How Do You Figure Distance?

[Ray Miller]

How do you figure distance.

As the crow fly's or the road goes? Which is the correct way??

Across the lake or around the lake. Across the valley or around the valley? Across the river down the road 50 miles to the bridge, cross over and back up the other side.

Iknow in my area there can be large differences in property value, in short distances, everything across the lake might be $40,000 higher, just because it is a longer drive to the other side. Yet when you do comparable's it might be just 2 miles across, when if you go by road, it is 40 miles. There may be comparables on the same side of the lake you are on that are 10 miles by bird, 15/20 miles by road, that are less then across the lake.

 

[Tim Hicks (Texas)]

Straight line distance. The beauty of having a mapping program with your software is if will figure the distance for you as long as you have the properties marked correctly. I never have my distances questioned.

 

[Stone]

crow flies.

 

[CANative]

I'm with the crows.

 

[Richard Carlsen]

Little known fact that crows actually meander as they fly.

I use straight as an arrow flies with the WinTotal mapping program.

 

[xm39hnu]

If the distance is value-influencing, I use the road distance, and say so in the comments, along with the "why".

Recent report's comments read, "All the comparables are 3 miles (more or less) northwest of Savannah, as the crow flies. But as the appraiser drives, they between 10 and 12 miles. They are located on the west bank of the river, and one must cross the bridge at Savannah and travel north to get to them. The shortest route is at present undergoing repairs from the flood this spring, so it is necessary to take a detour. This increases the present distance to the comparbles to around 15 miles. Savannah is the most proximate city in which most amenities are found. Straight line map distance between subject and comparables is shown on the market grid."

We're the external senses of the users of our reports. If something affects value, I include it in the report. I've been criticized for including too much detail in my reports (by the prez of the Appraisers Commission, no less.) In this case, it is a criticism I can live with.

 

[Dee Dee]

I use 'as a crow flies', but have seen where this method has been seriously abused by number hitters with a severe lack of market competence in my area.

Since the topo is mountainous here, roads into individual neighborhoods spur off of the main highway through the valleys, and the neighborhoods can be very different from each other. In a straight line, the distance between two very different neighborhoods might be less than a mile, just on the other side of a mountain, but on the roads driving from the subject to the comp it might be 30+ miles distant. Reviewers looking at a flat location map who don't notice the lack of a linking road between the two neighborhoods can easily be led to believe that the comps are close to one another. Same thing happens when Skippy uses homes that are on paved roads as comps for some switch-backed nightmare 4WD slide-and-die road home. Skippy makes no adjustments , but the market sure recognizes the difference, often in excess of 25% of the home's market value.

Needless to say, I go ballistic when some LO tells me that their 'other appraiser' was able to locate comps only a mile away that will 'justify a higher value'. They speak to me like I'm the rookie child that doesn't know what I'm doing. Even when I try to explain the conflict, they don't want to hear it. They don't care if the forclosure rates in certain neighborhoods are soaring because of it. It's all about making the deal fly under the reviewers noses and collecting that commission check.
Arrrrrrrrgggghhhh! It's just so frustrating!

 

[DB]

I am at one, with the crow....... and a really good mapping program..... :lol:

 

[CANative]

Dee Dee... I know exactly what you mean and much of my area is as you describe. I usually give dirt and gravel road adjustments (up or down) too.

My high tech mapping system: A $10 MicroSoft Streets 'N Trips CD. Works great.

 

[Mike Garrett RAA]

I have always done it in a "straight line"; however, VA once told all of us Colorado appraisers they wanted road miles.