Doing it Faster and Better

By Rick Foos, SRA

Here is something we appraisers know all too well: because we sell our opinions of value, our income is limited directly by how many appraisals we can complete in the hours in a day (time is money). So how do we give ourselves a raise? By doing it faster and better.

We try to be as efficient as possible. And we’ve made good progress. Can you imagine how few appraisals you could complete if you had to type everything into a form on a typewriter, take your film to be developed, pick it up and then paste photos onto a form? Then make your maps manually, print out the reports and hand-deliver them? We don’t do things this way any longer because it is inefficient and because there are better alternatives.

This is why we use computers and printers, laser measuring devices, voice recognition software and other labor saving processes.

Laborer or Analyst?
Somewhere in our appraiser training it became ingrained in us that if we do not take a lot of time doing an appraisal, then it can’t be a good appraisal: that there has to be labor involved. But are appraisers paid to be laborers or analysts?

Why do so many appraisers still print off their data, such as MLS and public records, and then retype it into their appraisal reports? If they are in areas where DataMaster is integrated with the local MLS system, they don’t have to anymore. DataMaster is labor-reducing software that imports MLS and public records data for both the subject and comparables directly into appraisal forms.

This powerful software gives you the ability to pick and choose which comparables you want to import and where the data goes in the form. The software allows appraisers to customize and import more data while virtually eliminating typos. So you work faster and better. In addition, by using more data, call backs are reduced significantly.

Rick Foos, SRA is VP Marketing & Sales of DataMaster (www.datamasterusa.com).