The commercial real estate (CRE) appraisal profession is at a pivotal point. As appraisal firms face the need to evolve, embracing technology has never been more important. Whether recruiting and retaining talent is a challenge, the firm is facing an ownership change or the company is growing at a rapid pace and struggling with efficiency, one common question is emerging: Is there appraisal technology in place to best support this evolution?

An Aging Profession Facing a Talent Crunch

The average age of commercial appraisers continues to climb. According to 2023 research conducted by the Appraisal Institute, a significant portion of U.S. appraisers are over the age of 50, with 43.2% aged 50 – 65 and another 23% over age 65. Only a small fraction, 6.7% are aged 25 – 34 and 0.3% are under 25. Small and medium-sized firms, especially, struggle to backfill roles vacated by retiring appraisers. It’s not just about filling seats, it’s about transferring knowledge, maintaining client relationships, and preserving firm value.

In today’s job market, younger appraisers are asking smart, future-focused questions in interviews. One of the most common? “What kind of technology or appraisal platform do you use?”

They’re not just looking for a job; they’re looking for a firm that’s built to last. A modern appraisal platform signals to candidates that the firm is serious about efficiency, transparency, and innovation. It also shows that leadership is thinking long-term and investing in tools that streamline the process and minimize administrative overhead, two big selling points for a tech-savvy generation.

Making Ownership Transitions Smoother

Many appraisal firms are family-owned or closely held by a few partners. In addition to an outright sale, transitions often involve a merger or passing the business down to a son, daughter, or long-time employee. Without a platform and optimal technology to centralize data, manage workflows, and preserve historical records, these transitions can be messy and risk-laden.

By adopting technology early, firms can ensure that their processes and data aren’t locked away in an owner’s inbox or buried in spreadsheets. A robust appraisal platform becomes a living record of how the business operates, enhancing the value of your firm and making it easier for new ownership to step in confidently.

An example of how straightforward this information centralization can be: when Mosaic Property Valuations relaunched as an independent practice, it took just two to three weeks for Valcre to transfer 13 years of data into their new system. This included thousands of sales, lease comparables and properties.

Efficiency Through Process and Information Management

For many appraisal firms, current processes and workflow is not optimized and consists of uncentralized data, lack of consistent, standardized templates and siloed systems. This results in inefficiency and loss of revenue.

Most appraisers are very willing to embrace new tools and modernize workflows, but they need a foundation to build on. With a solid appraisal platform in place, firms can:

• Create standardized templates for consistency
• Centralize property and client data for easy access
• Automate many parts of the appraisal process
• Provide visibility into performance and operations

All of these factors contribute to smoother day-to-day operations and increase efficiency. In fact, Valcre customer, Cogito Realty Partners, reports delivering appraisals 50% faster as a result of improving inefficient and error prone processes. Just as importantly, these improvements reduce the learning curve for new hires and help them hit the ground running.

Looking Forward

The commercial real estate appraisal profession is changing. Firms that invest in technology today will be better equipped to recruit top talent, achieve business continuity and value, support growth and improve efficiency. Having the right appraisal platform in place can turn uncertainty into opportunity.

The firms we work with didn’t all start from the same place. Some were facing a founder transition, some were losing candidates to competitors with better tools, some were just tired of rebuilding the same spreadsheet every quarter. What they had in common was a decision to stop treating technology as an afterthought.

lf your firm is navigating a transition, a growth push, or a talent problem, and your technology isn’t helping, let’s talk about what that actually looks like to fix. Book a 20-minute conversation.