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Events
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As I’ve said many times, the annual RAC conference is the best appraiser-centric conference I’ve ever attended. It is developed and operated by active appraisers who are working to help you thrive as a professional.
As the current president of RAC, I’m proud to be part of an organization comprised of the best residential appraisers in the U.S.
Click here for more information.
Tags: RAC, Relocation Appraiser & Consultants
I had another great conversation on Voice of Appraisal with Phil Crawford. The conversation centered around AI National’s “taking” policy debacle, my repository for all the documents on this matter (realestateindustrialcomplex), the viral outrage that has overtaken the appraisal industry, released from my first of several Matrix posts on the topic: Sadly, The Appraisal Institute is now working against its local chapters.
We also spoke about RAC, an appraisal organization I’ve been a member of for two decades and recently became the president. RAC works for its members.
Aside from Phil’s dreamy radio voice, he shares a lot of great content each week for appraisers. Well worth a regular listen.
Tags: RAC, Appraisal Institute, Relocation Appraiser & Consultants, Voice of Appraisal, Phil Crawford, AI National
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TV, Videos
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Really! This short intro video accurately portrays the RAC organizational culture and why I love these people.
I am a long time member of RAC, an appraisal organization that specializes in complex residential properties. It was founded in 1990 to focus on the relocation subset of residential appraising but this is not a mutually exclusive point. An appraiser who provides high quality relocation appraisals also provides high quality appraisals for complex residential assignments. Most of our members do a lot of appraisal work outside of the relocation universe.
For Miller Samuel, relocation appraisal work has never been a large part of our practice given our New York market location but the draw to retain my membership has remained powerful.
Here are some thoughts:
For Appraisers – RAC is nominally priced, full of incredible experienced people and most important, absent the crazy appraisal politics that have nothing to do with making someone a more valuable appraisal professional. Check us out.
For Financial Institutions – If you ever need a resource to get the best residential real estate appraisers in the country, you simply need to check out RAC. And if our organization doesn’t have coverage in a specific market you are interested in, we’d be happy to recommend someone to you.
Tags: RAC, Relocation Appraiser & Consultants, Relocation
I just returned from an incredibly helpful and fun annual appraisal conference in Texas. I was asked to make a presentation and ended up joining their board of directors. I’ve been a member of RAC (Relocation Appraisers & Consultants) for about 20 years and even though the organization started out with a primary emphasis on relocation appraisals in the early 1990s, RAC is so much more than that. Most of the members provide expertise in complex residential with a lot of work in litigation support. The quality of the residential appraisers in this organization is the best in the country – bar none. Most of the mainstream US appraisal trade groups emphasize or have a majority concentration of commercial appraisals and RAC fills the void.
Seminars
Having fun filming a video with clients
Tags: RAC, Relocation Appraiser & Consultants, Dallas, TRN, Texas, Conference, Relocation
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I have been a member of [Relocation Appraisals & Consultants (RAC)](http://www.rac.net/) for about ten years. Its considered the cream of the relocation appraisal industry crop and their focus is to bring professionalism to relocation assignments for third party companies who manage employee moves around the world. Some of the best appraisers in the country are members of this organization.
The Manhattan real estate market is dominated by co-ops and as a result, many corporations are afraid of them so relocation volume here is pretty light. Its ironic because the foreclosure rate for co-ops is less than condos. In addition, co-op boards, for all the bad stories than have been said about them, actually filter out marginally qualified purchasers (because lenders have very low underwriting criteria these days) and discourage investors (flippers).
Even with low relocation volume as a firm, we have been rated by various relocation companies as being one of the most accurate. The last report we received a few years ago indicated we were averaged ±3% of the final sales price as compared to our estimate. The next closest appraiser (who was not a member of RAC) averaged ±10%.
One of the neat by-products of getting so many good appraisers together from around the country is an endless source of information and insight from these individuals. Leaders of the organization have been involuable to me for my professional growth as an appraiser. A few names include Chip Wagner (IL), Jeff Otteau (NJ), Butch Hicks (VA), Brad Charnas (OH), Rick Foos, (CA), Jay Delich (AZ), Colleen Welch (FL), Marie Robbins-Marine (CO), Bob Headrick (IL), Howard Babcock (MI), Suzanne Bloyed (OK), Thomas Allen (OK) and Ron Box (TX) to only name a few. There are many others in the organization that I admire and have learned from.
The price of membership, even if relocation work does not dominate your practice, is well worth it (if you are accepted). They are only interested in seasoned appraisers with references and [have membership criteria outlined on their web site [pdf]](http://rac.net/newAddmissionRequiremnts.pdf).
But I digress…
One of the by products of cooperation has been the [RAC Report](http://rac.net/fusebox/index.cfm?fuseaction=market.reportList) which is a market by market depiction of areas covered by members that has been standardized to included absorption, prices and volume by price strata. There is a wide array of markets covered (Manhattan doesn’t fit well into the criteria standard in addition to our lack of an MLS). Data on [various New York City markets can be culled from my family of market reports available on my web site](https://www.millersamuel.com/reports).
The redesign of the RAC report and site was spearheaded by Lee Burns, a very good appraiser and member of RAC based in Houston, Texas. The report allows the reader to peruse most of the major US markets to get a better understanding of where the risk lies in the market strata the house they are managing in inventory is likely to be.
These are the markets covered:
Akron Metro Area
Atlanta Northeast Metro Area
Boston Metro Area
Canton Metro Area
Chicago Metro Area
Cincinnati
Cleveland Metro Area
Columbus Metro Area
Corona California
Dallas Metro Area
Denver Metro Area
Detroit Metro Area
Greater Pittsburgh
Houston Metro Area
Las Vegas Metro Area
Los Angeles South Bay Metro Area
Los Angeles Southeast Metro Area
Los Angeles Westside to Central (CLAW)
Madison, WI Metro Area
New Jersey-Montclair Line
New Jersey-Summit/Chatham/Madison
Orange County, California
Phoenix Metro Area
San Antonio Metro Area
San Diego Metro Area
St. Louis Metro Area
Tampa Bay Area
Tucson Metro Area
Tulsa Metro Area
Washington, D.C. Metro Area (Suburban VA and MD included)
Wichita Metro Area
I plan on sharing the results every quarter as the reports are released.
[4th Quarter 2006 RAC Report](http://rac.net/fusebox/index.cfm?fuseaction=market.reportList)
Tags: RAC, Absorption
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Jonathan Miller is President and CEO of Miller Samuel Inc., a real estate appraisal and consulting firm he co-founded in 1986. He is a state-certified real estate appraiser in New York and Connecticut, performing court testimony as an expert witness in various local, state and federal courts. He holds the Counselors of Real Estate (CRE) and Certified Relocation Professional (CRP) designations. He is an Appraiser “A” Member of the Real Estate Board of New York and a member of Relocation Appraisers and Consultants, Inc.
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Forbes ('20-)
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'Three Cents Worth' column 3CW ('05-'16)
When Curbed was acquired by Vox, my eleven years of 3CW chart art and column links were broken on Curbed NY, Curbed DC, Curbed Miami, Curbed Hamptons, Curbed LA, and Curbed Ski.
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New York Times experiment ('08-09')
Huffington Post (09')
Favorite "How to Value" Posts
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