Five Tips for Quicker Turn Times

Appraising is a constantly changing profession. Commonly, it seems, appraisers are asked to present extra information or have steps added to their process. All to ensure their client receives the best information available. In order to stay current with the always changing requirements, Property Valuation Group is constantly acquiring new tools and tweaking processes to increase efficiency so we can do more work for faster. At Property Valuation Group we know that time is important to everybody, so we've listed a few items you can do to speed up the process on any appraisals ordered from Property Valuation Group.

Are you ordering appraisals online?

With online ordering, you get automatic e-mail notifications that the order was received, and fast, secure .PDF format report delivery. Online ordering 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 got the order.

Complete and accurate subject property data is key.

There's nothing like being one number off on the street address to unnecessarily slow down 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 area sales is welcome — though be advised that professional appraisers are lawfully required to do their own due diligence on comparable sales, and ours may differ from yours.

You're always free to contact us if you have any questions about your property or an appraisal we're working on for you.

Are you letting us know up front any elements of the property that might make it distinct?

It's relatively easy to appraise a cookie-cutter home. Most of an appraiser's time is spent analyzing how differing features add to or detract from what otherwise would be a property's market value. When ordering your report, let us know if there are unique features of the home or surrounding area -- for example, it's recently had an addition built on, it's subject to zoning restrictions, it's susceptible to flooding. These are things we will find out on our own anyway, and knowing them as early as possible makes your report arrive more quickly.

Set proper expectations with the homeowner.

Confirming an appointment with the homeowner can be one of the most inefficient tasks in the appraisal process. It's understandable for a homeowner to be apprehensive with an outsider inspecting every corner of their home, taking pictures, and making numerous notes. A common belief is that they need to make the place spotless before the inspection, thinking that will increase the value. And will reschedule the appraisal inspection until they can get around to cleaning.

Hearing from you -- someone they've been working with on their loan -- a short explanation about the appraisal process, who we are, and especially that dusting and polishing won't make it more likely their sale will close, and can shorten the appraisal inspection time. Our website has many pages of useful information about the appraisal process for homeowners. Please feel free to share it with your customers. Advise them to call us if they want to familiarize themselves with the staff and our services. Remind them it's to their advantage to set the appointment soon!

Our website is a great resource for following the status of your report.

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. There's no faster or easier way to track the status of your report.