numbers don’t work. There’s a balance between quality and efficiency, and it’s our responsibility to find it. Supporting adjustments, telling a clear story, and maintaining a strong workfile aren’t new demands—they’re things we should have been doing all along.
Another reality professionals have to accept is this: professionals quote their fees. Doctors do it. Attorneys do it. Consultants do it. For some reason, appraisers bristle at that idea, yet complain about not being treated like professionals. That contradiction doesn’t serve us.
Do some clients push fees too low? Absolutely. When that happens, I have a choice. I can explain my fee based on time, complexity, and risk—or I can walk away. What I can’t do is accept work that doesn’t make sense for my business and then resent the client for it.
At the end of the day, professionalism is about ownership. Ownership of our fees. Ownership of our work quality. Ownership of the direction we choose for our business. When we act like professionals, we earn the right to be treated like them.
Check out The Appraiser Coach Podcast for more info on this topic:
