To be an appraiser used to be akin to a specialized artist. There were a million different ways to apply the craft of valuation and each so-called artist had a specific niche to which he or she catered. This is the appraisal environment that Brian Coester, now chief executive officer of Coester Appraisal Group in Rockville, Md., grew up in. His father Timothy Coester, was an appraiser and founded his self-titled company in 1970. Once Brian was old enough to walk, he tagged along on jobs with his father, who had jurisdiction over a district of Washington, D.C., where Coester said he knew each block, street and water main by heart.