Leveraging Our IT Challenge Into Our Competitive Advantage
If history has taught us anything it is that change is a constant and that nothing stays the same for long. The weather changes every day, people are evolving, cities are growing, houses are being renovated, and technology is expanding at an exponential rate. These technological improvements have finally arrived at Patrick F. Casey & Associates, Real Property Appraisers. Our goal and our challenge is to leverage these emerging technologies into a competitive advantage that will allow us to increase our market share, add value for our clients, and make life easier for our appraisal staff.
Even though change can be a scary proposition, great rewards lie ahead for those who are willing and able to adapt to and embrace these new challenges. In my first blog I discussed some of the more recent improvements in appraisal related technology which included digital photography, laser measuring devices, and personal digital assistants (PDA's), and how they have contributed to streamlining the appraisal process. In this second installment I discuss how we plan to integrate these and other recent advances into our appraisals in order to reduce turnaround times and lower cost.
In the past clients phoned the office, spoke to the secretary who then transferred the call to the appraiser who then answered the clients questions about appraisals in general and how our office did appraisals, how long it would take, how much it would cost, and then, if we were lucky (and still awake) we often took the order. A tedious process for both the client and the firm that was an inefficient use of everyone's resources.
Once our digital office is in place our website will answer all these questions about who what, where, how much, what kind, etc. creating a much more efficient and better organized information delivery system. Our clients will appreciate it and our staff will love us for it.
In addition, the web site will enable our clients to order appraisals without even calling the office and to do so any time they want, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. No need to call the office at all anymore, just a couple clicks on our website and "wa-la" the appraisal is ordered and being processed. The client even gets a receipt so they have a record of when the appraisal was ordered and what it cost.
The website automatically sends the appraisal request via email to the firm's production manager who receives it on her web-enabled smart phone. She then emails the order to the web-enabled mobile device of the appraiser who will be doing the assignment.
The appraiser receives the order on her mobile 3G device (Smartphone, laptop, Netbook, or the new I-Pad!), connects to the local MLS residential database on the same 3G mobile device from wherever she is, downloads the subject and comparable data, makes the appointment, and inspects the house using a hand-held Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) or I-Pad using her direct-entry, hand-held finger. Along the way she is taking the digital photos and measuring the house using the Disto Laser Measuring tool. The Disto tool is pure genius. Not only does it measure the house but it also records the sketch automatically using the measurement inputs. Once completed the Disto downloads both the measurements and sketch to the PDA (or I-Pad) using wireless Bluetooth technology.
After inspecting the comps she downloads the data from the PDA to her device of choice (laptop, Netbook or I-Pad) via a very fast Firewire connection. Her appraisal software automatically transfers and populates all the appraisal forms on her chosen device (laptop, Netbook or I-Pad) with all the data, photos, measurements, sketch, etc. and she only needs to double-check the report for errors, digitally sign it, and upload it to the clients email address. Start to finish the entire process might be accomplished in as little as five hours.
Admittedly this is the ideal situation and probably not how most appraisal's will go but the technologies involved are not new, all have been in place for many years now (digital photography, mapping downloads, wireless bluetooth, laser measuring devices, 3G networks, Smartphones, laptops, etc.). The only new part is the process wherein we put them all together and it is this
new procedure that will create our competitive advantage and add value for our clients.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Hitler Rants About Changes in the Appraisal Industry
Many appraisers are upset about some of the recent changes in the regulatory landscape that the appraisal community must work within, and justifiability so. Several short videos express their feelings of outrage over these changes. They are pretty funny. I have provided links to two of these videos below. However before you watch them you need a brief primer on one of these recent changes which is addressed in the video in order to appreciate the humor.
Andrew Cuomo, the Attorney General of New York, sued Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac because he felt that they were allowing lenders to pressure appraisers into inflating housing values. It was his opinion that it was these inflated housing values (the housing bubble) that lead to the current housing and banking crisis. The suit was settled when Fannie and Freddie agreed to comply with his mandate known as the Housing Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) that basically says that lenders can no longer order appraisals directly from appraisers. Instead from now on (for loans sold to Fannie and Freddie) a disinterested third party (an intermediary) must stand between the lender and appraiser. These intermediaries are known as Appraisal Management Companies (AMC's).
The concensus within the appraisal industry is that these AMC's contribute virtually nothing to the appraisal value chain yet are responsible for large increases in the cost of an appraisal meanwhile they pay the appraiser next to nothing.
Now for the fun, check out these two short videos. They are pretty funny but then again I am an appraiser and this may just be "appraisal humor" that might only be funny to another appraiser. I'll let you decide.
BPO = Real Estate Broker's Price Opinion (a poor mans appraisal, can sometimes be allowed instead of a real appraisal)
Videos:
The HVCC ruins Hitler's Day
The HVCC ruins Hitler's Dinner
Andrew Cuomo, the Attorney General of New York, sued Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac because he felt that they were allowing lenders to pressure appraisers into inflating housing values. It was his opinion that it was these inflated housing values (the housing bubble) that lead to the current housing and banking crisis. The suit was settled when Fannie and Freddie agreed to comply with his mandate known as the Housing Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) that basically says that lenders can no longer order appraisals directly from appraisers. Instead from now on (for loans sold to Fannie and Freddie) a disinterested third party (an intermediary) must stand between the lender and appraiser. These intermediaries are known as Appraisal Management Companies (AMC's).
The concensus within the appraisal industry is that these AMC's contribute virtually nothing to the appraisal value chain yet are responsible for large increases in the cost of an appraisal meanwhile they pay the appraiser next to nothing.
Now for the fun, check out these two short videos. They are pretty funny but then again I am an appraiser and this may just be "appraisal humor" that might only be funny to another appraiser. I'll let you decide.
BPO = Real Estate Broker's Price Opinion (a poor mans appraisal, can sometimes be allowed instead of a real appraisal)
Videos:
The HVCC ruins Hitler's Day
The HVCC ruins Hitler's Dinner
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Info Tech (IT) Is Revolutionizing the Appraisal Industry
The future has finally arrived here at Patrick F. Casey and Associates, Real Estate Appraisers, and not a moment too soon. Long gone are the days of film cameras, clipboards, and cumbersome big-wheel measuring devices. Today technology reigns supreme. The pencil, paper, and clipboard have been replaced by the stylus and hand-held, web-enabled Personal Data Assistant (PDA) . The film camera is also gone forever, replaced by digital photography and the megapixel, and the big-wheeled building measuring tool (that can't be used in the snow) has been replaced by the pocket-sized, laser measuring device which can give us accurate measurements without even getting near the building we are measuring. Imagine measuring the comparable sales without even getting out of the car; and getting more accurate answers to boot. Even the ubiquitous mouse and keyboard have been replaced by the auto-entry features of the stylus and PDA or new Apple I-Pad which automatically loads data into the correct place on the appraisal forms using our vendor's proprietary software and your finger. Who ever thought the mouse and keyboard would be obsolete this soon?
We can even deliver the completed report to the client electronically via the internet using our mobile wireless 3G internet connection. Perhaps the best news is that we can now do the entire appraisal report from start to finish including accepting the order and delivering the report to the client while we are still in the field. The client can have a hard copy of the finished report in his hands within minutes of our seeing the subject and comparables. Appraisal reports that use to take days can now be completed and delivered within hours.
I think I know what you may be thinking, all this sounds good on paper but realistically, how practical will all this new technology be for the average appraiser and, as importantly, how much are the "switching costs"? Nothing is worse than making a significant investment in technology only to discover that it doesn't work as advertised, is incorrectly designed in the first place, or is incompatible with our other technologies. The good news is that this "new" technology has been around for several years and in some cases for decades. Cell phones are now more common than land lines and computer tech is so cheap and easy to use that even very young children are now computer literate. The other good news would include the fact that software is becoming easier and more intuitive to use. DOS is dead, long live the Graphical User Interface (GUI). For you "newbies" out there the GUI was first introduced by Apple on their personal computers and was later adopted by Microsoft who call it "Windows" - you may have heard of it. Also on the good news side of the ledger is the fact that the overall costs of IT are constantly declining and so our hardware costs are now significantly less than what they were only several years ago.
The bad news is that these new processes will naturally involve the purchase of new hardware and of course the time we must invest in learning how to use it. We are investigating several of the new mobile platforms for these new procedures including Apple's new I-Pad, Netbooks, the ubiquitous laptop, the more popular PDA's, and several other point of sale devices. While no final decisions have been made yet I am confident that, like the digital camera, you will find that the coming changes will save you copious amounts of time, will be easy to learn, reasonably priced, and, most importantly, very profitable to use.
Below are links to the new tools we will be using:
All About Laser Distance Measuring Tools
Some Laser Measuring Devices
The future has finally arrived here at Patrick F. Casey and Associates, Real Estate Appraisers, and not a moment too soon. Long gone are the days of film cameras, clipboards, and cumbersome big-wheel measuring devices. Today technology reigns supreme. The pencil, paper, and clipboard have been replaced by the stylus and hand-held, web-enabled Personal Data Assistant (PDA) . The film camera is also gone forever, replaced by digital photography and the megapixel, and the big-wheeled building measuring tool (that can't be used in the snow) has been replaced by the pocket-sized, laser measuring device which can give us accurate measurements without even getting near the building we are measuring. Imagine measuring the comparable sales without even getting out of the car; and getting more accurate answers to boot. Even the ubiquitous mouse and keyboard have been replaced by the auto-entry features of the stylus and PDA or new Apple I-Pad which automatically loads data into the correct place on the appraisal forms using our vendor's proprietary software and your finger. Who ever thought the mouse and keyboard would be obsolete this soon?
We can even deliver the completed report to the client electronically via the internet using our mobile wireless 3G internet connection. Perhaps the best news is that we can now do the entire appraisal report from start to finish including accepting the order and delivering the report to the client while we are still in the field. The client can have a hard copy of the finished report in his hands within minutes of our seeing the subject and comparables. Appraisal reports that use to take days can now be completed and delivered within hours.
I think I know what you may be thinking, all this sounds good on paper but realistically, how practical will all this new technology be for the average appraiser and, as importantly, how much are the "switching costs"? Nothing is worse than making a significant investment in technology only to discover that it doesn't work as advertised, is incorrectly designed in the first place, or is incompatible with our other technologies. The good news is that this "new" technology has been around for several years and in some cases for decades. Cell phones are now more common than land lines and computer tech is so cheap and easy to use that even very young children are now computer literate. The other good news would include the fact that software is becoming easier and more intuitive to use. DOS is dead, long live the Graphical User Interface (GUI). For you "newbies" out there the GUI was first introduced by Apple on their personal computers and was later adopted by Microsoft who call it "Windows" - you may have heard of it. Also on the good news side of the ledger is the fact that the overall costs of IT are constantly declining and so our hardware costs are now significantly less than what they were only several years ago.
The bad news is that these new processes will naturally involve the purchase of new hardware and of course the time we must invest in learning how to use it. We are investigating several of the new mobile platforms for these new procedures including Apple's new I-Pad, Netbooks, the ubiquitous laptop, the more popular PDA's, and several other point of sale devices. While no final decisions have been made yet I am confident that, like the digital camera, you will find that the coming changes will save you copious amounts of time, will be easy to learn, reasonably priced, and, most importantly, very profitable to use.
Below are links to the new tools we will be using:
All About Laser Distance Measuring Tools
Some Laser Measuring Devices
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