Why I became an Appraiser video

[Music] hey there Jimmy Roberts for Renaissance appraisal I just wanted to take a second to give you an introduction to this video unlike other videos that we do and that we've done this up this video is meant to give you an some insight into why I decided to be an appraiser appraising has been absolutely amazing to me and my family without it I would have done some things that I probably really wouldn't have joy enjoyed such as being in a most days it's just not something that I enjoy doing and it's not really in an environment that I believe that I thrive in being pursuing a career in real estate appraisal industry and the real estate industry in general has allowed me to avoid that being a real estate appraiser has allowed me to take care of my family and my friends even in a manner that I did I just absolutely loved we've been able to take all types of trips I've learned a lot I I've met some really fascinating people along the way and I've done this in a manner that I like and I've done this in a way that was good for me it's good for my soul even I noticed that's a little woo but it's true it's true I have really enjoyed my career as a real estate appraiser by the way when I say it like that I'm not trying to I'm not suggesting that my career is ending I'm just saying that I want to give you a baseline and the basis for from where I come where I come from today's video though it's gonna be a little bit different because today I'm gonna actually tell you how I got started and why I got started and even happy thought to pursue a career in the real estate appraisal industry it really comes down to this back in 2000 my wife and I were newlyweds we've been married for just under a year and we were looking for a place to live after a lot of search I don't know if you guys remember but back in 2000 the real estate market was hot it was very hottest every time you saw if you saw a house by the time you saw it it was sold and that was it so that was the type of environment that we were in housing prices were rising like 5% of seemingly a month it was ridiculous I mean everything so it just did not matter if you if you owned a broken-down Shack right adjacent to a freeway you could sell that for top dollar and and buy what I mean by top dollar I mean a lot of money this real estate market was absolutely fantastic it was ridiculous okay I believe Alan Greenspan characterized it later as irrational exuberance he was probably correct but you know that was the time that we were in and that's the environment that we were in so back in 2000 my wife and I were looking to buy our first place and we decided we wanted to get a condo so we found a condo out in this neighborhood and it was very silent neighborhood great neighbors quiet everything that a new newlywed couple would want okay so we went in and purchased the property for a hundred and eighty thousand dollars actually that's not true we purchased it for a hundred and eighty one thousand dollars because we wanted to make sure that we had be it over what they're asking to make sure that we got the property now at the time we didn't know this but there had been no other condos that had sold for a hundred and eighty one thousand dollars in this subdivision and this was a really nice subdivision like ours so but we didn't care because we part we purchased the property and we lived in it for several years I mean we I believe we lived in that property for dang near ten years so we had a good time it was wonderful place I'm so happy that we purchased it and and there you go so one of the thing is the property had one hundred eighty one thousand dollars again no other condominium similar to ours and this subdivision had ever sold for anything above one hundred and eighty one thousand dollars after that okay two years later interest rates dropped we purchased when we purchased our property interest rates for about six and a half to seven percent and which was fine you know we were easily paying that we've had much more when we were renting so it wasn't a big deal so but when interest rates dropped to that five five and a half percent rate our banker gave us a call and said hey interest rates are lower I want to refinance made sense everybody else was doing it so we did we refinanced our mortgage and as part of the process of refinancing our mortgage the property had to be appraised now remember this was about this time this was 2001 2002 so we've been in our property about two years okay just about two years and we got the friendly neighborhood appraiser and for lack of to protect names and protect people's identities we're gonna cook we're gonna name him Dave that was our appraiser Dave well Dave came out did the appraisal and appraised our property at two hundred and thirty five thousand dollars two years ago we purchased a property for one hundred and eighty one thousand dollars day two years later came and appraised our property for two hundred and eighty I'm sorry for two hundred and thirty five thousand dollars we thought we were freaking geniuses needless to say the refile went through it was just a rate in term so it wasn't that big a deal reef I went through and we were just as happy as pigs and slop as my dad would say okay everything went well we were cruising along then the next year happens it's like 2003 2004 and if you guys remember 2003 2004 interest rates dropped again that's right so we got a call from our banker and she said hey interest rates have dropped again and now we're in the like three and three quarters to four and and four and two four and twenty and a quarter percent interest rate I mean think about that now we're we're at like five and a quarter now and we can drop it down another point coin and a half of course we're going to do that right so we set it up but here comes another appraiser it's not Dave and this appraiser appraised our property at 185 185 thousand dollars and this is literally one year after having an having a property appraised for two hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars needless to say we thought this appraiser was an absolute idiot they couldn't possibly know what was going on and you know it wasn't an issue for our refinance because we had the equity and it to do it and to get it done at the lower interest rate but it would just be a little bit longer a little bit more difficult process the first one sailed through like a breeze but for our personal sense of satisfaction of course we wanted our property to be appraised at 250 because you know everybody else's was why wasn't ours so after doing some digging ourselves and even our loan officer who was the same one who did the first refinance was like we couldn't find Dave we're punching that we were looking around looking around and Dave is nowhere to be found he's no longer working with the bank he's no longer working with any banks come and find out Dave is out of business this was my first introduction to what happens when appraisers do shoddy work and they're kicked off a list or appraisal list or appraisal clients nobody wants to deal with them anymore well Dave had done thousands of appraisals for our particular lender he had been on their appraisal panel for about a decade he was their number one go-to appraiser and he was inflating values ridiculously it was ridiculous okay because once we found out the day was out of business now all of a sudden we realized something was wrong with that first appraisal so I actually went back and compared to first appraisal to the second appraisal Hey and I told you before we maybe I didn't but we the home we purchased was a two bedroom two and a half bathroom two story attached condominium with the finished basement very nice unit very well maintained if I do say so myself and like I said it immaculate the community was great everything was wonderful but what Dave are our ahead of square footage of about a thousand square feet Dave was comparing our two-bedroom 1,000 square foot condo to 2500 square foot three and four bedroom condos there were also in the same subdivision and surrounding subdivisions needless to say these sold for significantly more than our one thousand square foot condo and in doing that and making that comparison Dave in my heart I'm saying he he committed fraud but I'm not gonna say that officially I'm not gonna say that he committed fraud but you make the call our property was two bedrooms two and a half bathrooms a thousand square feet and he is intentionally comparing them to 2500 square-foot ranch for three and a four-bedroom three-bathroom properties in the same subdivision but there were other similar sales like our property available there a lot of that ranged anywhere between you know seventy to eighty thousand dollars there were there just were those sales in retrospect I actually went back and looked and there were there they were there there were a lot of them but he chose he chose what he chose now I'm not gonna sit here say that I didn't benefit from Dave's choices because I did I had benefited hugely I really did my wife and I were we thought we were the smartest people in the universe and while we would I guess the one good thing about this is we were smart enough not to do a cash out refinance which means that we're we didn't take any additional cash out of the property we just changed our terms so as opposed to a six and a half percent interest rate when we initially purchased it we were able to drop it to five percent which lowered our payment terms and everything we're about the same so there you go so it was a good thing for us we were able to keep a little bit more money in our pocket at the end of every month but that that's what happened now here's why that becomes such a such a bad thing and and I didn't really realize it until later you guys may remember back in probably depending on who you ask started in 2006 through 2009 this thing called the recession well here in Michigan it really hit hard and it hit hard and it was even more damaging because we had a lot of value inflation we did I mean there's just no way around it we did and we later found out that I wasn't the only person a homeowner that had an overly inflated appraisal okay I was probably the only one who just had one in such a short period - in such a short period of time they were so different that it got me to asking questions so needless to say Dave while attempting to do us a great favor actually contributed to a lot of the problems that we have today the way that we had back in the day now I'm not saying that they've made everybody Dave didn't make me or my wife go along with the refinance he didn't do that Dave didn't make other homeowners take out tens and tens of thousands of dollars of equity equity from their homes thinking that the value was there he didn't do that but what he did do was he did kind of set the stage for that to happen he at least helped it along okay and it was after a lot of soul-searching and a couple of other incidences that I had with real estate related transactions and appraisers it was those things that made me say wait a minute you know what I have got to get a better understanding of this whole appraisal process because this thing can really change lives because it changed mine it really did like I said if nothing else it changed mine I was able to drop my paint my my payment for our condo you know 100 150 dollars a month that was a positive change but later on when we went to sell our condo everything was in freakin foreclosure I mean we held onto that condo for another three years after we had moved out we rented it after we moved out because we had to not because we wanted to but because we had to I mean values that drops at a point it's like $120,000 for a freaking great condo again we still owe like a hundred and seventy five and they're selling for 120 how are you kidding me that's ridiculous so we had to hold off for a long period of time and ultimately you know ultimately we had to work out a deal with the bank and you know I think we did we were I think we were honorable and our attentions and what we were trying to do I'm sure there are some other people that weren't so honorable that's on them but ultimately like I said 2006 2009 recession it was all related it had to be his all related so that's kind of how I got into appraising I got into appraising because I had a bad appraisal a very bad appraisal that actually went in my favor initially in a short time but really worked against me in the long term it did and I'm sure I'm not the only one that that's happened to and again here's here's the other thing you need to remember I'm not just talking about one appraisal Dave was under this particular banks appraisal panel for decades he was their preferred appraiser and I understand why he was their preferred appraisal because he always gave them exactly what they wanted even if the facts weren't there and that's you know if you're getting what you want who doesn't like getting what they want right but the long-term ramifications of that recession in our case in all of our cases I'd rather just have somebody tell me to choose upfront and there you go so that's kind of our policy that's what we do as a company we tell you the truth good bad or indifferent I want you to know when you are working with Renaissance appraisal I want you to know exactly what it is that what the value of your property is because I want you to be able to make good decisions I want you to be able to make decisions that you're going to be proud of today and in 10 years from now okay so there you go thank you Dave if it wouldn't have been for you I would have never been an appraiser see you later [Music]

Channel: Jimmy Talks Real Estate!

Views: 34,634

Keywords: Jimmy Roberts, Renaissance appraisal, housing meltdown, bad appraisal, bad appraiser

Id: CD9U9e5H3wg

Length: 18min 22sec (1102 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 17 2019