I would rather wait tables or be a bartender than be an appraiser. Perhaps I could become a private detective or something, that would be more interesting for me. My mom WAS going to be a licensed appraiser and I know she spent many evenings gone and driving all over hell and back (trust me - I have heard many stories of being on roads that don't exist on maps). I wouldn't be surprised if something like Texas Chainsaw Massacre was going on in some of these farms around here, and yet I am supposed to drive there (or by) to go appraise someone's house? Why bother, I am sure you can probably do it online (lol)!!! Not to say your idea is terrible or anything, but I would rather move on than hang out working in real estate. Wait - what (or who) exactly says I have to leave my job anyway???

I love abstracting. It is the type of business where you have to use your head, literally. I guess now someone who sits at a computer desk is becoming more valuable than someone who actually goes out and does the job right. This is a profession being down-graded to a big fat zero. Why even bother doing title searches - let's just eliminate any laws that say it needs done while we are at it. Obviously no one cares if they buy a nightmare property - heck a twelve year old in Nigeria could be doing title searches. Yet someone would say that is what free trade is all about!!!! I am just irritated since professionals want to push for things like abstractors being certified (or some equivalent), and then turn around and say technology is going to put us out of business. So what is the point???

That Red Vision article was rather interesting though. I don't know how things are in Florida or Texas, but what they are doing there might never happen in some places in Ohio. We are too behind in the stone ages and some people in power like it that way. That is fine by me. My mom who works in Southern Ohio has some counties online, but even now some counties have REMOVED certain records. To do a full search (for me and her) means driving to a courthouse (oh no!) and physically pulling records. If we were to "minimize our manual effort" than I ask why any effort at all?? Let's just make it up as we go, never leave our homes, and still get paid!!!

I don't mean to sound so crappy, but the mad push for everything now, now, now just ticks me off. I will sum it up saying things have changed so much in eight years and it is frustrating to have to compete with someone who does a half ass job to begin with. Then I am supposed to spend my evenings, weekends, and vacations fighting with NALTEA to prove we are professionals and deserve to do our jobs, or I am not fighting for the cause. I am in this just as much as anyone else in this industry, but at the end of the day I like to have a life besides real estate and stress. Does anyone else feel that way or am I just the enemy?? All we can seem to accomplish here in the lovely States is war, whether in another country or in our own backyards. I have got to break out the Kahlua or something - M. to post a reply: login - or - register