Imagine you are doing an appraisal for a single family home on three acres and, upon analysis, you realize there is more value in subdividing the lot. Then you find out the buyer is buying the property to benefit from that value and already has the subdivision process in the works. Because of these conclusions, the purchase price is likely lower than value. But as an appraiser, you were instructed to complete the appraisal “as is.” By so doing, the value of this piece of property would come in much lower than the purchase price since you would be appraising the property as a home and three acres, not a two acre home with a one acre lot. So, now you’re stuck between the appraisal “as is” and the highest and best use of the property, which would be beyond your scope of work. What do you do?
There may be a great need to want to please your clients. You like what they pay and you like working for them, so you may feel a temptation to cater to them. You will probably run into situations, if you haven’t already, where your client wants you to do one thing and you are insisting that it is not something that you can or will do. There might be a huge amount of pressure in a given situation to please them. But don’t make a wrong decision just to make them happy.
The scope of work is determined not by the client, not by the realtor, not by the homeowner, but only by the appraiser. The appraiser is in charge, the appraiser directs it. Don’t defer to your client, although it can be tempting.
That means there are times where you may have to take a stand. You might have to draw a line and say I love you, but the answer is “no!” . Find someone else who is willing to do this because I’m not. Do you risk losing some business over this? Yes, indeed. And that can be a hard decision to make. But, it’s better to lose a few clients over the years rather than to do things you shouldn’t.
Who is in charge of your scope of work and the future of your business? You are.
For more information on this subject, please listen to The Appraiser Coach Podcast Episode:
