Google StreetView Maps-No Need to Drive SP or Comps?

[LA Woman]

While looking at how Google Street ViewMaps work, I was able to pull up my friends street and "drive" down this street, having perfect views of everything, every property on this street.

How long before skippy figures out how to copy and past these images and use them instead of driving the subject and the comps?

The Future is knocking at the door and real appraisers are not going to be needed or wanted, hell they don't want a real appraisal now do they? All the need is an AVM and the google street view.

 

[G-man]

You have no idea the power of the Dark Side!

I have mentioned this before, and I'll repeat it here. Is it becoming less necessary to drive comps, especially with $3.50+ gas prices, stagnent or lower fees and pressure for faster turn times.
In three of the areas I cover, the auditors/assessors website includes at least a front photo of all residential properties. Two of them include front, back & all outbuildings, etc. This is far better than me just shooting a front photo of the comp. Also consider that with Google Earth or similar web based tools, I can not only view the subject & comps but also what surrounds it to give me a good idea of any external factors. Unless my appraiser vehicle is either a jet pack or helicopter, you can't do better with just driving by the home.
I know USPAP takes no stand on driving your comps, it is within the certs of the Fannie Mae forms that you view the exterior of each comp. sale. Maybe it is time for this to be modified to include web based viewing, if applicable.

 

[LA Woman]

Banks dont need any stinkin

G-Man, My point exactly!

We are being put out of business by technology. Regardless of the quality of product that results from the new techno stuff, banks want their information fast and cheap.....and good appraisers are neither!

I posted sometime ago my analogy, that the Street Lamp Lighters of yesteryear (that walked on stilts and lit all the gas street lamps) didnt think that there was anyway that they could be replaced either! But history and technology proved them wrong.

We are next and and are not willing to admit it. We keep telling ourselves that "there will ALWAYS be a need for an appraisal on atypical/rural/fill in the blank, type properties".

Wake up and smell the future of mortgage lending....it doesnt include appraisers!

No I am not being negative, I am being realistic.

 

[Tom Barclay]

Some problems with that though is the effective date of your data for sites such as Google. Exactly when was the image created? Don't know if I'd like to have to answer to a court, or a state board that I viewed the comp from space at an unknown date in the past only to find out that the image was of a different home/site, or the aerial view did not show some significant damage/condition that would have been visible from the street. And there is nothing like the "noise" factor. Neighboring property conditions, lots of able bodied 30 year olds hanging around on porches(obviously they have the "day off") at 10am on a Wed. morning, etc. We are supposed to discover and relate all of those factors to the subject property. Faster, and cheaper will allow an appraisal with dubious reliability, and allow Skippy to appraise in markets they are not familiar with. Very large potential for abuse. But I guess you could just "scope it away".

 

[Riick]

Buggy Whip manufacturers ....in the early days of the Ford Model T
.

 

[Mike Garrett RAA]

Re-read your certification.

 

[PLCG]

I have mentioned this before, and I'll repeat it here. Is it becoming less necessary to drive comps, especially with $3.50+ gas prices, stagnent or lower fees and pressure for faster turn times.
In three of the areas I cover, the auditors/assessors website includes at least a front photo of all residential properties. Two of them include front, back & all outbuildings, etc. This is far better than me just shooting a front photo of the comp. Also consider that with Google Earth or similar web based tools, I can not only view the subject & comps but also what surrounds it to give me a good idea of any external factors. Unless my appraiser vehicle is either a jet pack or helicopter, you can't do better with just driving by the home.
I know USPAP takes no stand on driving your comps, it is within the certs of the Fannie Mae forms that you view the exterior of each comp. sale. Maybe it is time for this to be modified to include web based viewing, if applicable.

You do realize no one needs you to do this don't you.? That kind of appraisal can be done for way less than you are being paid, and very efficiently, by someone in India who is making big bucks by their standards. m2:

 

[Stephen J. Vertin MAI]

It seems you have so little faith in what you do and its value. Frankly I am surprised. No wonder so many are pressured to shoot for values. Take heart friends. Photographs are simply an addendum item. I think the technology is a blessing. Someone in India? Come on.

You are hired for your ability to interpret data. I have been hearing the sky is falling for residential appraisers since the 1980's. The residential side of the business has always been cyclical. A bunch of people come in during good times a lot go out during bad.

It is not just appraisers, I have never seen the cynicism so high in the US. There are so many opportunities out there.

 

[G-man]

I think I'm being mis-understood

I am not talking about viewing the subject via the internet or some desk top appraisal. There is no comparison between me actually walking through a property to relying solely on courthouse data & the internet. What I am saying is that the idea of driving comparable sales may be becoming as obsolete as those people lighting lamps & making buggy whips due to advances in technology.
This is coming from someone who just drove 230 miles yesterday viewing three properties & driving many rural county roads viewing ALL of my comps. So please don't think I'm slacking my responsibilties as an appraiser by not viewing my comps and using just MLS/Auditors photos. I do data base my photos a re-use them constantly. I'm not about to re-drive every comp I use in a report. I use listed sales almost exclusively, and rely on the Realtors pictures and descriptions of the exterior/interior far more than a front exterior photo to get a sense of condition & updates of a property.
It is just that, in my market, there are many sources to rely on for at least the front photo of a house, plus overhead views to determine if there is any external obsolescence. And things such as "idle" teenagers or smells, etc. are indeterminate and may come and go depending on time of day, wind direction and if a police cruiser just went down the street. These things come and go, but the nuclear power plant or tire dump a 1/2 mile down the street pretty much stays put.
Again, the point I'm trying to make is not that we as appraisers are becoming obsolete in any way, the current housing mess points that out, it is that driving all comparable sales is becoming redundant with all of the current technology that is or will be available.
I think this is the longest post I've ever written on this forum.

 

[Smokey Bear]

Google Maps still identifies my old house as being in the middle of the block, when it's on the corner. They don't have a street view yet, but I wonder if they'll figure it out. Funny thing is - my name is Hamilton, and the house they say was mine is owned by the Hamiltons down the street.