USPAP and growing a pair?  Really?!  Isn’t that a bit risque’ for a YouTube real estate appraisal education post?  Yet, it is.  But it caught your attention, didn’t it?  That’s the purpose.  To make you stop and think.   So let’s consider this.

USPAP and growing a pair means, in one sense, getting enough courage.  Enough courage to do what?  Courage to grow a pair and leave the comfortable – and generally lucrative – world of GSE appraisals.  This is probably all you’ve done throughout your entire real estate appraisal career.  It’s comfortable, isn’t it?  You know what answer goes in each box, right?  You’ve got your boilerplate down.  You’ve used that same neighborhood analysis in the last 30 reports in this neighborhood.  Life is good.  So why change?  That’s the second part about growing a pair.

USPAP and growing a pair makes us ask about what the GSEs have recently done.  That comfortable real estate business as some appraisers know and have come to love, it is poised for a tectonic shift.  What shifts?  Will there be fewer appraisal assignments?  That’s a safe assumption.  Is the number of appraisers going to decrease?  Yes, but not as quickly as the number of appraisal assignments.  Are property data collectors going to take from us some of the work we did in the past?  It is naive to think otherwise.

So, what are appraisers to do?  Read on! The second part of USPAP and growing a pair means growing a new set of skills to transition out of GSE work into other areas of real estate appraisal.  It also refers to growing another book or books of business to replace the GSE appraisal book.  So, yes, growing a pair has a risque’ meaning.  It also has a perfectly logical meaning – growth of new skill sets and books of business.  Thanks for listening!