Creative Solutions Needed ! The Changing Appraisal Market

"The residential appraisal community in the US has become unable to respond to their clients needs in terms of fees and speed of delivery, and is experiencing loss of market share to more abbreviated appraisal products as well as automated valuation models. There needs to be a change in the way professional valuers are approaching their market. The old methods and attitudes are no longer what their clients need to stay competitive, particularly in a down market where lenders are competing for a much smaller pool of borrowers. This paper examines a case study of a company based in Calgary Canada that has expanded into the US marketing to provide appraisers with new tools to compete with instant value AVMs through the use of technology and innovative techniques. This company has devised a method of dividing up markets into ""zones"" and through mass appraisal methodology, provides the zone appraiser with the ability to value and photograph every property in advance - known as ""preappraising"". In addition, the system allows for major database improvement over existing public records and provides a new source of income to the appraiser through marketing of the photograph and data itself. This paper reviews this Preappraisal concept in a case study format and further discusses the market needs for revamping what the appraisal industry provides to their mortgage lender client base."