Pettifer & Associates, Inc.

CORPORATE & BUSINESS PROFILE

A Full Service Commercial & Residential Real Estate Solutions Company

OCappraiser.net for Residential & Relocation Appraisals

OCcommercial.net for Commercial Valuation

Pettifer & Associates, Inc. is a commercial and residential real estate firm founded in 1986.  Scott Pettifer, MAI, SRA, a Southern California fee appraiser and real estate broker created the firm and continues today as President / Managing Chief Appraiser.  The company employed over ten appraisers and office personal and the firm size has paralleled that of business cycles and demand for appraisals over the last 20 years.  Over the last decade, appraisals needed for collateral financing have steadily declined due to changes in banking regulations, relaxed credit policies and the availability of alternative valuation products.  The decline in lender appraisal volume, licensing and the failure of a state appraiser boards to enforce appraisal standards has made the established appraisal fee shop model of large regional and national appraisal firms impractical without a parallel client base.  The majority of big banks, lenders and title companies have subsidiaries and/or financial interests with affiliated national valuation firms. 

Pettifer & Associates, Inc. anticipating declining lender business and difficult regulatory climate began to shift our focus from collateral lending clients to a more diverse and broader range of appraisal users.  Our committed focus to non-lending client sources such as private property owners, corporations, public agencies and the accounting and legal communities has resulted in more consistent volume of appraisal assignments that is less affected by interest rate volatility and new loan originations.    

Pettifer & Associates, Inc.’s long-term stability and exceptional reputation in Orange County and greater Southern California is partly from our core business practices of a diverse client base and commitment to producing quality appraisal reports that contain the most current local market data that provide cost effective solutions to our client’s real estate problems.

We have contracted our coverage service area and the number of employees is more than half the size of our workforce in the late 1980’s.  A small but experienced core of appraisers and office support team remain with the company today. 

Aside from our excellent work product, our distinctive company structure sets us apart from many if not most of the large regional and national valuation management firms.  Many of the large firms essentially have a small number if any staff appraisers and subcontract out appraisal orders to local fee appraisers.  As would be expected, this adds an additional layer of management costs.  This effectively increases the appraisal cost incurred by the client.  Common with this business model, the field appraiser commonly receives a lower fee.  The appraisal management company often increases their profits by by contracting with inexperienced and often unqualified appraisers that will accept steeply discounted fees and service demands that have no relationship to market fees or costs.  This can be a two edged sword for the client because they are obligated to pay more for the appraisal, in many cases the appraisal is completed by less experienced and sometimes unqualified appraisers, resulting in inaccurate value conclusion and unreliable report. 

Clients that order appraisals directly with OCappraisal.net do not incur any added layers of management expense or a dollar premium greater than competitive appraisal fees charged by local appraisers completing MAI quality valuation work.  The appraisal report will contain the best and most current local market data and analysis with overall report quality exceeding the work product of national subcontractor appraisal firms.   

All our appraisers are employees of the company and earn a competitive income Workman’s Comp coverage, vacation and sick time, access to the company’s extensive data sources and more importantly office support and training.  We do not hire subcontractor appraisers at the lowest wholesale price.  The subcontractor / appraisal management business model usually results in higher appraisal costs, lower appraisal quality and with the exception of some large users of appraisal services, offer few advantages for the client.

We believe our comparable and informational database is as extensive as any appraisal firm in Orange County.  We have computer access to nearly every MLS Board in Southern California as both a real estate broker and appraiser.  We access all our physical property data, plat maps and all MLS listing information via 24 / 7 on-line internet access.  Along with complete MLS sales data, we also have access to California Market Data Cooperative sales back to 1985 as well as our extensive in-house comparable sales database.