Appraisal Training

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Is it common for real estate investors to pursue appraisal certification courses? Not to get certified but to better learn how to value property with the intent of increasing their chances of finding good buys?

[Beau Ryan]

I am an appraiser myself. I personally think it would be a waste of time and money to take appraisal courses. I think you would be much better off finding a local appraiser in your market and offer to buy him lunch and have him explain how he goes about valuing properties. I think it is very important to understand as the appraised value maybe much different than what a realtor may value a property based on their market analysis or what the county values for their tax assessments. The appraised value is very important in most cases when selling to people who will be borrowing money from a bank as that is the main criteria they will use to decide how much to lend. I have seen many many deals fall apart because the purchase price ended up being higher than the appraised price. I would be happy to answer any general questions you may have although many things differ based on markets.