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Ken Kaiser loves to meet up with people
who whine, "What’s a classical liberal arts
education good for?" "Do you mean, ‘according
to its fair market value,’ its ‘base adjusted
historical value,’ or its intrinsic value’?"
he fires back.
If his response leaves his examiner
nonplused, it’s because Kaiser happens to know
what he is talking about. For the past 13 years, Kaiser
has specialized in real estate appraisal analysis and
presently directs policy on real estate appraisal practice
nationwide.
Kaiser is the Vice-Chair of the Appraisal
Standards Board, located in Washington D.C. He serves
on the board along with five other individuals who are
selected from more than 100,000 licensed and designated
appraisers nationwide.
Service on the Board is not simply
an honorary position. The Board has the sole responsibility
to interpret and amend the Uniform Standards of Professional
Appraisal Practice, which is enforced by all states
and federal banking regulatory agencies. The opinions
and rulings expressed by this Board become state law
and are adopted by most local jurisdictions. Kaiser
is two years into his first three year term and is eligible
to serve for one more consecutive term.
Kaiser garnered his experience while
working for Glendale Federal Bank in Glendale, California,
where he supervised all of the bank’s commercial
and residential real estate valuations which covered
the bank’s offices throughout California, Florida,
and Washington. Kaiser also worked with the bank’s
legal counsel, providing expert testimony and pre-trial
support for several landmark cases, where he was recognized
for his critical analysis and problem solving capabilities
by executive management and federal regulators alike.
He now runs his own private practice in real estate
valuation and testimony and is a frequent guest speaker
throughout the country.
Kaiser came to the world of appraisal
analysis unexpectedly. He was working on his Ph.D. in
Political Philosophy and American History at Claremont
Graduate School – which he eventually completed
– when he started doing real estate appraisals
on the side. "It was kind of mundane, but I had
to pay bills," he says. He had been doing odd jobs
teaching college courses in philosophy, logic, and ethics,
and serving as headmaster of a private boarding school.
But as much as he liked teaching and
philosophy, he realized he wasn’t "cut out
for the sandals, socks, and long-hair crowd that you
find at your average university" and found appraisal
work to be sufficiently lucrative. He took a different
path.
Kaiser had followed his older brother
Tom to the College from their hometown of Bakersfield,
California, after Tom had excited him about the College’s
demanding program. He was ready for such a change, he
says, because "I came directly out of high school
having majored in football and duck hunting."
"The benefits I received from
the College and the tutors there are too numerous to
count," he says. "Great things enrich one’s
life in every way."
One of those "great things"
was meeting fellow schoolmate, Patti (nee Grimm) (’79),
whom he married. They now have ten children and reside
in Duarte, California. Ken and Patti enjoy hiking and
fishing with their children in the High Sierras. For
this real estate appraiser, no price can be put on that.
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