Everyone knows that the market is rapidly changing, becoming more and more time-sensitive. Therefore, valuation specialists, like physicians, accountants or builders, need to keep themselves up to date. As the market evolves, clients’ analyses of their investment needs and interests are becoming more sophisticated.
We must not forget that there is a wide range of property development strategies, which change according to the population’s needs and interests. Multi-family, co-living, co-working, and last-mile are also concepts that were unheard of just a short while ago. “Times change, desires change.”
These days, valuation specialists use sophisticated valuation models with more outputs than inputs, allowing them to work more efficiently. I am referring to AVMs (Automated Valuation Models) or even those macro-laden excel models. However, it’s still important to keep an eye on those models, ensuring that they are well-built and fed with up-to-date inputs and assumptions that align with the current market realities. Market values are also calculated in two different ways by RICS and TEGoVA, including both the “Future Value” and “Hope Value” models. An underlying assumption for a REV model may be just one of many for an MRICS. I confess that I find it somewhat confusing when an appraiser is both REV and MRICS. But, that’s a matter for another, future, discussion.
Apart from the market changes, such as the differences between RICS and TEGoVA, that I alluded to above, I also wanted to discuss the need for valuation specialists who think about valuation, who really love what they do and dive deep into the details. For those who are really in the know, these models can sometimes be seen as enemies rather than friends, as they may remove or limit the possibility of the specialists’ innate market knowledge, which though subjective, can play a healthy part in an informed valuation. There is an urgent need for valuation specialists who like to relate stories about the property under valuation (every property has a story), stories that they uncovered within their research. It is no accident that Aura has reached the point where it is leading the valuation of NPL and REO portfolios in the market. In addition to having members with past and present experience, it persistently digs deeper into the particulars of every property or portfolio as a whole. Therefore, the market needs valuations specialists who take pleasure in their job, a pleasure that will have an immediate and easily recognizable effect on the market’s functioning.
