Some Steps to Shorter Turn Times

The appraisal profession is continuously evolving. Commonly, it seems, appraisers are asked to supply more information or have steps added to their data gathering. They do this extra work to ensure the end user receives the most useful information that can be achieved. In order to keep up with the continuously changing requirements, Residential Valuation Services Inc. is continuously testing additional tools and tweaking processes to increase efficiency so we can do more work for quickly. Since Residential Valuation Services Inc. knows that time is important to everyone, below are some items you can do to trim turn times when you order an appraisal from Residential Valuation Services Inc.:

  1. Always order your appraisals on the Internet. By ordering online, you receive automatic 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! We don't have to re-key information from a fax, and nor will you wonder whether we got the order.

  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 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. We even welcome lists of recent sales from the area — however, remember that professional appraisers must always do their own due diligence on comparable sales, and ours may differ from yours.

    3. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about your property or a job we're working on for you.

  3. Let us know up front of the property's distinct characteristics. It's relatively easy to appraise a cookie-cutter home. What takes time is analyzing how characteristics unique to a property contribute to or detract from what otherwise would be a property's market value. At the time you order your report, be sure to let us know if there are unique details of the home or surrounding area -- for example, it's recently had an addition put on, it's subject to zoning restrictions, and it's prone to flooding. These are things we will find out on our own anyway, and knowing them as early as possible makes your report arrive without delay.

  4. Let the homeowner know what to expect. One of the most time consuming tasks of the appraisal process is confirming an appointment with the occupants of the home. Many current homeowners are justifiably uncomfortable with the notion that an outsider wants to come in their home, look around, and take abundant notes. With the belief that it will make the house appraise higher, some homeowners think they need to make the place spotless before the inspection and will put off the appraisal inspection until it is cleaned.

    Hearing from you -- a trusted party with whom they are already working -- a little knowledge about the appraisal process, who we are, and especially that dusting and polishing won't make a significant difference in their home's value, will help move the process along for everyone. Please feel free to point your clients to this 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 meet the staff and learn more about our services. Remind them it's to their advantage to set the appointment as quickly as possible!

  5. Use our website to verify your report's status. No more phone and fax tag. Up-to-the-minute status updates are available online, anytime, 24/7. As each important milestone in an assignment is completed, that information is instantly available to you online. It's never been easier to track the status of your report.