The Truth About Professional Designations
Michael B. Lamb, MAI, SRA June 11th, 2008
The designation doesn’t make the appraiser: The appraiser makes the designation.
The old cliché, the clothes make the man, is true only for a very brief instant, or while the suit is on a dummy, or in a photograph, because as soon as the image is animated, whoever is wearing the clothes, names, or expensive tailoring will hide or disguise the person under the clothes.
Designations are important, vitally important to our industry. To the people who retain us, to the bankers and lenders who rely on our professional ability, and to the attorneys and courts who listen to us as experts. Additionally, they prove a great deal both to the outside world and to the individual, because they represent the culmination of a great deal of study, hard work, and discipline. But acquiring the letters behind one’s name, earning the professional designations, is just the first step. As any very candid M.D., or D.D.S., or J.D. will tell you, once he or she has the coveted little initials after their names, that is when they really began to prepare, to study and learn. Doctors, dentists, lawyers, all professional people, really only begin to practice their professional AFTER they have been designated.
In the real estate profession a lot of us were interns for a number of years, working as appraisers, and working toward our designations, and harboring the hope that on the day we were designated we would be given enlightened intelligence, that the designation would be the key to solve all of our problems.
What a shock: We finally received that coveted group of letters, and an impressive document to frame and hang on our office wall, but the fact of the matter was we were just exactly the same person we had been twenty minutes earlier. We still knew as little, or as much, we were still filled with the same hopes and fears, but there was one essential difference: We had the knowledge, ability, and stamina to complete a very rigorous course of study and had been so recognized by our professional peers and associates.
Having earned a professional appraisal designation seems to make a person stand a little taller, look a bit sharper, and act more decisively. A professional designation doesn’t grant immunity to mistakes, or make the average appraiser into a genius, but it seems to make the person more aware of his responsibilities, to make him want to do a better, more thorough job.
In the last twenty-five years, we have gone from slide rules and mechanical typewriters to word processors and computers, and the speed at which the appraisal profession is changing is simply awesome. If the appraiser doesn’t keep up with the changes, the advances, he will surely be left behind.
A designation as a professional appraiser is a hallmark that the individual has dedicated a great deal of time, energy, effort and study to improving his ability to serve the public and I sincerely believe that the designation will become more important in the future. With the increasing speed of communications and all the other technological advancements, appraisers must devote more and more time each just to stay abreast of these changes. And the criteria of ability will trend more and more to be a professionally designated appraiser, because he or she will be involved in mandatory education recertification programs.
A professional real estate designation tells the world that you care enough to be the very best!