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| 2011 - Day of Retirement in my Home Office |
I began my appraisal career retirement from the State of Missouri December 2011. I left my options open just in case my head was not clear from all the negativity in the previous two years before I resigned. I have written about that negativity in an earlier article in this blog The Joy of Real Estate Appraisal. Since then, I tried to stay involved to the point of keeping my education and license current but accepted no work. I regularly visited appraisal sites to be aware of the issues of importance to current active appraisers and was kept informed of any changes in the industry by appraisal organizations. I remain disconnected to the State Tax Commission (STC) other than the generous pension and health benefits I earned from my 30 year career. I no longer have the slightest desire to work as a real estate appraiser and my interest in property values has diminished more and more each year. I will always have my education and understanding of value. I have grown in many new areas of interest as can be seen throughout this blog. Now I am free to remember the good times. The decision to not keep up the requirements for certification was the hardest to make as I worked very hard to get it in the first place. The recent changes in the appraisal industry, in my opinion, have become more complicated and not in a positive way. Time to move on.
There were mostly good times and some sad ones! Remembering helps me get through the reality that those good times have passed. Writing them down is therapeutic and is something I can come back and read over and over. I think I will just highlight the years for now and use it as a guide should I want to expand on the memories in the future. I am thankful that I kept detailed journals of work-related activities for all those years. I think this may be an appropriate time to retire the Blog Label "Real Estate Issues" and continue in "Personal and Spiritual Growth" after this post.
1981-1984 Hickory County Assessor Office - Who knew that answering an ad in the local newspaper for temporary part-time work as a data collector could lead to a full-time position learning all the aspects of re-assessment and being chosen by the assessor to eventually replace him? All that and being close to home, my husband's workplace, and my children's K-12 school was more than I ever expected from such a small rural county we chose to move to in 1978. I would have been satisfied. The opportunity to work for the state doing much less work for twice the pay with benefits came knocking. My husband gave me his full support. It was brave of me to give up what I knew to be secure and safe for the unknown. The motivation was that I would have a home office with time flexibility in raising my children, good health insurance, and pension benefits. The travel would be about two weeks out of 6-8 weeks.
1984-1990 Establishing my Credibility - The first year I stayed away from home about 50 days for schooling and some of my territory was too far to drive home every night. That was the most difficult thing I ever had to do and almost gave up because it was hard on my family with young children. When I made it known that I had to be home every night or I would have to quit, my position changed to be away much less often and always close enough to drive home with maximum expenses. I went from basically a residential appraiser to a commercial appraiser position. My education continued and my experiences grew as I worked in 25 different counties. I was establishing my credibility as more and more market data became available. I grew in so many ways!
1991-1999 The Best of Times - With my credibility established and my property values rarely challenged, it was a time for personal growth in my private life. The job was routine for the most part. I found it fun and challenging as the first one on staff to be trained in computers, programs, and digital cameras before it was required of all the staff. While I was at my home office for 4-6 weeks, I was very active with my children in school activities, scouting, church, family time, and developing my hobbies. My husband's job at the garment factory was insecure so he began night school to better his skills for more secure employment. There were many deaths in the immediate family so family connections were very close. It was a good time for my job to be secure and relatively routine, easy, and predictable. When I had to go out and collect data for two weeks, I was happy to have a change of routine and location to meet interesting and sometimes powerful people in the banking and real estate business. I had wonderful challenges in the variety of properties to value. It was exciting! Then I was ready to be home again all day for 4-6 weeks in my home office and then it began again. Always something new and never boring!
2000-2005 Nothing Ever Stays the Same - As soon as my supervisors realized my children were grown and out of the house on their own, I was given some challenging break-out assignments that kept me away from home more and more. It began with assignments in the southeast corner of the state along the Mississippi River. Then larger cities such as Joplin and Springfield appraisals which gave me experiences that helped me become a General Certified Appraiser. I had unique experiences from commercial recreational areas around the many Missouri lakes and the Branson entertainment market.
With my husband's work situation changing, I decided to go back to school and take all the courses needed to become a certified appraiser as state jobs took a turn with talk of staff reductions and expenses reduced. I thought I should increase my job skills and contacts to be able to work in the private sector should the need arise. I was successful but it was much harder than I originally thought because my training and skills from the state were not typically transferable because they were more specific to larger market areas. It was a different path that far exceeded the path taken by the average appraiser. It was a transition period for the appraisal industry that was progressing to certify appraisers both in the public and private sectors. It was difficult to regulate appraisers when one employer serves the public and one employer serves profit. I was the first in our group that managed to make it through the National Uniform Standards Profession of Appraisal Practices (USPAP) accreditation. The Missouri Appraisal Commission, who provides the state appraisal licenses, had recently been given national credibility after about 10 years of formative progress in Missouri. It appeared that not only was I being scrutinized personally, but also the STC, the leading final authority on property values for the public. It was the state licensing agency vs the state taxing authority. I was a winner and I had done it all by myself without the help of the STC although they did reimburse my expenses afterward and verbally supported my efforts. Big changes in the appraisal industry were happening both in the public and private sector.
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| Elizabeth A. Pearson, Manager Ratio Study Section of the State Tax Commission of Missouri |
2005-2007 Manager of the State Tax Commission of Missouri - I was the most current General Certified Appraiser on our staff as of 2005. A couple other staff members had the certification but attained it during the early years of the licensing agency before they were very credible and people were mostly "grand-fathered" into the certification. This was before the more extensive experience and educational requirements were finally established in compliance with USPAP. When I learned that the manager of the STC was retiring after 27 years and the assistant manager was also retiring, I applied after giving it thought for two weeks talking it over with my husband. I had never considered it before and never had it as a goal. But my intuition told me that I could best influence statewide property values and do right by USPAP in the position of manager where I could actually change policies and procedures.
I got the position! For the second time in my life, my salary nearly doubled and my physical work load reduced! There was much more stress but much satisfaction as I was in a position to implement all that I had learned to make the department more transparent and efficient in compliance with USPAP. I had told the commissioners that I would accomplish all that I wanted in three years; I did it all in 18 months! As manager, I was required to live in Jefferson City, the state capital where I worked. I rented a duplex condo and bought all new furniture that I planned to move back to the Hermitage home later. I drove back to Hermitage on weekends. My office at the Truman Building was on the 8th floor and had a picture window wall overlooking the Missouri River and the State Capital Building across the street. I had a staff of 30 in the field and use of office secretaries and a Statistician. I only had 2-3 STC Commissioners appointed by the Governor to answer too. I was in the best position on staff to implement the audit changes required by then State Auditor, Claire McCaskill. Legislature was changing and the STC's purpose was redefined. It was up to me to bring the STC more transparency to the public in compliance with USPAP and provide policies and procedures for all 114 counties and the City of St. Louis in updating their property values. My first project was to produce three extensive reports - how we got to where we are since re-assessment began in 1978, where we are now and what we are doing, and recommend changes through policies and procedures. All of which was approved through the International Association of Appraisal Organization (IAAO) which was headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. I worked extensively with them and helped establish new ratio study codes which are used nationwide. It was the most exciting time!
After 18 months, the newness and excitement wore down as my health issues were affected by the added stress. I had done all that I had wanted to do in half the time I said I would. My intuition was telling me that the Commissioners wanted a manager that would "tell them what they wanted to hear" instead of my "tell it like it is." Politics began to take over after all the changes I made were working. The only thing lacking was the follow-thru process where final tweaking and changes may be needed that could only be identified as it happened. It was very easy for a new manager to step in; much easier than it was for me with the mess I found when I began! While the staff was out implementing all the changes in the field, I sat in the STC office and waited for the appraisals to come to me for finalization. It was all working well enough and I was proud of all that I had done. I wanted to go back to what I liked best which was field appraising and a home office. I negotiated my salary to the highest level on field staff which I never would have gotten had I not taken the manager position due to salary freezes. It was a hard decision resigning the manager position at the peak of my career!
2008-2011 Pre-Retirement - The transition from manager back to field appraiser was easy. Even with some surgery and extended sick leave, I was called frequently and had to appear in person for important meetings during the transition. It took a long time for another manager to take my place. When it was filled, it was with the local county assessor who had just been elected and choose to leave his office mid-term which pretty much killed him politically. He was under more political pressure to do as he was told by the Commissioners. I think that may be why he disliked me and made the final two years of my time not so pleasant. He changed as much as he could of my policies and procedures to make them his own and get credit. I didn't care so much as his arrogance finally done him in and he was gone a short time later. The female that I had recommended for the position when I left finally got the manager position and is still there as far as I know. I can only smile as I got all that I could ever want by doing the best I could leaving the STC better than I found it.
It is all dead to me now. I will remember the joy of real estate appraising as it was and what I made of it for my life and all those that I have affected. It was a good life as an appraiser. It was a good career. It was what I did and not who I am. It was the means to a golden retirement. I will stop being sad one day past my appraisal certification renewal deadline!
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