Time savers in a "what's your turnaround time world"

[vargasteve]

Nice suggestion another appraiser mentioned to me & I tried it today is when measuring a basic house he hooks one corner (leaves it) and just keeps walking the corners writing down the measurements instead of stoping/writing - hooking/stopping/writing, etc.. Then its simple to stop once & put it all together. For instance, it works real nice for detached garages or simple square or L-shaped houses illiminating small steps. I know that there is alot of wisdom out there. About tips, :idea: , shortcuts, timesavers - anyone have any worthy suggestions ... 8O

When we get enough time savers together to do our current workload in a shorter amount of time are we going to squeeze 'one' more appraisal in there, or have some time for ourselves to reboot :?: :lol:

 

[Larry Lyke]

Add a little geometry and trig to your measurement method and you speed up your measuring by 25% again.

I usually measure 2 sides before stopping, too.

Put Apex in the mix, and in about 2 months, you'll be able to draw a complete sketch with all the inherent integral time-saving benefits in half the time it used to take you to do a hand-drawing.

One of my favorites that gets the uninitiated laughing is hooking my tape on a tree that might be 20 or 30 feet away from the building when you can't get close enough to the building to measure it. Do the mental math while measuring and, whopee, there's your measurement. My tape has a hook end and a "stake." In winter, these things come in handy and keep the appraiser from falling into window wells.

 

[jtrotta]

Knowing that measurements are important, recently got me wondering how AVM's get those all important measurements :?: :?: I can see future instances where in stead of "Drive By's" - they'll probably do "Fly By's" :lol: :lol:


The Times They Are A Changin 8)

 

[Jim Payne (SD)]

Vargasteve:

Did you hear about the Blonde Realtor who called the County Assessor's Office about the measurements of a Residence.

The Assessor asked "Aren't you supposed to measure the Home?"

The BR stated 'I started to measure the Home and got 3/4 around it and ran out of tape' ...

Not To Pick on The BLondes... but that was how I 'heard it'...

Thought Friday Midday needed a cornie joke...

ALSO-- My friend, the Funeral Director told me the other day--
'Remember, it is better to be SEEN than VIEWED'...

Take Care All!

Jim Payne (SD)

 

[slacker]

This will probably make a lot of you sick out there but here it goes. I have one township that gives me about 75% of my business that has all their property records on line. It's a free service that has just about everything an appraiser needs from plat maps to actual building sketches. The entire property record is on line. My tape rarely makes it out of my bag when I’m working in this area. Now that’s a time saver.

Here’s an example of a typical sketch.

 

[Les Brant]

How good it must be to have a tax office that is 100% accurate in its data collection and entry of same. As a former county tax appraiser, I know what happens to that data. First off, not all appraisers are totally accurate (We had one that was fired for doing drive-bys from his kitchen table). Second, data entry clerks are not alway able to read what the field appraiser wrote down and "Wing It" just to keep productivity up. That is very close to accepting dimensions from MLS for your subject. Good luck and I really hope you have a good E&O policy.

Les in Coastal (N) Carolina

 

[Jo Ann Meyer Stratton]

Since I am in a small county, I can get copies of the property record card from the assessor's office, including any field notes, additional sketches, etc. I measure every subject improvement, whether I have the assessor's sketch or not and even when I have previously appraised a property. I measure every time, regardless of circumstances. I could go with the assessor's sketch (I find other appraisers do that--because they will have the same GLA and property owner tells me the last apprasier did not measure), as I know it is right---because I measured it for the assessor's office over twenty years ago and all the notes, dimensions, etc are in my hand writing on that card! But I am still cautious and remeasure again! If I ever get sued or a complaint filed against me, I want to be sure I do have current field data based on my measurements.

 

[Mike Garrett RAA]

So tell me where it says you have to measure an improvement???

What it does say is "you are responsible for the measurements". If you feel comfortable enough with the county's measurements AND your error's and omissions insurance is paid up...use public records!

 

[Anonymous]

Total agree. Unless they have a reputation for being inaccurate, assessor records often will stand up in court better than your own! Just reference the source! After doing this years, not to mention building a few barns, etc. in my day, I often guess dimensions of buildings, then measure just to verify. I rarely miss a storage building and never more than by 2'. Also, I use a wheel often instead of a tape, depending on what I am measuring. Measuring driveways, large barns, poultry houses, etc. is not practical with a tape.
People don't sue appraisers for being 15 SF off. But when they are 20% off and it cost them a loan, they have a right to belly-ache.

 

[Keith]

Nice suggestion another appraiser mentioned to me & I tried it today is when measuring a basic house he hooks one corner (leaves it)

After about three gutters, don't you think the measurements will be off? If the home does not have gutters, this may be a time saver.

To the ones using tax records as your source for GLA, you guys are inexcusably lazy. Why should you measure the house? It's because you get paid to! Another good reason is your state board can, and should reprimand you for incorrect GLA. You should be run out of business for using tax records. If you are skipping corners, why not just use the tax value-- state the source-- and skip the appraisal process altogether?