BetterAppraisers

Good morning group. Sure has been quiet on here lately so I'll take adantage and ask a question of you. It seems that several of you are like myself, one (wo)man shops. I had opportunity to review some work that I submitted recently and in the process, noticed some typographical errors and sloppy English that I should have caught during the editing process. I find it seems to be difficult for me to edit my own work at the time the editing should be done and instead see it quite easily after the fact. Perhaps this is just something unique to me that I need to work on, but I wondered if any of you have any tips on how to do a thorough job with this? Thank you for any thoughts or suggestions!

Deb,
It's not just you! I've found the same in my work. In order to help catch the silly errors I complete the report and close the file without sending it. Then walk away for a bit. Make dinner, inspect a home, anything, just get away from the report. When I come back to prof it I see the silly errors that I did not see before! Just have to clear the mind a bit!

Several of us from various parts of the country swap reports back and forth for review. Although we check for minor things like sentence structure, spelling is frequently handled simply by spell check. More important is the review we give each other for logic, common sense, reasonableness, support and clarity. One of the biggest failures in todays appraisals are the unsupported adjustments and assumptions we make. (Like the estimated PPSF for GLA or the adjustment for the difference between one bath and two). It is amazing how often I ask or get asked "Where did you come up with this figure?" Too often it is from an assumption of market response rather than from market supported data. Also, I frequently skip over doing the proper explanation as to how an adjustment was derived......and the day of the appraiser saying "It was based on experience" is long gone.

Goodpasture,
I like the idea of swapping reports. How does one get involved with such a group?

email me, Annemieke, or Ben Luby, Edd Gillespie, Jim Plante, Otis Key, or Doug Bingham. You can get our email connection here:
http://appraisers.freeforums.org/index.php

Thanks Goodpasture! I have sent you an e-mail. Please PM me if you do not recieve it.

That really is an excellent idea and so nice to see appraisers truly helping one another. I would like to participate too, if possible?

DebC wrote:That really is an excellent idea and so nice to see appraisers truly helping one another. I would like to participate too, if possible?

Sure

let me know how to contact you