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Journey of a New Appraiser: How Katya Borisova Found Her Niche
by Isaac Peck, Publisher
While some appraisers express optimism about the field and its future, others take a more cautious or skeptical view—sometimes even discouraging newcomers from pursuing a career in appraising altogether.
But despite the skepticism, new candidates continue to enter the field. Some new appraisers just finished college and are looking forward to starting full and comprehensive careers. Others see appraising as a landing point for a career change.
In 2020, Katya Borisova became one of those career-jumper appraisers.
Borisova, who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, lost a corporate job on April Fools’ Day in 2020, just as COVID-19 was beginning to take hold and the job market was about to become extremely unpredictable.
A single mother with business transformation and operations experience, Borisova was uncertain about her next steps. When a former co-worker suggested she ought to explore appraising, Borisova, who already owned a couple of investment properties, was intrigued. Part of the attraction was the control over her future offered by a career in appraising. Another shining point was the chance to build something of her own. An important factor was that the job would not be that much of a reinvention. Borisova already had a four-year degree in Building and Architecture from her country of birth Bulgaria, a background as a strategist, her business connections, and her knowledge of the property market all had the potential to make the transition less scary than it otherwise would have been.
So, she took the plunge, and five years later, Katya Borisova is a leading appraiser in Arizona, and a Board Member of the Coalition of Arizona Appraisers (CoAA). Working RE recently talked to Borisova about what went into that transition—and the person she became when she completed it.
Strategic Approach, Slow Start
Armed with a list of potential mentors, Borisova took a strategic approach to her entry into the appraiser field. Instead of starting at the top of the list, she began calling people from the bottom. She had found a supervisor within the week. “I started working for them as a staff appraiser,” Borisova recalls, adding that almost immediately she also began training classes.
By November of 2021 she was certified, but by the following Spring, “the market started doing crazy things,” she says. Interest rates went up. Borrowing became more expensive, reducing demand for homes.
Borisova was having a hard time getting banks and direct clients to add her to the “list” of appraisers called in her area. “I would go and sign up, they would not send me work, or would say ‘we’re not adding new appraisers, or say I didn’t have enough experience—they needed me to have three years of experience after certification,” she says.
The only option to find consistent work was with appraisal management companies (AMCs). There, Borisova found steady appraisal work but had to accept the AMCs’ low fee cut. “As long as you accept their fees, they’ll keep you,” she recalls. To make ends meet, she worked as a waitress. “Never in my life did I think it was going to be like this,” she says. “This was going to be my cash cow, so I could build my own real estate portfolio.” But that wasn’t how it was working out.
Networking Into Success
Borisova wasn’t ready to give up yet. “I joined the Coalition of Arizona Appraisers,” she says, referring to a nonprofit organization that promotes and sustains the appraisal profession in the state, focusing on legislative advocacy, regulatory compliance, and public awareness of the importance of quality appraisals. Everywhere she went, Borisova “asked questions,” and worked on developing marketing for attorneys and other specialized groups.
Around that time, something happened that was a game-changer: Borisova discovered the Valuation Expo. At the time, things were at an all-time low for her business efforts. “I saw a post that was about the Valuation Expo. I was not making any money. I was trying to sign up with clients.” She received a 50 percent-off discount to attend and immediately jumped into networking at full speed.
Launched in 2003, today Valuation Expo is run by Appraiser eLearning and has become a leading national appraisal conference, but with a reputation for facilitating education and networking for new and younger appraisers, as well as women getting into the profession. The Expo is a three-day event where professionals collaborate, gain insights, and connect with leaders. Borisova met leaders in the profession, many of whom went out of their way to give her advice. She also connected to groups like the Appraisal Foundation Women’s Forum, as well as getting to know various lenders.
Soon after attending the Valuation Expo, and quite unexpectedly for her, a local Native American bank contacted Borisova with a request she hadn’t heard before: they needed a mobile home appraised on Native land near Scottsdale. “I don’t know why, but they wanted me to do it,” said Borisova, who relied on her new Women’s Forum contacts to help her find the resources she needed to learn to do the appraisal. “If it wasn’t for [the Women’s Forum], I’m not sure what I would have done,” Borisova exclaims.
Expert appraiser Dave Towne would end up spending hours training Borisova on the ins and outs of Native American land and properties. Where others had simply warned her that “this is complicated,” Towne showed her the ropes. She received help from another experienced appraiser on manufactured homes. “Between Dave, the bank and my skills, I figured it out and I did it,” she recalls. The appraisal went well. More calls followed.
Borisova started getting to know others in the Native American real estate community. “I didn’t know anyone. I started going to National Association of Appraisers (NAA) conferences like ACTS and the Appraisal Summit. I told other appraisers, women that I met on Facebook, how I met clients, got more work, and encouraged others to go,” she says. Because Borisova believed in what she was doing, she wasn’t frightened of bringing other new appraisers into the landscape. Borisova’s expertise in modular and other non-traditional homes also caught the attention of PadSplit, the hugely successful co-living marketplace providing co-housing communities to working class residents.
Experiences like this taught Borisova what she needed to know to be a specialist, to carve out her appraiser identity and make her work necessary. But it also convinced her that the profession needed more helping hands, more opportunities and a more invitational approach to bringing people into the profession.
At the same time, after spending years trapped in low-fee arrangements with AMCs, Borisova realized she couldn’t work with them anymore. “I realized that it’s just not paying enough. I don’t want to do this work for that little fee,” she recalls. It was a hard choice because in other ways, those were good work relationships. “I was very sorry; I just wanted to work for better fees. I don’t have to work for low fees. For me, my time matters, and I want to be paid appropriately.” She says the AMC manager told her they understood where she was coming from.
Breaking away from AMCs meant that she knew that she would need to step up her marketing. “I don’t like marketing. That’s not my forte. So, I signed up with a marketing company, which kept my website further on top,” Borisova reports.
Listening to her now, one sees a very different, much brighter world than the chaotic disappointments the novice appraiser had encountered only a few years earlier. “I almost have too much work now,” Borisova says. “I connected with some people, because of PadSplit, and made connections with big investors here. I’m the only appraiser who really understands and knows what these homes are about. I know what the lenders are looking for. I became the expert,” Borisova explains.
By specializing in these unique properties, Borisova has created niche demand. “Whenever they have lenders that are doing these types of properties, they call me. I do the appraisals. Because other appraisers come and say this is a ‘Boarding Home.’ A lot of appraisers would be freaking out,” she recounts. But not Katya Borisova.
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Advice for Success
One consistent impediment to growing as an appraiser is the barrage of naysaying promulgated by self-appointed gatekeepers of the profession. “I hate it when people say, ‘you don’t have the expertise, you shouldn’t be doing that.’ How am I going to learn if I don’t ever try to expand the work I’m doing?” Borisova exclaims. “At the end of the day, you’re just appraising a property. Find a strategy. I became the expert in that.”
Reflecting on how she gained her expertise yields a series of action-oriented points of advice: First, appraisers should build a network. “You need a network of people and mentors you can rely on,” says Borisova. To build that network, she recommends going to conferences and doing whatever it takes to go and meet people. “There is no other way. You need people you can call for help. There were many times that I didn’t know what I was doing and I needed help,” Borisova reports. “But if you don’t know what you’re doing and you’re afraid to take on complex assignments, and you decline those assignments …,” she says, then you will not be successful. “Join local organizations,” she adds, pointing out that she joined the Board of Directors of CoAA. “That creates credibility for clients. I tell them I’m on the Board for CoAA. It matters, to some extent. People should be able to find you.”
Building networks also takes creativity. Appraisers should network not only with appraiser groups, but also with other business groups. “I’m successful because I look outside of the box. I’m an investor. Some people join BNI [Business Network International]. I know an appraiser that did that and is doing very well. I know some that go to attorney gatherings. Build connections that way,” Borisova says.
Second, develop a reputation. Some of this will come from, and complement, building an online business presence. “One thing that helped me the most was my Google Business Page,” Borisova reports. “That was one of the things that really paid off. I got business because of that. People find me because they’re looking for an appraiser in Scottsdale.” Building a reputation also involves asking for reviews. “Anytime I do a private appraisal, I always send the report, and in my email, I include a request for them to leave me a review on my Google Page. It doesn’t work with everyone. But it built up my reviews and created a bit of traction,” she says.
Third, Borisova recommends that appraisers constantly keep learning new things. “I felt like I learned whatever I could learn from my initial supervisor. There’s a lot of knowledge in the [appraisal] business. Talk to people, you can figure it out. You can figure it out if you keep going,” she advises.
Finally, Borisova suggests that appraisers use a service like Thumbtack, an online directory that provides a platform for users to search, hire, and give ratings for local service providers, from lawyers to IT professionals, and includes appraisers. “If people are looking for an appraiser in the area, it will pop-up a couple of people. They charge for leads. But it works for me, I get a few orders. I set my own prices, this is my price, take it or leave it. Those types of services are good: things where people can find you and check your ratings and reviews. It creates a lot more ability for people to find me,” she says.
Not Uniformly Bright
The picture Katya Borisova paints of reinvention and thriving in the appraisal profession isn’t uniformly bright. Her success feels more like a result of her own optimism and resilience (stubbornness) than the generosity of the profession. “When you are new, you need expertise in your market,” Borisova says, which is a little like saying that even if you’re new, you can’t be completely new. Experienced appraisers will help, she reports, but they aren’t necessarily going to share their business, because they see clientele as a scarce resource.
For her part, Borisova is willing to help new appraisers or people testing the waters of the profession. “I don’t have a lot of people reach out to me,” she says, “but I have folks ask about how they can become an appraiser. I spend time with these people. I give them good, bad, and ugly. I am happy to pay it forward, I’m happy to do it.”
Borisova pointed out that there are many appraisers today not working at capacity. She reports that her own experience, working several jobs to sustain herself while getting educated and developing a niche in her field, suggests that something more is needed than just going to conferences and saying we need more appraisers.
A paid mentorship program, she feels, would be extremely helpful. “We should have a sponsored mentorship program. It can be modeled after the supervisor program where supervisors are paid. Mentors should be paid to help newer appraisers,” Borisova explains, further detailing that such a program could perhaps last six months.
Borisova further suggests increased dialogue with appraisers to assess their needs. “I worked in business transformation. I was an internal consultant to a company, and I loved solving problems. If you want something to change, how about we ask the community? If there is something we should be focusing on and what we can do,” she says.
“I know a lot of appraisers who are like, ‘I am desperate. I don’t know what to do,'” Borisova adds.
Katya Borisova’s story shows both the challenges and possibilities found in the appraiser profession. While it is true that experience and drive are key factors for success, newcomers also need real, material support to succeed. Borisova’s suggestion of a structured mentorship program is an example of the kind of initiative that can improve training, build collaborative networks, and increase accessibility into the profession. Borisova’s story, and her breakthroughs suggest that the field can evolve in ways that benefit both new and experienced appraisers. It also demonstrates that building a specialization and carving out a niche (or two), is a great path forward for appraisers who are looking to succeed in the years ahead.
About the Author
Isaac Peck is the Publisher of Working RE magazine and the President of OREP Insurance, a leading provider of E&O insurance for real estate professionals. OREP serves over 10,000 appraisers with comprehensive E&O coverage, competitive rates, and 14 hours of CE at no charge for OREP Members (CE not approved in IL and AK). Visit OREP.org to learn more. Reach Isaac at isaac@orep.org or (888) 347-5273. CA License #4116465.
OREP Insurance Services, LLC. Calif. License #0K99465