I came to this job through the back door.

Appraiser first. Still an appraiser.

I started out as a real estate appraiser, and I still am one. That work is exactly as unglamorous as it sounds and exactly as useful as it turned out to be. You drive to a house, you measure it, you photograph it, you note every condition issue, and then you sit down and prove what it is worth using sales nobody can argue with.

Do that enough times across DeSoto County and you stop guessing. You learn which subdivisions hold value, which upgrades a buyer pays for and which ones a lender ignores, and how much a busy road really costs a seller. You also learn what makes underwriters nervous, because you are the person writing the report they read.

Eventually I got tired of only showing up at the end of the story. By the time an appraiser arrives, the price is already set and everybody is hoping the number cooperates. So I got licensed as an agent too, without ever putting down the appraisal work. I still take appraisal assignments today, so every valuation opinion I give you is backed by work I am actively doing, not something I used to do.