“I’ll Be Happy When…”
Happiness isn’t in another place. But this place. Not for another hour. But this hour. We waste so much of our life. This gift that was given to us. We worry about our futures. We dwell on our pasts. We make great plans but often don’t see them through. This is the life we are […]
Shake Up the Snow Globe
Most of us are standing inside the same snow globe. Everything feels normal because we are inside it. Then someone gives it one hard shake. AI. Retirements. New expectations. New business models. Suddenly the world looks different. What Got You Here Won’t Get You There is a book theme that highlights our profession’s blind spot. […]
You Matter More Than You Think
Last week, I challenged you to stop hiding. This week, I’d like to explore why so many appraisers hide in the first place. I wonder if, somewhere along the journey, they’ve forgotten that they matter. We all know this Austrian icon. A bodybuilding champion, a movie star and a governor. His accent, once seen as […]
Shared experience changes a profession
The appraisal profession is full of remarkable experts. You just wouldn’t know it because so many of them stay hidden. The appraiser who’s survived multiple market cycles, valued thousands of properties and developed exceptional judgment is often the hardest person to find. No LinkedIn posts. No conference presentations. Camera off on every Zoom call. Meanwhile, […]
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
The biggest divide in valuation is between the people who are still curious and people just trying to make it to retirement. For decades, we’ve been running the same playbook. Same conversations. The result is predictable. The people already inside the profession are bored and the people outside the profession aren’t exactly lining up to […]
The Other Side of the Desk
Both commercial fee appraisers and chief appraisers (and their teams that support them) work incredibly hard. Yet somewhere along the way, both sides can lose sight of what the other actually does. Chief appraisers manage appraisal panels, oversee compliance programs, respond to FDIC and OCC examinations, train lenders, support credit administration, maintain policies, attend committee […]