Appraiser Fest

Folks, we are just a couple of weeks from AppraiserFest. If you serve the housing and financial services sector, The Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, TX is the place to be this November 1-2-3. The Appraisers Economic Forum (AppraiserFest) is a unique conference offering to the valuation profession that I am very interested to see.  This is the inaugural event and it is bringing together diverse mix of professionals. It is truly rare that a conference founded by appraisers, for appraisers and run by appraisers even exists.

I have attended just about every notable valuation conference there is and mostly they are events set up by specific organizations that require or solicit membership.  The Appraisers Economic Forum however brings folks from all over the valuation sphere.  To the benefit of appraisers, AppraiserFest brings a lot of folks together that have had to pass on other education offerings because they may not be members to certain organizations and even other conferences that are focused on certain specialties.  Just looking at the conference agenda it is apparent that there is a little something here for everyone.

Lori Noble, SRA and member of RAC, is one of the coordinators of the conference.  She shared some of her personal insight about AppraiserFest:

“One of the great things about AppraiserFest is that it’s bringing so many of us together for the first time which is something appraiser have said they wanted. The venue is spectacular, and I am confident it will be a memorable presentation for everyone because we’ve cut no corners to make it exceptional. There is expected to be a lot of fun and laughter; Mark (Skapinetz) and Phil (Crawford) will make certain of that. I’m also excited about the takeaway of knowledge we can all use in our businesses from the speaker series. Real estate markets are a central role in the welfare of local and global economies and AppraiserFest brings some of the best speakers on appraiser economics to the forefront.”

Lori has done a phenomenal job putting together an excellent 14-hours of continuing education that is approved in most states with more coming on board each week.  It certainly makes it a worthwhile way to write off a quality education conference.  Yes, it can seem expensive, but the investment in ourselves is an intangible value that comes out of a quality education conference where relationships are built through the networking and the personal connections that we make in person. The value of bringing together folks from all over the valuation space means a lot.  We will have members from the ASA there, the AI, the AGA, RAC, TAF, the ASC and more.

This business, unfortunately, creates small clicks of folks that tend to see their group as the best option for everyone.  Valuation, because of how small it is, needs to remain agnostic when it comes to organizations.  There are lots of good ones out there and what is important is most important is that we come together as a whole.

AppraiserFest offers that opportunity and I hope the momentum continues.  Many that know me know that I spend lots of my time working with the AI.  That is my personal preference.  But I welcome the opportunity to work with members form the AGA, the ASA and the other organizations that are out there.  All of them bring something worthwhile to the table and a space like AppraiserFest allows a neutral ground for folks to check their “colors” at the door and see what common ground there is to work as a community.   I hope this is a theme that continues to grow and that we see more direct participation from the various groups out there in future conferences.

I look forward to seeing many of you there.  Make sure you say hello as I will be there enjoying the event with everyone.