Taking voice notes during inspection?

[Zoe]

That guy I worked with owned an office building and rented out offices to lawyers and other professionals. The secretary worked for several of the tenants. He didn't have a private secretary for appraisals. They shared the secretary. I used her sometimes. If he had something for her type, his got moved to the front of her to do list.

 

[Zoe]

He had like 15 residential appraisers working for him at one time. He and I only worked on commercial. That was before I ever started working with him. I know several of the appraisers that worked with him and then went out on their own.

 

[TC]

My phone is a phone. My camera is a camera. Never the twain shall meet. I am going back to a folding dumb phone the moment I retire. A phone is a poor excuse for a computer.

And I use a small video/voice recorder that clips to my pocket protector. I use a nerd pocket because it stiffens the shirt pocket and gets a better picture. I can also clip it to my cap and rotate the lens out to view ahead. A GoPro would work as well.
View attachment 105596

All you need is the Disto red glasses to complete the nerd appraiser look.

 

[J Grant]

I use an iPhone for my photos. I believe my software provider has a way to integrate the photo placement on its mobile app, which I might try at some point. I am so busy now that I can not invest time in it - busy means 5-7 a week. ( busy for me) When slow, it is 2-3 a week. I would not trust an app to assign the quality and condition ratings from the photos. Not until it becomes the norm and even then I might disagree what it comes out with.

I frankly don't get why tech folks think that appraisers need yet another time saver for tasks like the inspection. We do not typically do a high volume of inspections a week, where a minor time at inspection or downloading matters. Our goal is not a lightning-fast inspection. The goal is to gather information and observe the condition and details during our only time inside the property. The things appraisers really need, tech people cannot provide (no offense). But that is the truth: tech people cannot chase down people to make appointments, verify information, or resolve the complex issues that can arise during an appraisal and after the report is delivered, it can not respond to a review or ROV.

 

[cashcatz]

I use an iPhone for my photos. I believe my software provider has a way to integrate the photo placement on its mobile app, which I might try at some point.

You're not using the software provider's way of integrating the photo placement in the mobile app because it's just not designed well (I think you are talking about TOTAL). It should be intuitive with little learning curve.

I would not trust an app to assign the quality and condition ratings from the photos.

Nor should you, this would just be an initial classification (that takes your voice memo segment from photo time as authority if you use that optional feature). Then the appraiser can swipe through photos to change in a single tap or by voice, the details of a photo.

I frankly don't get why tech folks think that appraisers need yet another time saver for tasks like the inspection.

Nearly all the UAD 3.6 discussions on here talk about how much of a PITA collecting all the data during the inspection will be now. Juggling voice recorders, notepads, cameras, etc then having to get all that into the report back in the office vs semi-automating it in a single tool.

 

[TerryRohrer]

I use an iPhone for my photos. I believe my software provider has a way to integrate the photo placement on its mobile app, which I might try at some point. I am so busy now that I can not invest time in it - busy means 5-7 a week. ( busy for me) When slow, it is 2-3 a week. I would not trust an app to assign the quality and condition ratings from the photos. Not until it becomes the norm and even then I might disagree what it comes out with.

I frankly don't get why tech folks think that appraisers need yet another time saver for tasks like the inspection. We do not typically do a high volume of inspections a week, where a minor time at inspection or downloading matters. Our goal is not a lightning-fast inspection. The goal is to gather information and observe the condition and details during our only time inside the property. The things appraisers really need, tech people cannot provide (no offense). But that is the truth: tech people cannot chase down people to make appointments, verify information, or resolve the complex issues that can arise during an appraisal and after the report is delivered, it can not respond to a review or ROV.

They are not offering such to you and I. They are offering such to those who will be doing the assignments we used to do.

 

[Mike Ault]

vs semi-automating it in a single android app.

Don't forget us…

 

[cashcatz]

Don't forget us…

Tell Google to step up their chip game. Apple is simply better with on-device ML.

 

[J Grant]

You're not using the software provider's way of integrating the photo placement in the mobile app because it's just not designed well (I think you are talking about TOTAL). It should be intuitive with little learning curve.


Nor should you, this would just be an initial classification (that takes your voice memo segment from photo time as authority if you use that optional feature). Then the appraiser can swipe through photos to change in a single tap or by voice, the details of a photo.


Nearly all the UAD 3.6 discussions on here talk about how much of a PITA collecting all the data during the inspection will be now. Juggling voice recorders, notepads, cameras, etc then having to get all that into the report back in the office vs semi-automating it in a single tool.

If you finish the product, I will try it!

I use an iPhone now for photos, so there is not much to juggle - one can dictate into an iPhone too, but as you have seen, many are reluctant to dictate observations during an inspection due to the owner, RE agent, or buyer present.
ALAMODE total app might indeed be clunky-I have not tried it. Some seem to like it. The problem that I see is that there is only so much the tech can do to compensate for what is time-consuming wrt UAD 3.6- we still have to gather the data , regardless of how it is input.

 

[Vermonter]

You're not using the software provider's way of integrating the photo placement in the mobile app because it's just not designed well (I think you are talking about TOTAL). It should be intuitive with little learning curve.

Think you're on to something here because adding photos in Total mobile is less than ideal.

Problem is now we have two apps to switch between which is not much better than using Total and a regular camera app? Or are you talking about creating an entire inspection app?