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 […]
Every Other Appraisal Gets Revised.

Commercial real estate has a friction problem and it can be summed up in a single number: 50%. Roughly half of all bank appraisal reports require revisions. That’s an uncomfortable amount of rework for an industry built on precision. If half of all airplanes had to return to the gate before takeoff, we’d call it […]
You’re not too old. You’re just under-challenged.

Older men often process life alone. They bottle up feelings, ask nothing and pretend everything’s fine. Health takes a backseat. Ignoring diet and exercise can lead to significant health issues, isolation and potentially depression. Somewhere between work, family and responsibility, older men unconsciously start to feel that they don’t matter. You feel like you’ve become […]