How to build your own appraisal form in Excel (a primer with pics)

[Renee Healion]

Don't want to interrupt but in case anyone else has this issue, I had to remove sf from the number cells to get the equation then to work
so I changed the label to Living Area in SF, etc

 

[George Hatch]

Now I'm going to show you how to write a simple sensitivity analysis:

You can put it anywhere, but because this grid is real short I'm just going to put it below the grid. Go to B12

Maximum
Minimum
Variance
%Variance

Then in the C column and starting with C12
=max(E9:K9)
=min(E9:K9)
=C12-C13
=C14/C12

You're telling the spreadsheet to pick the maximum number among the range of adjusted value indicators (c12), the minimum number (c13) and the difference between the two as a number (C14) and a percentage (C15).

Now you can go up to the adjustment factors in C5 and C6 and work those until you find the combination that prompts for the most convergence. That's a sensitivity analysis, and you can add as many variables to it as you want because - you control the grid, right? You just add lines between line 5 and line 6 and they'll automatically be included in the math.

So far there's nothing that you've told the spreadsheet to do that you can't duplicate with a calculator, and as far as the sensitivity analysis itself goes you can do that outside of a "form" in any of your regular assignments.

 

[George Hatch]

Anyways, those are the basics of form design. You can do other things like add headers and pagination that will work automatically instead of being transfers in the cells. If you build a page in one file you can copy the whole thing and paste it into another file. You can add or subtract pages, you can add or subtract fields in your grids. Once you control the format you can say only what you want to say and refrain from saying (and having to explain or clarify) anything you don't want to say.

You can also download directly from the MLS or some of the public records databases and do transfers to populate your forms - if you trust those data sources that much.

You just can't interface with the various portals without getting really serious about the file formats.

 

[Thomas Holding]

I love Excel. It is one of the most useful tools ever developed. I have done what you did and have essentially made my own form filling software by combining different calculation tools to determine just about any adjustment needed for both residential and commercial appraisal. With a little bit of programming there is not much you can't make Excel do. Heck, I was even able to make a small program that calculated the distance between the subject and the comparable properties and then plot them on a Google map. You can make your own cost estimator using any available cost data source. If I ever have the extra time I want to play around with exporting data in xml formats to see if it could be compatible with various appraisal portals.