Hi, I'm 20 years old I've been a Porter at a Bodyshop for 1 year and a month now. I'm trying to get into estimating my shop has let me shadow some estimators before and start using the software (CCCOne, Mitchell and Profitnet) I'm pretty good with it. I'd like to get into the role fully with a insurance company as a Auto Damage Appraiser and get my career started I have a few questions below. I'm in North Carolina for reference.
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Can I get hired to a insurance company as a Auto damage appraiser with no experience?
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What Insurance companies will hire me with no experience?
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Do I need need to be licensed or will the company I go with get my licensed and train me?
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What could salary look like for me?
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Would I get a company vehicle? And be on call from a office or my place of residence?
Auto Damage Appraiser Career
byu/Disastrous_Setting_3 inInsurance
Posted by Disastrous_Setting_3
1 Comment
Am a 30-year appraiser. Started at Enterprise doing regular car rental stuff. Got hired by an insurer with no experience and they trained me to do appraising. Quit that to be an independent appraiser. Quit that to move across the country and worked as a shop estimator for four years. Quit that to go back into insurance appraising 14 years ago. Quitting that soon to do something else.
1) Having a year or two in a shop as an estimator is better, but yes some companies hire people with no experience. Some companies only hire experienced reps. Some companies hire a few of both.
2) Read the job postings.
3) Most companies will pay for your training classes and licensing. Licensing requirements are really convoluted. A number of states on the east coast (CT,RI,MA,NH,VT,NY,PA,DE,NC,SC) require motor vehicle damage appraisers to be licensed as appraisers. A number of other states require you to have an adjusters license to do appraisals and/or to carry out “adjusting functions” (like making coverage decisions or writing checks or settling total losses). Some states require both. Some states require neither.
4) IDK what starting pay is nowadays. I assume $50’s or thereabouts. I make $90k after 24 years on & off in the insurance side. There are people here in higher COL states that make more. Companies that offer catastrophe work will pay you more (in exchange for more hours obviously). My inflation adjusted pay in 2002 was $107k in today dollars, with a lot of catastrophe work. Big companies will have dedicated auto catastrophe teams that can handle all but the biggest disasters. Middle-sized companies usually don’t. You’ll commonly get opportunities to go work in disaster zones for several weeks at a time here and there.
You do need a plan B here, like being willing to cross-train as an adjuster or property claims rep or something like that. Many insurers have limited field staff nowadays and are doing everything from photos. It’s actually both really boring and really frustrating if you’ve done the job in the field before. The current simpler estimates are able to be done by AI with enough accuracy that the person at the desk just needs to fine-tune them. I’ve seen near-perfect $5k estimates written by AI so IMO it’s not all that far off from eliminating the need for much staff in the future. Autobody estimating is *way* more interesting and is like 85% the same job. (I’ve done both). You just have crappier hours and worse benefits on the auto body side. Pay can actually be better on the auto body side.