The end of NCVForms - Now what

[jdbiggers]

Link does not work

Are you sure? I just tried it from my cell phone and it worked.

JD

 

[George Hatch]

On another note;

I wish you well going forward. I think it was a real shame how your situation worked out. As in, shameful and underhanded.

 

[Riick]

If the maping program did not work....
If you redownload the entire program or just the update ([url]http://www.ncvsoftware.com/NCVBSetup2.exe[/URL]) then it will fix this.

JD

Thanks for the update - used the update & mapping on "242.1" works.

Also noticed: Software Expiration Date = Undetermined

Thanks JD, wishing you future success & in addition, best of luck.

 

[Julia Young]

I truly understand fighting deep pockets. Our courts increasingly deny access to the 'man on the street' trying to gain his day in court. Impressive attorneys and corporate power holds sway. It seems good guys fall by the wayside. Summary judgment has become the mantra, regardless of legal inconsistency.
I happened on this thread accidently as I am searching for feedback on changing software providers after many years with one provider. I feel they are out of touch with the small appraiser's needs and more interested in increasing sales with little to support their pricing. I don't need a cloud or vault to support for years. I feel shut out when I don't buy the bells and whistles. I lost business by not having access to ENV,etc. and other options. My subscriptions, MLS and fees, license, E & O, software program, etc. make this business increasingly less profitable already. The last time my provider made major revisions to their program, they shut down access to the prior program forcing compliance without prior default preferences. I am considering Homeputer. My questions are what about XML/UAD pdf converter or interface?? Plus is there industry resistance to Homeputer or other providers. I get asked what software I use all the time. Why?
Honestly, I work harder to make less than ever in appraisals. I don't do appraisal cruises or Las Vegas seminars, in my small business. After 18 years, this may be my final two year stint,[just renewed my license]l I am tired of the hassle, payment delays, revisions just to support quality assurance employee jobs.

 

[Evincere]

Great question. Leads one to presume that there is all sorts of suspect background wheeling and dealing going on between portals, clients and software vendors

 

[dobie]

I truly understand fighting deep pockets. Our courts increasingly deny access to the 'man on the street' trying to gain his day in court. Impressive attorneys and corporate power holds sway. It seems good guys fall by the wayside. Summary judgment has become the mantra, regardless of legal inconsistency.
I happened on this thread accidently as I am searching for feedback on changing software providers after many years with one provider. I feel they are out of touch with the small appraiser's needs and more interested in increasing sales with little to support their pricing. I don't need a cloud or vault to support for years. I feel shut out when I don't buy the bells and whistles. I lost business by not having access to ENV,etc. and other options. My subscriptions, MLS and fees, license, E & O, software program, etc. make this business increasingly less profitable already. The last time my provider made major revisions to their program, they shut down access to the prior program forcing compliance without prior default preferences. I am considering Homeputer. My questions are what about XML/UAD pdf converter or interface?? Plus is there industry resistance to Homeputer or other providers. I get asked what software I use all the time. Why?
Honestly, I work harder to make less than ever in appraisals. I don't do appraisal cruises or Las Vegas seminars, in my small business. After 18 years, this may be my final two year stint,[just renewed my license]l I am tired of the hassle, payment delays, revisions just to support quality assurance employee jobs.

I tried homeputer a few months ago. It's probably fine for what you want to do. I didn't like the way it handled sketches but I think most people would overlook that

 

[dbiggers]

I truly understand fighting deep pockets. Our courts increasingly deny access to the 'man on the street' trying to gain his day in court. Impressive attorneys and corporate power holds sway. It seems good guys fall by the wayside. Summary judgment has become the mantra, regardless of legal inconsistency.
I happened on this thread accidently as I am searching for feedback on changing software providers after many years with one provider. I feel they are out of touch with the small appraiser's needs and more interested in increasing sales with little to support their pricing. I don't need a cloud or vault to support for years. I feel shut out when I don't buy the bells and whistles. I lost business by not having access to ENV,etc. and other options. My subscriptions, MLS and fees, license, E & O, software program, etc. make this business increasingly less profitable already. The last time my provider made major revisions to their program, they shut down access to the prior program forcing compliance without prior default preferences. I am considering Homeputer. My questions are what about XML/UAD pdf converter or interface?? Plus is there industry resistance to Homeputer or other providers. I get asked what software I use all the time. Why?
Honestly, I work harder to make less than ever in appraisals. I don't do appraisal cruises or Las Vegas seminars, in my small business. After 18 years, this may be my final two year stint,[just renewed my license]l I am tired of the hassle, payment delays, revisions just to support quality assurance employee jobs.

Julia, I'm not sure who your vendor is, but the point of my reply here has nothing to do with the vendor specifically, and more to do with the approach in general. You make some statements that I see often, and which can get anyone in a downward spiral.

First off, you echo a very valid sentiment when you say "I am tired of the hassle, payment delays, revisions just to support quality assurance employee jobs". I agree completely. The "hassle factor" of being in this industry -- on your side and on mine -- is exponentially higher than it used to be.

It costs us around 5 times more per user to support and develop software than it used to, for lots of reasons that would make me cry for the "good old days" of just having to support one forms program running under DOS with the only issue being whether you could line up the pre-printed forms correctly. Now we deal with literally everything you do, in a 24 x 7 connected environment, running on every flavor of Windows from 98 to 8.1, on tablets to desktops, with voice or keyboard input, and on iPhones, iPads, Android phones, Android tablets, Android phablets, and even Macs running Windows -- not to mention our web products dealing with every version of Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and a host of other browsers. We do those things because our clients -- you guys -- demand them.

Yet, the prices we charge today pale in comparison to what we charged in the DOS days; I recently found an ad from long ago where we charged roughly $2400 for a complete DOS package for every form ("including laser printing!!!"). Today the Windows version of our software, and support, with more than that package by far, is $349. And there are fewer appraisers to whom we can sell it.

But, I'm not trying to get sympathy -- I'm trying to set up a parallel. In your post, you said "I feel shut out when I don't buy the bells and whistles. I lost business by not having access to ENV,etc. and other options." And yet you follow that up shortly afterward saying "I am considering Homeputer".

That would be like software providers saying "We lost business by not supporting Windows 8" and deciding that the solution is to go even further backward by saying "Maybe we should just go back to DOS" in order to save money. Yes, it would save money. But it would make even less at an even faster rate.

The point is, frustration with an increasingly complex world can cause you to crawl into a dark shell where you make bad decisions, ostensibly to remove complexity -- but those decisions remove income even more quickly. That's a downward spiral.

Reverting to software without ENV support cost you income, by your own statement, and so I'm guessing you'd have to evaluate that as a bad decision, probably driven by this negative world view (justifiably negative, I admit). Don't repeat it by withdrawing further (and I don't mean by just spending less, as though spending more was better -- it isn't the point). When you ask why clients ask what software you use, you already know the answer -- they see issues arise when deliveries and so on have trouble or when small vendors don't support features they consider essential to a good report (E&O pre-checking -- not just UCDP checking -- is a good example). Heading down that path may be another decision you regret later, on the same downward spiral of frustration with complexity, then reduction of capability, then loss of income, and then more frustration.

My advice is to separate your frustration with the appraisal environment from your frustration with the cost of technology. Make those decisions independently.

On the expense side, simplify what you can, but invest in growing income, not losing it at a faster rate than you save on expenses. Engage in marketing, finding clients, and retaining existing ones, even if all of them are harder to work with than before. Invest in tools that get the job done.

Separately, decide if you want to be in this industry at all (as you say, you are looking at that). If you plan to leave in two years, that's fine -- but make as much money in those two as you can. Eliminating clients to save a few hundred bucks isn't going to make you as much as possible. It'll just make it a necessity to leave the industry in two years, because you'll have lost your clients.

For the clients you retain, figure out how to deal with them more efficiently, even if they're worse than they used to be. It's all the more reason to deal with them even-tempered in manner, by making it unemotional. If you get angry every time you explain why a comp was the best choice and why the crappy public record comps they asked you to consider are indeed crappy, you'll just drive the client away regardless, and get out of the business even more rapidly.

Like I said, I'm not trying to suggest that you buy one software over another, but just that you not let operational frustration drive two core business decisions, and even more importantly, that you not let them be intermingled. It's easy to do, especially when you're angry, and it applies to most appraisers.

Best of luck either way, and I hope you stay in the industry -- and that you make more money than before.

 

[Thomas Holding]

URAR form in Excel

This thread has been a real eye opener as regards to the current state of appraisal software development. I must say however that I was most impressed with the above response by Mr. Biggers. That is excellent advice, and many appraisers should take note. It was nice to see the level of professional courtesy and respect given to J.D. Biggers regarding his software. This is what seems to be lacking in our profession. (By the way, appraising is a profession, not an industry). Until recently, after I transitioned away from residential work, I was an A la Mode customer, and, with a few exceptions, was very happy with the product. I too wish there was a simpler and less expensive product to use since I really do not need all of the extra features found in software that I might only use ten times a year. Many of my clients do not require UAD compliant reports, so often times, I just use Excel to make my own custom forms. (I have attached the first page of my own URAR form to show what can be done). I sincerely hope that J.D. can come back with a new product, because it did really fill a niche.

 

[JSmith43]

If you download the "test URAR" that Thomas Holding linked, it is a Symbian OS file. That is like using Latin as your primary business language, right?

I think both are dead ends. At first I thought it might be an abstract spread sheet file extension, but after 5 minutes, I am stumped.

Any of you nerds out there play around with this or Java? It is a possible cross platform solution, which i why I am curious, just not up for a wild goose chase at the moment.

 

[Thomas Holding]

I don't understand what you mean by "Symbian OS file". I thought I attached a zipped Excel 2010 file.