ARV Issues - Would becoming an appraiser be beneficial?

[Dakoda Spencer]

Hey BP, quick question about coming up with ARVs. 

While I am looking at some potential houses that would be a good flip or BRRR house, I'm having trouble coming up with a good ARV for them. The houses I'm looking at are in relatively smaller neighborhoods that don't have a lot of comps to back them up.

Would it be beneficial for me to consider becoming an appraiser (or at least going through the course material)? I've looked up what it would take to become an appraiser in my state and it looks pretty intensive (minimum of 150 hours of "Qualifying Education"). Would this be worth it?

I plan on taking a course soon that will give me the hours and knowledge to become an RE agent in my state. If I do decide that becoming an appraiser would be beneficial, would that create some sort of conflict of interest if I'm already an agent? 

I'm still new to REI, so please don't make me feel dumb if I'm just talking crazy. I'd rather ask the dumb questions than to be the dumb person that doesn't ask them.

Thanks! Dakoda

[David Sohn]

Howdy Dakoda.

Not a dumb question.  No doubt becoming an appraiser would be helpful in determining value - but not sure you need to go through that level of intense training to really achieve reasonable and consistent ARVs.  It's like any other learned skill - just takes practice, patience and probably a bit of mentoring from a local realtor or investor.

I'd focus on 2 things to get better: 

1) there's a lot of discussion about ARV, Comps, Value on BP -- do some reading and you'll quickly get some ideas/methods you can use. J.Scott, for example, explains multiple ways to look at calculating ARV in his book on flipping houses (no affiliation) and so do many other seasoned investors.  Here's another example, written by Chad Carson that could be helpful: The Ultimate Guide to Quickly Calculating A Property ARV

2) look into finding a local realtor/investor that can spend some time on this with you and might be willing to show you the ropes a bit more hands on for your area.

Best of luck!