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Narrative Writing
Protection from Third-Party Appraisal Report Users
by Administrator on Feb 2, 2014 • Narrative Writing • 2197 Views
SUGGESTION 1: It's my opinion that the best way to make sure that your clients take responsibility for the dissemination or distribution of your appraisal reports is to get them to agree to protect the reports and your firm in writing. I'm not an attorney, and I'm not saying that this blurb that follows will totally protect you, but I have used a similar provision in my engagement letters and it has already kept me out of trouble.
Narrative Report Writing 10 - Layout Enhancements
by Administrator on Feb 24, 2014 • Narrative Writing • 3505 Views
Based on what I have seen over the last year or so the trend in report writing appears to be toward the use of more color and more graphics in appraisal reports. The plain, clean black and white reports that I have always favored are now becoming what you would expect to receive from a stock market brokers offering for an initial public offering (IPO). Apparently many appraisers have reached the point where they feel it has become generally accepted that the research and data used in a appraisal report cannot on its own differentiate its quality, now a reports have to look better than a competitors.
Narrative Report Writing 11 - Addendum
by Administrator on Mar 1, 2014 • Narrative Writing • 2785 Views
Do you include an Addenda or Addendum in your narrative appraisal reports? An Addenda is the plural of "an item of additional material added to the end of a book or other publication," while an Addendum usually indicates one. Since I break my additional areas up into sections with their own headings like "flood maps / soils map" I consider them together the Addenda and not simply one Addendum. If you put everything into one area without separation then you have an Addendum. What do you included in your Addendum? I have looked at many reports and most commercial appraisers include; zoning maps, plat maps, flood maps, engagement letters, surveys, title reports, environmental studies, soils maps, deeds, leases, purchase agreements, assessor data and a wide range of miscellaneous documents that relate to the assignment.
Analyzing Economic Issues in an Appraisal Report
by Administrator on Feb 1, 2015 • Narrative Writing • 1826 Views
Most appraisers write their reports for a single user, or produce a "one off" report. The report may be written for a bank, a government agency, a corporate user or an individual, but generally the report will have a very limited readership. Even if you reuse your economic analysis section over and over for an entire year it is unlikely that it will be seen by more than a few hundred to a few thousand people, even fewer if you realize that relatively few of your clients will actually read what you had to say about the economy.
Identifying Easements for Appraisals
by Administrator on Mar 1, 2015 • Narrative Writing • 1745 Views
I got a title policy the other day on a property that had a major power transmission line traversing it. I looked and looked again when I got the policy but I couldn't find an easement detailed in it that described the transmission line. This wasn't a small transmission line mind you it was big enough to improve a major highway beneath it. Two parallel major 256 kV lines on metal poles that look to be 60' high or higher crossing 330' or more of the subject property. The title company told me that I should contact the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) about the power line easement, they told me that they didn't have any record of it. It's amazing to me that a title insurance company that is supposed to identify the recorded documents that affect a property and guarantee that they have identified all of the factors affecting title could issue a preliminary title report that has absolutely no information on a major transmission line.
Appraisers are Skeptics
by Administrator on Jul 20, 2015 • Narrative Writing • 1738 Views
Real estate appraiser are Skeptics because they simply don’t believe most of what they hear. They are often bombarded by biased opinions, sometimes they are even supplied with sales information that favors a certain outcome. As I have stated before, I am open to the review of any information, supplied by biased parties or not. It doesn’t make me less of a skeptic because I accept and review the information. Thus, being a skeptic as an appraiser means that I don’t just take what other people supply without doing my own research. Well supported evidence that I find and confirm is what I base my value opinions on, and it all goes into my work file. I am always amazed when I find that an appraiser has not put into his or her work file the results of their initial research. When I search I put at least the summary information that displays those results. If I’m looking at land sales and the initial results display 100 properties, I download those search results and save them.
Is Traffic Count Important to Appraisers?
by Bill Rigdon on Aug 18, 2015 • Narrative Writing • 2429 Views
Traffic count is one of the most important factors to consider when valuing some property types like; fast food facilities, pharmacy buildings and convenience stores with or without gas. For other property types like office buildings, industrial buildings and healthcare facilities traffic count is not as important, but automobile and pedestrian traffic count are the lifeblood the most popular and branded retail businesses. Many corporate real property departments can predict with a relatively high degree of certainty what sales volume will be for a product based on traffic count. Of course the product and the brand of the product are just as compelling but if you have the number one top selling burgers or the top grossing c-store chain you will ultimately fail at a location if you have insufficient traffic.
Appraisal Theory versus Reality
by Administrator on Apr 27, 2016 • Narrative Writing • 1892 Views
Most real property appraisers no matter how new to the industry have read about and understand the three approaches to value and they have read about appraisal theory as presented in appraisal textbooks. The approaches are not rocket science it takes a couple of semesters in school to cover all of the appraisal theory material including ethics. If you are one of those individuals who have read or studied appraisal theory you have likely realized that there are a lot of qualifiers associated with the application of any of the "approaches to value." Appraiser consider how to apply appraisal theory to real world problems every time they accept an assignment. The decide how to best solve the appraisal problem or problems. Appraisers generally conclude that the application of the same methodologies with provide credible results, but not always.
Using Ratios and Multipliers in Appraisals
by Administrator on May 23, 2016 • Narrative Writing • 2735 Views
It's not news to most real property appraisers that discovering every possible indicator of value can get you closer to a credible market value opinion. We all know that we consider all three appraisal approaches to value but when buyers and sellers use ratios and multipliers like; floor-area-ratio (FAR), land-to-building ratio, gross income multiplier (GIM) and capitalization rates appraisers must know what's being considered. While ratios and multipliers are usually considered "simplistic" by appraisers they can at times provide an indication as to whether a property is comparable with its peers. Of course there are lots of variables related to the figures being reported like accounting methods and expense manipulations that can skew ratios and multipliers. Ratios and multipliers also tell you only about a property as of a single moment in time and they also do not consider risk or returns over time.
Why Excel Templates Rock for Real Property Appraisers
by Administrator on May 10, 2019 • Narrative Writing • 1248 Views
Has someone been telling you that there are too many errors and inconsistencies for you to use Excel templates? It’s a great statement if you want to get someone’s attention, but the fact of the matter is that there are thousands of people using Excel templates everyday and they don’t suffer from any problems. My experience is that if you develop your own templates you won’t have problems. If you take templates wherever you find, like from Internet sites, then I admit you may run into problems. I have found that “free” templates may have imbedded code that sends your data somewhere that you don’t want it to go.
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