Brave ideas!

I love when a brave idea is undertaken by a brave soul and changes my life in such a positive way.  Apparently in 2005, when I was slogging through with just a pc laptop and brick sized smart phone (that was not really all that smart), there was some brilliant engineer who had a better vision of the future.  One that a brave man with lots of resources agreed to adapt and adopt and manufacture.

The iPad has again revolutionized my business the way that my first Compac laptop did in about 1989.  It weighed a ton (ok, maybe six or seven pounds) and had to be plugged in almost all the time.  But it allowed me to be in a courthouse reviewing deeds while entering them on a spreadsheet - saving that double entry time of writing them down and entering them on a desktop.

The leaps here with the iPad have been even more dramatic (or the older I get the more easily amused I am).  With GPS and immediate mapping feedback, the ability to look up sales data on the fly - out in the field, sending an email in an instant, responding right away to a client, and a host of other cool applications (yes that is the longer version of APP) make it a game changer.

When I saw this link on Facebook today, I just wanted to say, outloud, that we always need to honor and support and respect that kind of innovation and willingness to risk.  What if Jobs had not taken that leap or that engineer had not bothered to create this design - time and energy and financial risk that may not have returned anything.  Congratulations, thank you, and keep up the good work!

People really are mostly kind

On of the things that still today amazes me after 27 years in this business and more than 20 appraising primarily for eminent domain is that the people whose property is proposed for acquisition are almost exclusively kind and polite.

Most often, particularly in rural areas, a road widening or new highway is not what they want. Even more, when a roadway widening has been planned on and off for 10, 20 or even 30 years, owners have delayed plans, improvements and sometimes life decisions waiting for the project.

Sill, even this very morning, most people are truly kind and polite. And I really appreciate that!

Value of Connection aka Who Gets a Seat at the Table

One of my primary clients is undergoing a transformation of their appraisal purchasing process.  Currently, all the approved, qualified appraisers are invited to appear for a bid meeting.  Then, the ones who appear review the requested appraisals, consider their current workload, the review appraiser assigned to the project, distance to the properties, current information available about market data, ease of working in a particular county or counties, and then if willing and able, provide a fee estimate for completing the appraisal process and preparing the written reports.  The most efficient and qualified appraiser with the lowest fee is then given the contract.

 The new process will provide that 14 companies or individuals around the state will hold up to a five year contract to provide these same appraisals and written reports on a pre-set fee menu.  It is known as an indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contract (IDIQ).  Yes, when the original information came out, I had to look that up, and do a bit of research about the type of contract.  These new 'prime' contractors will be responsible for hiring the appraisers and specialty contractors to provide services in a timely, competent, and consistent manner.  Where I am currently 1 of 146 approved appraisers or 1 of 64 approved to do more complicated work, and there are 26 approved specialty contractors, the new process limits to 14 the number of folks with direct control over how appraisals and specialty contracts are assigned.


Each of those 14 'prime' is to have at least 10 approved appraisers on their list for their proposal submission to the client.  So theoretically, there would be 140 appraisers of the 146 that would 'survive the cut'.  In reality, we all have folks we like working with because of their work ethic, attention to detail, and professionalism.  Grateful I am to have been asked to join a number of teams.  It will be interesting to see how this all pans out.  I hope to get a seat at that table.