But! Whatever will I wear?!?!?

It seems like every 2 – 4 months the great “what should appraisers wear” debate cranks up over at the appraisers forum; with all the legislation, restriction, and not being able to communicate with clients the chief concern should certainly be what appraisers wear.

“I’m wearing these dockers, $150.00 loafers WITH tassels and my superman tie because I am going to IMPRESS my clients that I have neither seen nor met and probably never will while I inspect this rat trap, foreclosure property that the previous owners made sure to smear with fecal matter and cat piss on their way out!”

You work in a medical office you were medical uniforms, no argument there. You work as a nurse in a hospital without a doubt you hop up and put your nursing scrub pants one leg at a time. It’s not hard to find cheap scrub uniforms and certainly your medical personnel have it easy in that regard.

A lot of appraisers out there have the fervent belief that we should all be showing up to work in suits and ties because that will guarantee us the respect we deserve in the industry.

And, if you happen to appraise in Beverly Hills or Cape Cod then you might want to suit up. But if you happen to work in every day, middle America where it’s REAL and homeowners aren’t just pissed they are vindictive and spiteful, with good reason most of the time – then showing up in your Sunday best isn’t going to cut it. Not when the lawns haven’t been mowed in months, the cockroaches and black widow spiders have been left to roam and produce unchecked, and the plumbing is leaking.

No, they aren’t all that bad. But, when you have to walk around a house with tremendous overgrowth and occasionally have to crawl UNDER the house – a suit and tie isn’t going to cut it. Add in the underwhelming amount of work and the underwhelming pay – and no appraiser can afford to wear their “nice” clothes to do inspection.

I think clean pants (jeans usually), collared shirt, shoes that cover and protect your feet will get the job done and considering that most of the properties are vacant? No one is going to see you anyway.

The subject was brought up the other day when an appraiser got a “dress code” from an AMC. Someone needs to get these guys in check and stop worrying about what they are wearing to do it. When the AMC joke came on the scene it was to provide a FILTER between the brokers and the appraisers to prevent undue pressure on the appraiser to hit a certain value. In short – a MIDDLE MAN to process orders and dole them out accordingly. As time has gone on the egos of these AMCs have grown exponentially and somehow they have it in their heads that the independent appraisers they farm work out to are actually under their employ.

We’ve got huge problem in the industry and the size of your tassels and your Donald Trump tie isn’t going to fix it.