Joseph T. Sodano, SRA, CRP

RAC President 2011–2012

Good day to all and welcome to the RAC Reporter. As President of this great organization, I want to extend a loud and clear THANK YOU to all of those who have preceded me, the founding Fathers, to all of the members that dedicate their time and efforts to making RAC a successful organization, and to the corporations and organizations that sponsor our events and support our goal.

In May 2004, RAC Trac began in Las Vegas. The RAC Trac portion of the WERC conference was designed to kick start the National Relocation Conference providing quality educational programs for the appraisal community and appraisal users. (Mission accomplished) The RAC Trac two-day conferences have run their course. This year, at the May WERC Spring conference held in Las Vegas, the RAC Trac sessions, as we have come to identify them, will be our last two-day Spring WERC conference. RAC and WERC are committed to presenting appraisal programs at the Spring WERC conferences in the future, but in a less concentrated format than we have experienced during the cycle from May 2004 to May 2011.

In a recent Strategic Planning meeting, the RAC membership outlined the future goals for the organization and redefined our mission statement:

“RECOGNIZING AND PROMOTING PROFESSOINAL RELOCATION VALUATION SERVICES”

RAC members have written the book on the relocation procedures and guidelines.

Organizational members have been publishing a monthly regional summary for MOBILITY magazine enlightening the readers of the trends within their market area. The RAC Reporter offers regional summaries from RAC coverage areas. On a quarterly basis, an updated overview of each market segment currently covered by the RAC membership is available on the www.rac.net website. We (RAC) intend to expand on the coverage areas with increased membership while maintaining quality standards.

Our goal is to increase the membership with additional quality knowledgeable real estate professionals, expand our exposure to our client base and to provide quality educational programs for the real estate professionals related to he relocation industry. WE have received leads of quality appraisers in the industry and are actively recruiting them into the organization.

The relocation appraisal is one of the few true forms of appraisal knowledge. There are appraisers and appraiser specialist. The RAC members are best known for their expertise in a given market area. The relocation appraisal and the appraisals conducted for litigation purposes are the two examples of how well an appraiser knows their market. Most mortgage appraisal assignments are a justification of a sales price that has already been established. The relocation appraisal is the ANTICIPATED SALE PRICE (ASP). The estimate of value for the ASP is one of the hardest appraisals performed in the appraisal industry. Knowing the market, anticipating market trends in the area and calculating the buyer reaction to the variables associated with the real estate industry are several key components to appraisal accuracy and professionalism. If you adhere to these standards, RAC wants you.

RAC intends to provide education to the real estate appraiser, users of real estate appraisals and the appraiser reviewer community. Our education committee will be producing Webinar sessions that meet your needs.

In the fall of 2011, the RAC conference is scheduled to be in the Connecticut area. RAC will provide educational programs concentrated on the new appraisal form and review parameters regarding the new form. We will be offering CRP credits for the attendees. We welcome all relocation professionals to come and meet with us. Look for more specific details in the months to come.

If there are any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me directly or through our website. A new feature keyword/search will ease your navigation and get you a quick response. I look forward to my term as president of Relocation Appraisers and Consultants.