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Selecting the Best Commercial Appraisal Database

[fusion_dropcap boxed=”no” boxed_radius=”” class=”” id=”” color=””]A[/fusion_dropcap]ppraisers collect and analyze the highest quality property, transactional, and financial data in the commercial marketplace. How they store and retrieve that data varies widely. Some thumb through old reports, some utilize Excel or an Access DB.  However, most use professionally-developed systems. What is the best option for appraisers today? Making the right choice has a profound impact on your firm’s profitability and value. Here are 5 factors that drive the value of a commercial appraisal database.

1. A Robust Technology Platform

The platform is the environment where your data resides. The critical questions surrounding platform are reliability, velocity, and security. Everybody knows a tech guy. If your cousin’s boyfriend built a “custom” database for you in his spare time on a server in his garage, you can be sure that it will be flaky and flakier over time. In the end, things built on the cheap end up costing hundreds of times more in maintenance than your original purchase.

Even professionally-built systems, if not engineered and maintained by disciplined senior software developers, will end up with what is known in the tech industry as “Big Ball of Mud”. “A big ball of mud is a haphazardly structured, sprawling, sloppy, duct-tape-and-baling-wire, spaghetti-code, jungle[i].” This is unfortunately the most common practice in software because it is the easiest (at first). You know your data is in a big ball of mud if the system is getting jittery, slow and needs frequent fixes.  You can’t extract your data in usable format for transfer to another system.

Data is the life blood of a modern commercial appraisal practice. Mistakes in managing a commercial appraisal database can be deadly. Amateur and one-off solutions are vulnerable to employee theft, technician incompetence, and a myriad of location and hardware failures. Muddy databases built over five years ago can’t keep up. Modern technologies excel in both features and capacity. The best choice is a cloud platform with modern software intentionally designed for a cloud environment.

2. Consistent Data Standards

For data to be valuable it must be consistent. If one appraiser labels a field one way and his colleague another, the data will not be easily searchable or usable. Standards create reliability which makes your data more useful and valuable. Standards preserve the value of your internal data and make it easy to exchange with others. If your standards are your own, or outdated, your world is small and the value of your data is minimal. Instead, maximize your data’s value with recognized standards. The OSCRE (Open Standards Consortium for Real Estate) is unifying standards globally. At present the best standards for appraisers are the Appraisal Institute Standards (created in 2004) and the PUCS (Property Use Classification System) approved in 2016.

3. Intuitive User Interface

You may have good data, but if it takes a year of intense training to learn how to use it, you might give up before you see much value. In fact, many appraisers using professionally developed systems acknowledge that the learning curve is so steep and confusing they’ve never bothered to fully incorporate the system into their practices. Commercial real estate appraisal is complicated enough. Difficult tools only compound the problem. An attribute of exceptional software is an intuitive design.

4. Efficient Workflow

To achieve efficient workflow, work in one system. Some systems require manual extraction to copy and paste in a report. Others require syncing with Microsoft Word or Excel. Going outside the product to get the job done only adds complexity and risk. Manual errors creep in, data gets out of sync, and we get bad information in our final reports. Updates to the various programs make it hard to keep all the parts working properly, increasing maintenance expense while slowing production. The common thread of these systems is a disjointed process. The best solution is a single system where the commercial appraisal database and narrative appraisal report writing all happen in the same place.

5. Data Can Be Recovered

There is a famous saying that “stuff happens”. A theft, a fire, a flood and you need to recover your data. When was the last time you tested your backup? If your office floods or burns, how long will it take to get your business up and running again: a month, two, or never? The best commercial appraisal database will be secure and easily recoverable.

Maximum Value from a Commercial Appraisal Database

How does your current situation measure up? Is your data buried in a big ball of mud? Are you maximizing the value of your data and your time? With realquantum you can.  Here’s how:

• A Robust Technology Platform
  • The realquantum platform was designed by industry experts to keep your data safe using leading-edge technology and bank-grade security. Operation is smooth, robust, and can’t be easily corrupted or stolen.
• Consistent Data Standards
  • As noted, today’s best standards for appraisers are the Appraisal Institute Standards (created in 2004) and the PUCS (Property Use Classification System) approved by the AI Board in 2016. Realquantum adheres to these standards. All fields are easily searchable, usable, and reusable.
• Intuitive User Interface
  • An attribute of exceptional software is an intuitive design. At realquantum, we engaged not only industry experts but also a behavioral psychologist to ensure our product is easy to use and works the way you do.
• Efficient Workflow
  • Unlike anything else in the market; realquantum is an integral all-in-one system. Workflow is seamless, reports auto-populate without syncing to MS Word or Excel, everything is searchable and reusable.  Appraisers save time and reach their production potential.
• Data Can Be Recovered
  • Because realquantum runs entirely in the cloud, your data is fully backed up and secure. And if you lose a laptop or the entire office, you can be up and running again in minutes. Your commercial appraisal database and all of your reports are secure.

[i] A Big Ball of Mud, by Brian Foote & Joseph Yoder, Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1304 W. Springfield, Urbana, IL 61801 USA.

About the Author

Dennis Dull, MAI, is a senior appraiser at Keller-Craig and Associates as well as the Chief Sales Officer for realquantum.

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