Ask Why! It’s OK! Appraisers have an ethical obligation to understand what they are doing. We call it COMPETENCY. USPAP even has a Competency Rule. Why? Because the client has the right to assume our appraisals are credible, accurate, reliable, and reproducible. Our reports must not mislead anybody. And how do we do all this? Simply, we ask “WHY?” a lot. Our client is going to ask, “Why is my property worth only $350,000?” We are the professionals, the experts. It is our job to be able to explain to the client why their property has a value of $350,000. Nothing says the client has to agree with our value opinion. But we have to understand the appraisal process so we can explain both how and why we came to that conclusion.

Real estate appraisal training does an adequate job of showing us what to do. It does a mediocre job of teaching use how to do something. But, one of the areas in which real estate appraisal education is deficient, is teaching us WHY we do something. Basically, our QE and CE ignore this why question. How so? Have you ever asked your mentor how to calculate a GLA adjustment? If s/he said, “Oh, just use $65 per square foot”, you should have asked “WHY?”. Then, if s/he said, “Well, that’s the way I’ve always done GLA adjustments”, again, you need to ask “WHY?”. Then, if s/he says, “Don’t worry about it. It works fine!”, then you need a new mentor, now!. Ask Why! It’s OK!

Why do you need a new mentor? Is your present mentor is incompetent? Does your present mentor know no more than you already know? Is s/he is competent to teach you anything? Is s/he is training you to fail? Ask Why! It’s OK!