Five Tips for Shorter Turn Times

Appraising is an always changing profession. Regularly, it seems, appraisers are asked to include additional information or have steps added to their process. They do this additional work to ensure the end user is presented with the most useful analysis that can be achieved. To keep up with the continuously changing requirements, The Adaero Group is always testing additional tools and improving processes in order to increase efficiency so we can do more work for our clients. Since The Adaero Group knows that time is important to everyone, we've listed some tips you can do to hasten the process every time you order an appraisal from The Adaero Group:

  1. Are you ordering appraisals online? By ordering online, you automatically get e-mail acknowledgements that the order was received, and fast, secure .PDF format report delivery. This is the single biggest time saver available to both of us! No longer do we have to retype information from a fax, and nor will you wonder whether we received the request.

  2. Make sure that the subject property data is accurate and complete. There's nothing like being one number off on the street address to add unnecessary time to an appraisal assignment. And if you have a tax parcel number, plat map number, subdivision name or anything else that uniquely identifies the property, please pass it along. Even a list of recent sales from the area is welcome — however, remember that professional appraisers must always do their own due diligence on comparable sales, and ours may be different from yours.

    3. If you have any questions about your property or a job we're working on for you, don't hesitate to call us at 919-634-6444

  3. Be sure to tell us about the unique features of this property. Cookie-cutter houses are relatively easy to appraise. What takes time is analyzing how unique details contribute to or detract from what otherwise would be a property's market value. Let us know up front when you order your report if there are unique details of the home or surrounding area -- for example, it's had a recent addition constructed, it's subject to zoning restrictions, and it's prone to flooding. These are things we would find out on our own anyway, and knowing them as early as possible makes your report arrive quicker.

  4. Set proper expectations with the occupants. One of the most inefficient tasks of the appraisal process is confirming an appointment with the current homeowner. It's understandable for a homeowner to be apprehensive with an unknown person looking in every corner of their home, taking pictures, and making lots of notes. Under the belief that it will make the house appraise for more money, some homeowners believe they need to make the place spotless before the inspection . So they reschedule the inspection until it is cleaned.

    Hearing from you -- a trusted party with whom they are already working -- a short explanation about the appraisal process, who we are, and especially that dusting and polishing won't affect their home's value one bit, will help move the process along for everyone. I encourage you to point them to our website, where we have lots of pages of relevant information for homeowners and others describing the appraisal process. They can even call us if they want to familiarize themselves with our staff and services. And tell them it's to their benefit to set the appointment soon!

  5. Use our website to verify your report's status. Why are you still playing phone and fax tag when our website offers up-to-the-minute status updates available online, anytime, 24/7? As we complete each important milestone in an assignment, that information can be viewed instantly online. It's never been easier to keep track of the status of your report.