Every appraiser must follow along with the guidelines of the USPAP. But that’s it - your customers typically don’t have to. It’s a lot of pressure to make sure you aren’t letting clients get into your head and push you to make a certain number. Here are 6 ways to help you handle the pressure.
Know your clients. Are they local? Check in on them and see how they present themselves. If they aren’t local, look into their reviews, check the BBB or take the time to review their work in other ways. If they have good reviews and it matches with how you felt about them when talking with them you should be safe. If you see red flags you can then choose to work with them or not, and you can keep a watchful eye on them if the pressure starts to build.
Have an educational spiel. Not everyone you work with is going to know the ins and outs of your job, heck most won’t. So if you can get ahead of it and explain straight out of the gate that you cannot guarantee certain things they won’t even have the chance to ask.
Require payment in advance when possible. It takes away the risk of a client withholding payment and in turn putting you in a tight spot.
Diversify your clients. Never put all your eggs in one basket. If you get all of your clients from one or two AMC’s or law firms, etc, you risk having nowhere to go if you have to start saying no to them. If you are getting clients from multiple different places it makes losing one client a little easier.
Check with your state enforcement agency. Not every state takes pressure placed on an appraiser as seriously as others but it is worth a try. Some may even prosecute, but either way it is worth giving them a heads up.
Fire the client. If you have done your due diligence and tried everything you could there is no reason not to. We don’t like losing clients and firing them is typically hard for a list of reasons but nothing is worth taking your credibility and potentially throwing it away. Fire them and feel confident in the fact that you did the right thing.