About the Publisher

The CRER news service is published and edited by me, Pete Norris, MAI (designation inactive). I graduated from the University of Tennessee on June 10, 1981 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a major in Real Estate and Urban Development.

After graduating from UT I relocated to south Florida, which is an area with a very active commercial real estate market, and became engaged in the business of appraising commercial real estate.

Back then the appraisal industry was not regulated by the government - it was regulated by private trade organizations, notably the American Institute of Real Estate Appraisers (AIREA) and the Society of Real Estate Appraisers (SREA). Wishing to remain in my field of study I joined both organizations as a candidate for their appraisal designations (the MAI and the SRPA, respectively).

After about ten years of hard work and study I was awarded the MAI designation. It was soon after the awarding of my MAI designation that Congress, in the wake of the great "Savings and Loan Debacle" (in the latter part of the 1980's decade) which was blamed in large part on faulty appraisals, enacted laws to regulate and control the appraisal industry. The laws required states to "state certify" appraisers.

The state certification laws weakened the AIREA and the SREA. Recognizing the need to strengthen their organizations the AIREA and the SREA merged into one organization called the "Appraisal Institute."

After a long, gratifying career in the appraisal industry I have chosen to do something else. That choice has led me to publish the Commercial Real Estate Review news service.