SFREP Users Feedback

[Stephen D Ihrig II]

I have been a reluctant and frustrated subscriber to ACI for almost 20 years. The appraiser who trained me used ACI and I have dealt with this archaic software ever since for form appraisals. ACI now crashes 3-8+ times for every form appraisal I write. My fonts in templates default to ACI's preferred font removing all bold, italic and font sizes. The comp finder function and comp database are glitchy and cumbersome at best. Web updates and "fixes" provided by tech support don't solve the problems. It is now to the point that the time needed to correct all the deficiencies in the software for a single report is similar enough to the estimated time needed for a learning curve for new software. Meaning, I no longer will take a large hit in productivity by switching software providers.

I am in the beginning stages of shopping around. I like SFREP on the surface. Any users here that can provide feedback on SFREP?

Thank you for your time!

Steve

Stephen D Ihrig II, SRA
SDI Appraisal

 

[Bobby Bucks]

I've been using SFREP for over 20 years and am very satisfied. In short, it's stable, you can use the basic version or opt for the bells and whistles if you wish, not because it's required. The reason SFREP isn't discussed as much on appraiser sites as the other software products is because it rarely has issues. They're upfront about costs and products, you never get any of the shell game hucksterism that some of the software companies practice.

 

[Stephen D Ihrig II]

Do you use the basic version or did you add all the "bells and whistles"?

I am sure you are very busy so thank you for your feedback!

Steve

Stephen D Ihrig II, SRA
SDI Appraisal

 

[Bobby Bucks]

I have the basic/classic version, it's around $50 a month.

 

[Elliott]

I've had it for 25+ years, along with Apex. You have to get the basic suite, including Comp Manager. They have more forms covered than Carter has pills. It supports all the delivery protocols. The staff is very good. Support is excellent. Whenever I've had an issue, I would get a call back within 10-minutes and they'd pull up my screen and usually say, "Wow, you use some strange colors." You can write basic programs to do routine tasks, like pre-fill in forms, like comps or listings, but it might take you a few hours to write, and you can export data into Excel, which is great for keeping a ledger about the reports youve done. So its not perfect coming out of the box, but you can make it better. They use to have a re-calc feature which you could hit at the end which would update all the math, but it got lost at some point and was very useful.

Good program, good company. I think they are moving to a cloud product too.

 

[Stephen D Ihrig II]

I've had it for 25+ years, along with Apex. You have to get the basic suite, including Comp Manager. They have more forms covered than Carter has pills. It supports all the delivery protocols. The staff is very good. Support is excellent. Whenever I've had an issue, I would get a call back within 10-minutes and they'd pull up my screen and usually say, "Wow, you use some strange colors." You can write basic programs to do routine tasks, like pre-fill in forms, like comps or listings, but it might take you a few hours to write, and you can export data into Excel, which is great for keeping a ledger about the reports youve done. So its not perfect coming out of the box, but you can make it better. They use to have a re-calc feature which you could hit at the end which would update all the math, but it got lost at some point and was very useful.

Good program, good company. I think they are moving to a cloud product too.

Great feedback - Thank you very much!

Steve

Stephen D Ihrig II, SRA
SDI Appraisal

 

[Randall Garrett]

I've had it for 25+ years, along with Apex. You have to get the basic suite, including Comp Manager. They have more forms covered than Carter has pills. It supports all the delivery protocols. The staff is very good. Support is excellent. Whenever I've had an issue, I would get a call back within 10-minutes and they'd pull up my screen and usually say, "Wow, you use some strange colors." You can write basic programs to do routine tasks, like pre-fill in forms, like comps or listings, but it might take you a few hours to write, and you can export data into Excel, which is great for keeping a ledger about the reports youve done. So its not perfect coming out of the box, but you can make it better. They use to have a re-calc feature which you could hit at the end which would update all the math, but it got lost at some point and was very useful.

Good program, good company. I think they are moving to a cloud product too.

Hey Elliott, FWIW, Apex also has a web version that we call (internally) "AvX" - i.e. a version that works on iPads, Andriod and Windows tablets - but it does not require a connection to "the cloud" to operate while in the field Of course, it can use an internet connection when appropriate, but does not require it except when one might want to sync things with your system. IMHO, requiring a constant internet connection is not "field friendly" in all locations (we have a lot of users who have "spotty at best" internet connectivity while in the field), so AvX just "checks in" whenever you do have a reliable connection. Right now, this version is used primarily by jurisdictional type customers (i.e. Assessment departments) but I've been pushing to get this released for Fee Appraisers, too, and I believe the folks that carry on communications with our various Fee Appraiser Integration Partners (SFREP, ALM, Bradford, etc.) either are now or will be soon discussing "integration" methodologies. Of course, just like all previous versions of Apex, using it without integration ("stand-alone mode") and using "Copy/Paste" is always possible but most users really want the integration we introduced way back circa 1985, so I believe that is the main thing holding it back from being publicly introduced since we've always preferred to work hand-in-hand with our integration partners vs. go it alone...

Hope this helps!

-Randall Garrett-
+Apex Software+
/end/

 

[Sadie]

I have been a reluctant and frustrated subscriber to ACI for almost 20 years. The appraiser who trained me used ACI and I have dealt with this archaic software ever since for form appraisals. ACI now crashes 3-8+ times for every form appraisal I write. My fonts in templates default to ACI's preferred font removing all bold, italic and font sizes. The comp finder function and comp database are glitchy and cumbersome at best. Web updates and "fixes" provided by tech support don't solve the problems. It is now to the point that the time needed to correct all the deficiencies in the software for a single report is similar enough to the estimated time needed for a learning curve for new software. Meaning, I no longer will take a large hit in productivity by switching software providers.

I am in the beginning stages of shopping around. I like SFREP on the surface. Any users here that can provide feedback on SFREP?

Thank you for your time!

Steve

Stephen D Ihrig II, SRA
SDI Appraisal

I have used ACI for over 20 years and have not had the problems you have had. Software glitches can be frustrating. I would check your computer and see if maybe a anti virus or security program is causing problems. That can cause the problems you are having. You don't want to go to all the hassle of changing programs and not solve the problem. The last time I shopped around I found there were things I liked about ACI that other providers didn't have and vise versa. I just stayed with ACI, the devil I do know.