Christina Bhalla’s team members are a lot like the third-line centre on a Stanley Cup winning team.
They do their work diligently, meticulously and largely in the background, without making headlines in the Monday morning paper.
Both groups, however, are integral to getting a win at the end of the day.
Bhalla serves as CEO of the British Columbia Association of the Appraisal Institute of Canada (AIC-BC), a 1,200-member team spanning B.C. and the Yukon that brings transparency and expertise to a wide range of real estate transactions and their related assets.
“We may not be the most well-known profession in a real estate transaction, but I like to say that we're small but mighty,” Bhalla says.
Bhalla’s team members undergo a rigorous designation process that requires an undergraduate degree, along with several additional years of coursework and experience.
“AIC-BC Members are required to complete recertification every two years through educational credits to ensure they are practicing within current standards and trends and maintaining their expertise in what can be a fast-paced industry,” Bhalla says.
The organization is spread across two Professional Appraiser (P.App), the Accredited Appraiser Canadian Institute (AACI) and the Canadian Residential Appraiser (CRA). The former concerns itself with valuation and consulting assignment of residential, commercial, industrial, institutional, agricultural, land and special use property types.
CRA appraisers, meanwhile, are qualified to undertake any valuation and consulting assignment on dwellings containing not more than four self-contained family housing units or on individual undeveloped residential dwelling sites.
For the average citizen, interactions with an AIC-BC member may come as a result of the “three Ds”: divorce, death and debt.
While many may think of appraisers entering the fray simply to assist with a home purchase or other property acquisitions, appraisers can help clients sort through any number of challenges and scenarios: taxation and estate planning; divorce and other litigation; feasibility and highest and best use studies; strata depreciation reports; insurance cost appraisals for emergency preparedness and more.
“So, if you've got a fire or flood, it's really important at this time of the year that you have an up-to-date replacement cost analysis for insurance purposes,” Bhalla says.
A large part of the added value in working with appraisers is their sheer breadth of institutional knowledge. Bhalla notes that many members have decades of experience working in the field and have vast knowledge when navigating the shifting tides of government policy, market fluctuations, or emerging trends.
“Appraisers can help governments in projecting or gaining insight into how policy could impact a market,” Bhalla says. “We're pushing for consultation with Professional Appraisers before making policy to make sure that we're all on the same page and what they intend to do is likely what is going to transpire.”
