Appraisers - What is the pay scheme?

I am a summer intern at a well-known CRE firm in a large city in Canada. Being a finance major I am looking at the appraisal/ valuation side of the business, and am curious about the process in which you get paid in comparison to the brokerage side of the business.

I constantly hear the salary + commission story, but here are some questions I have:

First off, how does the pay structure differ from the brokerage side? What can a starting salary at a large firm start at? What do bonuses consist of? At what point in the process do you get your commission?

I am interested in dealing with land as opposed to retail/industrial/office, so that should be noted.

Thanks in advance

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I just started in the Valuation department at one top brokerages (CBRE/JLL/etc). Note that I moved into a region mainly for the experience because I was making a career change, currently in the Southeastern part of the US (would much rather have wanted to be in the NY/West Coast areas). What I have noticed is that the Valuation side is kind of split on how they structure comp. I know some people in this role getting commission for each valuation along with a base pay. The way mine is structured is that my base pay is much higher, but i get a much lower commission, like a hundred bucks per valuation lol. But I also get time and a half overtime. Working 50-70 hours a week depending on work load adds up on the OT side of things. With that said I make 50k flat + very minor discretionary commission + OT, so around 70ish all in.

I was very surprised when I was offered this high of a base, however it seems very team dependent from what I've gathered. I am also mainly focused on Multifamily/Office properties, but from what I understand a land valuation costs much less than a building valuation. I am also not too sure on the deal pipeline in that space but just something you should note. You may be pumping out many more valuations to make up for that land valuation cost which may even out.

If anyone else has anything to add or correct me if i'm wrong on anything feel free. Like I said I just started in this space so still getting a grasp on everything. Hope this helps.

 

bumping this so others can chime in. I haven't had any experience with valuation salaries, but when I looked through past threads on here it ranged all the way from 40k-100k. Not sure what to make of that. I am sure some of it is market specific and how many deals they have in pipeline.

 

I work in valuation/consulting at a small firm in the NW and get paid on what my boss calls a "draw against commission" structure. I take home a monthly base pay which is my draw, while keeping track of my billings of which I get a fee split from. When my split from the billings during a period is greater than what I took home my office reconciles the difference.

Right now my base pay is $44k/year and I split fees at 36%. Since I do more market and feasibility studies than appraisals my billings are somewhat higher than others in my office. Every couple months when I reconcile my pay I generally get $2k-$3k. All in all I made $57k last year.

 

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