Single Family House Condition Assessment of (Lay) People: Does Experience Matter When Assessing Property Photos

Assessing the condition of a property is an important part of determining its value. To assess the condition of, for example, a house,certain exterior and interior characteristics are evaluated according to a scheme in which each characteristic is weighted for the final condition classification. Since property valuation depends on the experience of the appraiser, professionals and court appraisers predominantly do the determination of a condition classification. A condition assessment can also be made from pictures and does not require an on-site visit. Therefore, this article examines the extent to which students, as a sample of the general population, evaluate the condition of single-family homes based on pictures of the exterior. The student’s population consists of students with no real estate experience, students which are studying in a bachelors’ program in real estate management and students which are studying in the same masters’ program, in both groups there are students which study extra occupationally. The sample composition facilitates the examination of different experience levels. In the next step, we compare the evaluation by students with an evaluation by professional evaluators following the scheme. In addition, we investigate how colours and distance of the photographer, among other factors, affect the condition classification assigned by students. The result of this work will provide information about the extent to which lay people are able to evaluate single-family houses and compare them with professional evaluators and if the wisdom of the crowd comes to a comparable conclusion as the professionals.