different conclusions regarding the same property’s market value. For AMCs, communication can help to ensure that all appraisers involved are managed professionally. “In those cases when the appraised values are far apart—30 to 50 percent—one of the appraisals typically is missing something within the analysis,” says Van Horn. “When there are variances this wide, it’s usually not just a case that one appraiser chose this end of the sales range and the other appraiser chose the other end, which may be the case for a variance of five to 15 percent. That’s where we as AMCs would come in to help, based upon our experience working with and reading appraisals from across the country. I would look at those appraisals and the details closely, focusing on making sure the gross living area and characteristics being reported are reasonably similar, that any additional units have been handled properly and not included within the gross living area of the main dwelling, or other similar factors that could lead appraisers to select materially different sets of comparable sales.” When a second appraisal is needed, Van Horn recommends that AMCs wait on that second appraisal before requesting additional information from the first appraiser. It’s possible, he points out, that the sales data provided by the second appraiser, along with their analysis, may provide better insight and information to present to the first appraiser for consideration. “If this occurs after we have already exhausted the first appraiser’s patience with rounds of prior requests for consideration of sales, we may have lost the opportunity to have a productive and thoughtful consideration of additional information.” Making Progress The key to managing expectations—high capacity and scheduling challenges, delivering a positive and professional customer experience and compiling informed and accurate appraisals—lies largely with addressing the decade-long appraiser shortage. Van Horn believes the industry may finally be making significant progress in that regard. Changes to qualification requirements are attracting more professionals to the field, he says. “This, as well as fee increases and the higher demand we’ve seen in recent years, seems to have encouraged many appraisers to be more willing to expand their firms and take on more trainee appraisers,” he adds. “No one can predict the future. But there are good reasons to be optimistic regarding the impact that these changes will have upon the appraisal industry and the benefits they will provide to the users of appraisal services.”
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