Here is a scenario that I think we have all experienced. You have been assigned an appraisal of a basic ranch home, in an established neighborhood. Your research finds a 1375sf home with a detached garage. You make the appointment, show up, introduce yourself, and begin your inspection. The walk through, and photographs on this 3 bedroom, 1 bath dwelling (on a crawl space) takes 5-7 minutes, and that's while chatting with the owner!
You then proceed to measure the home which only has 2 dimensions, its 25x55. That took another 2-3 minutes. Now what? Measure the 1 car garage? Another 2 minutes. You have now likely spent a total of 12 minutes at this property, and guess what? That probably is sufficient for you to do your job! After all, this particular scenario doesn't exactly describe a difficult assignment.
But the point of this scenario is to illustrate what the homeowner sees, or rather what they 'don't' see. They don't see you at the computer for an hour doing your preliminary research on the subject, pulling comps, mapping out comparable locations for the drive by comp photos. They don't see you after you leave their home driving by all your comps, then finally, spending another 2-3 hours preparing the report.
The homeowner sees you working for only those 12 minutes. Then the report arrives, along with a bill for $300-$400. You and I can imagine what is going through their mind, especially if the result of the appraisal isn't exactly what they were 'hoping for'. We likely will not hear about how 'upset' they are, but guess who will? Our client! The homeowner is the customer of 'our' client. That makes them almost as important to us as our client. Our client generates income from a satisfied customer, just like we do.
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