Get Non-Lender Work with Video


As a coach, I’m teaching appraisers on a constant basis. A lot of them are interested in doing non-lender work but they aren’t sure how to attract that work.  Really, there is no big secret here.  Any marketing firm will tell you that an active presence on the internet is the key.  

You need to have a website and you’ve got to constantly feed the website in order to get ratings. Fresh content is king for Google ratings. You have to put up new blog posts regularly, you have to change things and you need to put videos on your website. The more people that are pinging off your site, meaning they’re taking your content and pointing from their content back to your content, the more Google likes your site. These are the kind of things that will help your site rank on Google searches.

Google owns YouTube. If you don’t have a YouTube channel that is putting up fresh content, you’re going to fall behind your competition.  To be a player in the market, you’ve got to be known as an expert.  Video can do that for you.

I know, I know, you aren’t an actor and you can’t create a video. Have you heard of vlogs, video blogs? Instead of writing something down for a blog post, you create a video instead.  You might be intimidated by that, but let me make it easy for you. How often do you go to an appraisal inspection and the borrower or the realtor start asking you questions? I’m sure it happens all the time. This is a great opportunity to educate and it’s great content for a vlog.

No, you don’t have to grab your phone right then and record your answer in front of them (that would be weird), but you could take a few minutes immediately after you’ve left the property. When you get back to the office, while it’s still on your mind, take a few minutes to record your answer using the video on your cell phone.  

These days we carry a whole motion picture studio in our pockets. You already have all the technology you need to be able to take information that you know and get it up on the internet.  Add videos to your websites, be known as the expert, and that non-lender work will come your way. 

For more information on this subject, please download and listen to The Appraiser Coach Podcast Episode: 434

9 thoughts on “Get Non-Lender Work with Video”

  1. Pingback: Get Non-Lender Work with Video - Appraisal Buzz

  2. Albert E Mattheis

    Why? Non lender work is often more of a pain. They want to talk a lot first, they don’t fully understand all the aspects so we have to explain them. We don’t do business with them regularly so we don’t know if their check will bounce etc. Now granted, some lenders and or AMC’s are very knit picky and a non lender would be preferable but if you have decent lender and or AMC clients then that just seems easier to me.

  3. Nothing beats dealing directly with a lender who is willing to pay a premium for a proficient appraiser. Their pay is at the top of the industry, they don’t utilize a poorly trained review department who cannot or will not read their own guidelines, and their revision requests are usually non-existent because they are experienced in the process. All while providing extended turn times.

    1. Great marketing advice Dustin. Non lending work is a sustainable business model that is not dependent on interest rates and policy. The ups and downs of lending can make an appraiser woozy. Feast or famine is a hard way to operate. Currently it is difficult to imagine a slow down in volume, but it is inevitable. Add Waivers and alternative valuation products to the mix and buckle up-the roller coaster ride may be coming to an abrupt halt.

  4. Mike Bucchianeri

    Great idea, Dustin. As I mentioned when we did our joint podcast, it is great work, few time constraints and really keeps good word of mouth going. Read a survey recently that claimed only 11% of all appraisers do this in-demand work. I do about 40-50- mostly high-value GPARs each year and love doing them.

  5. Why go to the effort to capture at times a one time client rather than combining the effort and or efforts to capture a lifelong lender client? In my county where there are 900 licensed appraisers within +/- 25 miles of me, and +5,000 within a few hours, if you think competing for work in the AMC arena is bad, try advertising and beating out thousands of low ballers who can’t earn there way on to top tier lender panels. I get cashing in on appraiser ignorance (common in this industry / snake oil), but in reality, when established you don’t need a website, internet presence, YouTube channel, etc. to make a good living in this profession.

    Seek the truth

  6. Non-lender work is great. It’s almost all we do, we get higher fees, longer turn-times, and no revisions. The videos and blogs we made years ago still drive clients to our website every day.

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