Appraisal Articles 2019 Free Appraisal Articles for Appraisers and the Public

Latest News

Note about "Views" reported on this site

Feb 7, 2014

I just want readers, contributors and potential contributors to realize that the...

This Site is Monitored

Dec 28, 2013

Articles that are not deemed contributory are removed from this site promptly, so we would...

New Site Template

Nov 30, 2013

Please pardon our somewhat painful transition, we have been working with Subrion.com...

Appraisal Software

Appraisal Software Compared

by Administrator on Oct 22, 2011 Appraisal Software 2586 Views

What are some of the important differences?  Over the years I have used a number of them and this article provides a few comments.  Let me start by saying that I am not primarily a residential appraiser, I do complete a residential report now and then but sometimes I don't use residential appraisal software for months.  That said, I consider myself to be at least an intermediate level computer user and wave my computer systems degree around to prove it.  After assembler, Basic, C++, java, visual basic and many other related courses I can legitamately claim to be not a beginner.  Add that to the fact that I have been involved with and owned manycomputers since the first Apple, IBM PC and even the old Osborne 1 hit the street, and you get the picture.

Continue reading →

Photometrics

by Administrator on Jun 26, 2012 Appraisal Software 2948 Views

Some appraisal sketch software programs (like Apex and Rapid Sketch) now come with a built-in "Photometics" feature.  The feature allows an appraiser to import a drawing or an aerial photograph and then after establishing a known distance for scale it will provide the approximate distances for other lines (or walls) that you draw in the sketch program.  I have found the feature to be quite useful since it is less likely that as an appraiser I will make a significant mistake in an appraisal report regarding lot size or improvement size if I quickly confirm them using Photometrics.

Continue reading →

Windows 10 Install Failure

by Administrator on Sep 28, 2015 Appraisal Software 1971 Views

I have a relatively new (early 2015) Dell laptop computer that has Windows 7 installed on it, I had Windows 7 installed because Windows 8.1 crashed so severely on an earlier desktop that I bought. The crash cost me $ 300 because I had difficulty getting the machine back to an operational state even when I tried to do a clean install that wiped everything from my machine. I agreed to do the Window 10 install after I got a message offering the free upgrade on my laptop and after I had watched some of the promotional videos. I'm not a computer "expert" but I do have a degree in computer systems, it's not my first rodeo.

Continue reading →

PC to Apple iMac Commercial Appraisals

by Administrator on Oct 14, 2015 Appraisal Software 2066 Views

I recently purchased a basic iMac because I have wanted to get back to an Apple machine after being stuck on the PC platform for years. Actually it's a 27" iMac 5k Retina with only 4 GB or RAM and a 1 Tb HDD. So the first thing I did was to take a number of my commercial work files and transferred them from my PC machine to my iMac. I didn't have any expectations. To answer the question that you many immediately ask, yes I could have simply installed a Windows operating system on a portion of my iMac hard drive and basically used my iMac as a PC. I was however more interested to see if the iMac, without being turned into a PC, could be an alternative to my PC for commercial assignments without being a faux PC.

Continue reading →

Using Third-Party Software

by Administrator on Nov 13, 2015 Appraisal Software 1982 Views

This articles site was implemented on a Subrion.com or Subrion CMS "Premium" PHP articles script. I paid for 5 "licenses" because it was represented to me that I could put up additional templates at a later date. Of course when I asked to put up another template I was told that my license only allowed additional article templates. This is not the first time that I have gone down this road. Interspire.com sold me multiple software packages for significant money and then decided that they were no longer going to support them. Before that I had a third software company that took my money and then couldn't install the site that I wanted and wouldn't refund my money because they had "invested too much time" into trying to make the site work.

Continue reading →

Automated Valuation Models (AVM) – Consistently Wrong Estimates

by Administrator on Jan 28, 2016 Appraisal Software 1694 Views

How many years has it been since you saw the first automated valuation model online? It’s been quite a while I can tell you and they are not without their benefits. It’s easy to look at your neighborhood and even your home online and get an idea about what is going on. The sites provide listings, pending sales and even sales information in seconds is all up there at your fingertips, but will their estimate give you an accurate sense of market value. The answer is no and even the major online sites admit that they don’t do a very good job of estimating value. Why don’t the online sites do a good job of estimating value? It simple really, real estate markets are dynamic they are constantly changing. As soon as the computer model says properties are up 1.0% and they add that to the sales they deem comparable the market has moved in the opposite direction and the AVM may be off by 20%.

Continue reading →