Narrative Software or Sticking with Word?

[Terrel L. Shields]

All my residential reports are narrative. I haven't renewed my software since my helper left and I probably take about 15 minutes more with a narrative than I do with forms and I don't clone anything. For small farms, apartments, etc., the form would be much slower for me. It is all driven by templates. In fact, if you wanted to go to the tedious task of advanced formatting you could create 1004-like forms in Excel (and many other spreadsheets), Word, or WordPerfect. So....?

 

[residentialguy]

All my residential reports are narrative. I haven't renewed my software since my helper left and I probably take about 15 minutes more with a narrative than I do with forms and I don't clone anything. For small farms, apartments, etc., the form would be much slower for me. It is all driven by templates. In fact, if you wanted to go to the tedious task of advanced formatting you could create 1004-like forms in Excel (and many other spreadsheets), Word, or WordPerfect. So....?

I'm not talking about using the form, just the additional comments page, which is essentially like using Word. The advantage is the software, should you have it, has automatic location mapping, zoning, photo pages, sketching...etc

 

[Stone]

Have you ever done residential? I would imagine that you have. I would also bet that you used a residential software. :icon_idea:

I'll spell it out for you. If you already have residential software, (and most CGs I know have) you can use it for commercial. It will give you more features than MS Word.

However, if you want to use word, and do everything manually...maps, photos, etc....be my guest :new_smile-l:

Once you have templates set up, most of the automatic stuff really isn't of any help. When appraising many commercial tracts there frequently is no such thing as automatic mapping or zoning since you may not be using an address. And, even if you have a property/building with an address, zoning requires more than just a brief mention.

Plus, if you are using data sheets for every sale it would be really clunky to try and integrate it into a comments page.

The two things I could see being easier are photos and sketching. Neither of those is a big enough issue to warrant doing it the way you describe. It isn't that hard to stick a file from Apex into a report.

I'm not trying to be snide, ResGuy, but what you are suggesting really isn't something that is practical for those who do this all the time. In reality, the options are to use a program designed specifically with commercial narratives in mind or use a word program. I prefer the latter because most of my properties don't really fit the standard "commercial" people think of and programs would tend to be designed to handle. But, if I wanted to use a program it wouldn't be a residential one.

FTR - I did do residential but do not currently have any sort of residential software - when I do a residential report now it is in word and it doesn't really look anything like one of the forms. Many of the CGs I know (actually, most who I know well) do not have residential programs. One I know who used to do residential some uses a photo template page from a res. program but, that is the only one I know. As I mentioned before, I can see that as being easier than sticking them into a word doc, but that is about it. Commercial people in shops would likely have access to residential programs, but again, nobody is pumping out commercial reports using residential program comments pages.

I'm not clear why you are digging in your heels about this beyond trying to prove you are right. There are a bunch of reasons this wasn't mentioned as an option by people who do commercial narratives, and I'm guessing it would be difficult to find anyone suggesting it in prior threads.

 

[residentialguy]

Sorry. Trying to be helpful and save a lil money for my CG friends.

Live & learn, I guess. Don't worry, I'm out...air's too thin up here.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Word Perfect is $39 on Amazon. What software beats that?

 

[Stone]

Sorry. Trying to be helpful and save a lil money for my CG friends.

Live & learn, I guess. Don't worry, I'm out...air's too thin up here.

Yeah, I definitely don't get the snark.

I'd hardly sit and argue with residential appraisers about what the best software is - at most I'd mention that I previously had good experience with A La Mode even though we are a couple generations past the last version I used (Athena). Nothing was condescending about any of the replies - it just wasn't a practical solution and I tried to explain the reasons.

 

[GregoryK]

Easy way to handle photos in word. I create a 3x 5 table for four photos or a 3x9 table for six photos. Top row is photos with center column for spacing as is every third row. Every second row is for text. Stet the size of the cells to the size you want your photos. Save as an auto text feature or create a button to insert on the ribbon. Then insert the photo table and if you use the insert photo command the photos will size to fit in the designated cell in table. Simple procedure. You can do the same for maps or other exhibits.

If you use excel for adjustments etc- import the address into a separate twirl sheet then Delorme can import them and map each. Takes a little practice but can be done easily. Or if you are using costar- you can easily export the geocordinates into a worksheet then import into Delorme.

 

[Stone]

Easy way to handle photos in word. I create a 3x 5 table for four photos or a 3x9 table for six photos. Top row is photos with center column for spacing as is every third row. Every second row is for text. Stet the size of the cells to the size you want your photos. Save as an auto text feature or create a button to insert on the ribbon. Then insert the photo table and if you use the insert photo command the photos will size to fit in the designated cell in table. Simple procedure. You can do the same for maps or other exhibits.

If you use excel for adjustments etc- import the address into a separate twirl sheet then Delorme can import them and map each. Takes a little practice but can be done easily. Or if you are using costar- you can easily export the geocordinates into a worksheet then import into Delorme.

I used to play around a lot with photo sizes and layout but don't so much anymore. I've claimed I'm going to set up photo templates before but never do. Maybe this will be the time.

 

[Stone]

All my residential reports are narrative. I haven't renewed my software since my helper left and I probably take about 15 minutes more with a narrative than I do with forms and I don't clone anything. For small farms, apartments, etc., the form would be much slower for me. It is all driven by templates. In fact, if you wanted to go to the tedious task of advanced formatting you could create 1004-like forms in Excel (and many other spreadsheets), Word, or WordPerfect. So....?

I've had people ask for our templates before to help with theirs and always say no. I'll gladly share data but not that. No chance.

 

[John Glass]

For our reports we use Word and Excel with cells and tables in Excel linked to Word templates...over the years, we have developed several Word templates for the different property types, i.e. agriculture, industrial, Yellow Book, etc.; these are linked to general Excel workbooks that are customized for the specific property types...

I like databases (we use Datacomp for commercial and AgWare Datalog for farmland sales); even though our geographic area involves several states, I find it easier to enter the sale data into database fields than trying to use a word template...also, it makes it easier to find sales when a friend is looking for sales in the database rather than looking through several reports...

I have tried several of the report writing programs; I believe that most are very good, but do seem to take a long time to customize for specialized properties...

I have been using Word and Excel linked for about five years. The excel workbook populates the Word template with most of the variable items for each property type. Saves me hours and hours on each report, compared to non linked reporting.