Q&A with Valcre user: Andy Ruffner, MAI, SRA of RSG Commercial

Sarah Mason • October 14, 2020

Q&A with Valcre user: Andy Ruffner, MAI, SRA of RSG Commercial

As a second-generation appraiser, Andy Ruffner, MAI, SRA of RSG Commercial, is all about efficiency. After shadowing his father as a young professional, Andy got a sneak peek of what the world of appraisal was all about and he quickly saw it for all that it could really be.


Adopting Valcre’s time-saving appraisal software has helped Andy accomplish exactly what he set out to do. He spends less time working on appraisals, makes just as much, if not more money and is able to carve out time for what is really important, which is watching his three young boys grow up. 


Read on to learn how Valcre has helped Andy take his vision to the next level by becoming a faster and more powerful appraiser. 

Tell me about RSG Commercial

I started as an appraiser after college in 1996. I had no direction whatsoever after graduating college in 1996 with an economics degree. I was very fortunate that my father had been an appraiser since the early 1970’s and he allowed me to start working with him. In the beginning, it was just a job; however, after the first year, I saw the potential to take my appraisal professional to a higher level. That is no insult to my father, who was a great mentor, but he was comfortable at the level he was at and I had bigger aspirations. 


We’ve gone up and down with the markets over the years. We’ve had as many as 14 employees at one time. Presently, we’re down to three, which is by choice. I’m sure there are other people that are like-minded and just really don’t want to have a large office. Having an office of that size was a headache to me. It was erasing my passion for appraising. Now as a smaller firm, I really enjoy appraising again. We do our best to produce consistent, high quality work, while also focusing on being more efficient every year. Efficiency is, and has been, a focal point in regard to our success. 


.We’ve tried several different platforms and applications over the years, and we found that were beneficial as a database but left a lot to be desired in regard to report-writing. 


It wasn’t until the Spring of 2017 when I went out to see the guys in Portland that I saw Valcre was really a great appraisal platform in a box. As a database and as a report-writer. You obviously need to have the skillset to do your job, but Valcre was what I was waiting many years for. As someone with that heavy focus on efficiency, it was like a holy grail. Simplicity, adaptability, and ease of use to create great appraisals with minimal errors. Those traits gave us the ability to fasten the time in which the Word doc template is populated, which then afforded us the ability to more thoroughly communicate analysis within the report. 


I would estimate that our efficiency grew by 30-40% overall after just a few months of implementing Valcre, while at the same time producing a better report than we did prior to Valcre. The transition was a game changer for us and ranks highly as one of the best decisions I’ve made over the past 24 years in the appraisal business. We’ve received a large amount of positive feedback regarding the organization and readability of our reports. That goes a long way towards maintaining our current client base as well as prospective clients. 


One of the great things about Valcre is it is easy to get the report together before you populate the Word doc. It helps you get most everything you need in there, which leaves you with a lot of time to do more analysis on the property. So you may end up creating a better report.

 

Your reports may have the same appearance every time—which I’ve heard from lenders that they really like because they like to know where things are in people’s reports—but it does leave time to specifically work on a certain property by adding narrative as far as the valuation goes. 


I never wanted to run into a boiler plate type thing which is completely avoidable with Valcre. That’s a huge bonus. I don’t really have any negatives.


We specifically use Office 365 in conjunction with Valcre and that’s really, really important for me because it’s another redundancy as far as keeping all the files in folders that we need for our assignments. If anybody has a question for me that works for me, it’s so easy to notify me, upload your question and sometimes even share your screen with me. I guess that’s really me selling Office 365, but that’s worked out for us since 2012 and then once Valcre came into play, the synergy between the two was ideal.


It’s very fascinating to me that your dad was an appraiser as well. Growing up, how much did you understand about what your dad was doing and did you ever anticipate following in his footsteps?

I don’t think I really paid much attention to it besides my parents having their financial ups and downs over the years. As far as the business is concerned, it probably wasn’t until I was 17 or 18 that I looked over his shoulder to see what the heck he was doing.


I always kind of knew that he provided values to banks for lending and other purposes, but it really wasn’t until I was in high school that I saw what he was really doing. I worked a lot of jobs in college but during the summer before my junior and senior year I would work with him a little bit—and it wasn’t bad.


Personally, I don’t really like working at all. But you obviously want to find the least of all evils and his job seemed fine. So many people have these ambitions that they have set out for and they specifically get a degree for and they really want to pursue. They have a really linear path, a straight line—I had absolutely none of that. I had not a single clue what type of a job I would pursue. But at the same time, my dad told me I was welcome to work with him while I figured things out.


After working with him for probably three or so months, I was like, “I think I’m going to stick with this. I actually have a car and it’s pretty nice.”


Flexibility is definitely a solid benefit. From what I understand flexibility seems to be a perk of a career as an appraiser.

That’s very true. The dynamics sort of started to change when I got married and started to have children. I had to keep my work to daytime. There were more late-night sessions of typing and those sorts of things. I tried to keep it from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. so I could be available when my kids got home from school. 


As far as dropping something in my schedule or wanting to do something, I have that ability to say, “Hey I can move this to Wednesday and move this Monday. And Tuesday? Yeah I’d love to go snowboarding or fishing," have that ability to move things around in my schedule


When did Valcre come into the fold for you?

In August 2016. It was painful because there was a learning curve to it, but I made a decision.


I work on a large array of different properties to a certain value point. Around here, you can’t specialize. We’re a small company, but I wanted to be able to put anything through the system.


There’s only been one occasion since I started using Valcre that I went back to my old method of hand-writing an appraisal and using a database. It was for something really out there, like a crematory or something.


I’ve done a few since then and nowadays I would say, “It’s no problem, I have what I need in Valcre.”


I learned a lot. When Valcre was first introduced, it was obviously not at the level that it is now. The team has made such drastic improvements to it. I learned fairly quickly that I could manipulate and make some changes to handle more than just office, retail, industrial and multi-family.


That was nice for me because I do appraise a decent amount of specialty properties. It’s nice that I’m able to work on those through Valcre’s system. I would say by late October, early November, I was in a groove and I just kept getting better.


The database is really good. I think the one thing I have to be a real stickler about in the office is that everyone put everything in the database. There’s a limited number of commercial transactions and we can all gain efficiency by people putting their stuff into the database. If people put in lease information into Valcre’s system, we can use that lease later on if we all stay on top of it.


You’ve talked a little bit about being a father and needing flexibility in your schedule, how does Valcre play into that?

It’s just freedom. More time for me. It’s given me the capability to keep my production up where I want it to be all while only working a 40-hour work week. As opposed to, I used to have 60 or 70-80 hour work weeks. That was me as a bachelor putting away as much money as humanly possible.


It really comes down to time. I spend less time doing things and make the same amount of money with Valcre. I obviously have goals that I try to make every month and we don't always make them, but sometimes we go over.


It’s just freed up an immense amount of time. I’m able to do the same amount of work in 40 hours that I was doing in 60 hours. I’ve managed to free myself up 20 hours by using Valcre, which is invaluable. 


Your kids are only going to be young once and you want to be there. I’m able to go to school things like “Donuts with Dad,” which I know is not in the play right now but it will be back.


Honestly for me, it’s the efficiency, time reduction and to be able to get to my goal figures.


I’ve got three boys—8, 10 and 13. My wife went back to teaching last November. It was really really really tough this past year when everything went virtual. My wife was teaching full time. She’s since pulled back to a part-time position. Someone has to be there overlooking them going to virtual learning.


She's able to keep an eye on them. We have a tutor coming in twice a week to help everyone.


As far as affording me the time for important stuff like family, you can’t ask for anything more than that and still make the money you want to make. Without sacrificing that.


I have some numbers that I don't share because I think people will think I’m a short-cutter or something like that. I’m not, we’re just really efficient and able to get through a lot of things. And that goes back to people putting things into the database. That’s a tremendous help if you don’t have to go searching for all new things every time you do a new appraisal.


Tell me more about your trip to Portland to visit the Valcre team.

At the time there was a person that I was considering hiring to work with me who through a really strange series of events told me that he knew some guys who he had worked with at Colliers a couple years prior. He said that what he had seen really looked like a ready-to-go type of application and database. I told him, “Well maybe we just go to Portland if they’re okay with us looking over their back and having them tell us about it, I’ll take them up on that.” So we ended up going for a couple of days.


During that period of time, Joe Creech was really the one who drove me through what things were. At first I was like, “I have no idea what this is.” But it turned out that the Valcre team just had different nomenclature for things. I saw what a report looked like and it was really, really nice. I was game. 


We came back from the trip and I decided I did not want to work with the person who made the introduction. It was a strange series of events but I developed a relationship with the Valcre team and the next thing you know, I’m using it.


I made myself use it for every assignment. Just because I knew it was going to be hard to learn, but I knew how worth using Valcre would be. I saw how efficient Joe was with it and well how the database worked. It was time for a change. I had been doing things the same way for eons.


Adopting the software sounded great to me. My kids were 5, 7 and 10 at the time. I was like, “I do want to spend some more time with my kids and have a little for personal stuff, working out, things like that.” I was sold. The product looked really nice and personalized.


I was really impressed so I kept in contact with the Valcre team, and when it was time for them to roll it out, I was right there ready and able. Of course, Valcre was very small at the time. It was basically Lucas Rotter and Kris Owens.


When I’m doing an appraisal again that I did back in October 2016, I look back and I see the limitations. What the documents could do for you back then compared to what they can do for you now, Valcre has tripled the look, the efficiency of it, the capabilities for all the things you can put in a report to make it look great. I look back and the appraisals look fine, but as far as what you can do and the things the Valcre team has added are super awesome.


On a scale of 1 to 10, where would you rate Valcre and your experience.

If I had to quantify it I would say a “9.” I don’t think anything is a 10. A 10 for me would mean that the second I email support, the respond in a second which isn’t really possible. If we were going to say that nothing can be perfect and a 10 isn’t perfect, then Valcre would be a 10. It's the least problem causing, most efficient, best looking out of every software application I’ve used. And trust me, I bought like five of them.


That trip to Portland was really life-changing for me. I was able to see Valcre in action. The support in the beginning, when I had absolutely no clue what to do on certain things, played a massive role. I committed to it and that required a good amount of support. I’m sure I emailed and called Lucas about 8 million times in the beginning. Now I rarely ever need to reach out to them. So yeah, I’d give Valcre a 10 on an imperfect scale.



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Even prior to obtaining his bachelor's degree in Economics in 1996, Andy had already spent significant time around his father's appraisal office, learning from the ground up a business that he simply enjoyed and that seemed to come naturally to him. After successfully completing what seems to be a catalogue of appraisal courses, experience requirements, and a demonstration report, he earned the MAI designation from the Appraisal Institute.  He would later complete the designation requirements for the SRA designation.  Andy is currently working in his Master’s Degree in Real Estate at Georgetown University, as well as progressing with a CCIM designation.


He manages to balance work with his sporting activities, volunteer opportunities, an outreach program, and his three wonderful sons and wife, Kate.

Essential Skills and Terms Every Commercial Appraiser Must Learn

November 20, 2021
Commercial appraisal is fairly complex. From tax law to construction methods to capitalization rates, an appraiser needs to possess mastery over a broad range of skills and terminology. Of course, the ability to conduct research is essential to any commercial appraisal process. However, a trained appraiser has the expertise to apply that research in appropriate ways. There are several core competencies that a commercial appraiser needs. Here are some of the skills and terms that every commercial appraiser must learn to excel in their field. It’s good for aspiring appraisers and seasoned professionals, as well as their clients, to become familiar with this information. Data Analysis A commercial appraiser is tasked with collecting data from a variety of sources, assessing the big picture, and then drawing conclusions based on that information. They must be able to understand technical and financial data at a deep level. Appraisers compare data and then analyze for trends that must be applied appropriately to the subject of their appraisal. An appraiser must know which data points are relevant, first of all. They must also know how to work with industry-standard databases and pull the appropriate reports. This could include loan servicing history, real estate records, litigation and courtroom proceedings, market trends, and other property records. The ability to analyze data is critical to commercial property valuation. A commercial appraiser must evaluate tax maps, parcel identification numbers, tables with real estate market data, and other complex numeric data. They must be able to perform basic calculations to estimate depreciation or appreciation based on market trends. Familiarity with Regulations like USPAP and Data Security Laws There are national standards for property valuations and every commercial appraiser must conform to these standards. This means ensuring that the appraisal is conducted in accordance with USPAP (Uniform Standards of Appraisal Practice). It’s important that appraisal teams apply administrative oversight to confirm that all team members and appraisal reports are adhering to these regulations. Data security is another essential part of commercial appraisal. Professionals need a tool to organize and protect property data. Not only is this essential for defending private information against cyber threats, but the right tool can help generate reports, too. Relationship Management & Professionalism These are often referred to as “soft skills” but they are no less essential to a commercial appraiser’s business than data analysis. In the course of their analysis, an appraiser may need to interview business owners or tenants. They will conduct onsite investigations of the property, likely coming into contact with curious (or possibly aggressive) people. Appraisers need the right people skills to handle inquiries respectfully. Not only do appraisers need the tools to interview people as part of the appraisal process, but they also need to be effective relationship managers. This means organization, professionalism, and a personable manner to build trust with their clients and members of the industry such as brokers and property managers to gain access to critical market data. Key Appraisal Terms Ad Valorem This term refers to a tax based on the value of a property or transaction. These fees provide revenue to municipal and regional governments. Mass Appraisal This is a process whereby an appraiser assesses the value of a collection of properties. It is typically conducted as of a single date and using a standard methodology with common data. Abatement An abatement is a reduction or invalidation of a property value after ad valorem taxation has already occurred. For example, this might be a reduction in rent levels brought on by rent control. Caveat Emptor Caveat Emptor is a phrase that means “buyer beware.” It implies that the buyer is purchasing the property at their own risk. Access Rights This refers to the private right to access a property. For instance, if a commercial property abuts the site of a forthcoming highway, the owners may make a case for access rights to defend their ability to ingress to and egress from their property. Effective Age The effective age of a property is based on how the improvements have fared over the years. If the building has deteriorated due to weather, for instance, or obsolescence due to new technology has diminished the value, its effective age may be older than its chronological age. Conversely, if a property has been well cared for with regular maintenance and reinvestment over the years, the effective age may in fact be newer than the actual age. Obsolescence Obsolescence refers to depreciation. It’s something that causes the property’s value to diminish. Obsolescence may refer to external factors or new inventions or changes in buyer preferences that simply make the building less desirable and thus less financially valuable. Riparian Rights This term refers to the rights of landowners whose land borders a non-navigable stream or lake. It states that all owners whose land underlies or abuts the water may have equal rights to it. This is in opposition to the prior appropriation doctrine. As you can see, commercial appraisers are highly trained professionals who retain immense knowledge about valuation, data analysis, and market trends. Valcre assists commercial appraisers with cutting-edge technology to stay on top of the job’s technical as well as client-facing requirements. Discover Valcre’s mobile appraisal tool and let it help you track all that data.

Why Tax Assessors Need Commercial Property Databases

November 4, 2021
If your assessment team constantly struggles with DIY spreadsheets or last-minute scrambles for tax appeals, then it might be time to consider a full-fledged commercial property database. A tech-driven database can be the most powerful tool in an assessor’s toolbox in terms of data management, short format appraisal reporting, and making the most efficient use of your valuable time. The best database tools are cloud-based and easy to use, allowing the entire team to access up-to-date information at any time. A purpose-built database for commercial property is the prudent solution for tax assessors that are serious about building efficiencies into their workflow and providing industry leading solutions that will ultimately benefit the taxpayers. Here’s why any assessment team would benefit from a commercial property database. Swimming in Spreadsheets For decades, commercial appraisers have relied on spreadsheets to track their data. In fact, 82% of commercial tax appraisers rely on spreadsheets. This is a holdover from the earliest days of computer technology. Spreadsheets are no longer an efficient or effective way to store and organize information. By entering data into static spreadsheets , data gets trapped. Spreadsheets are where data goes to die. Data cannot create value for stakeholders, it is difficult to update, and it impedes team collaboration when locked within the limitations of a spreadsheet. The time is past due for your team to blast through these limitations. The right database solution provides all the data storage functionality of a spreadsheet but with the added ability for updates and analysis across an entire team of assessors. Today’s purpose-built commercial valuation databases are engineered to comply with best practices in commercial property data management. With the right database, your information is secure, easier to understand, and much more amenable to scaling up tax revenue protecting practices. Your team should be equipped with an arsenal of tools that make defense of valuation assumptions a seamless process. Augment and Integrate with Your Existing Workflow Unless you are leveraging technology, there are inefficiencies in each of your workflow processes. Sometimes it takes a new tool to highlight the places where you could become more efficient. Luckily, commercial property databases don’t require you to reinvent your entire assessment model. Commercial assessors can easily integrate a commercial property database with their existing assessment tools as a value addition to their workflow practices. Your team won't have to re-learn an entire suite of business tools. Instead, integrate a database into your existing model and discover all the ways that it can augment your current workflow. It’s likely that you’ll find opportunities to increase your efficiency and deliver higher ROI to your team and taxpayers with the addition of the right database tool. Create Value for the Public with Better Data Analysis Collecting accurate data is only half of the battle for commercial assessors. The other half is about data analysis, quality of insights, and speed of delivery with meaningful solutions to negotiate assessed values with private sector owners. When your data is trapped in a static spreadsheet, or worse, trapped in multiple spreadsheets created by different assessors stored in different locations, it is impossible to deliver strong data analysis and timely results that are defensible. A database can act as a singular source of data for everyone on the assessment team. Not only does this reduce mistakes and increase efficiency, but a single data source means that you can generate more confident insights. When it comes to assessment and tax appeal, accurate data analysis is critical. A database can help reduce the cost and improve the outcomes of unfounded tax appeals. The private sector, which successfully challenges assessments, often relies on technology driven platforms that deliver high quality documentation and neat reporting . A purpose-built commercial property database will arm your team with tools for short form valuations and the framework to produce consistent, court-ready reports. Your assessment team’s next move should be to take a hard look at Valcre . This industry-leading database tool will organize your one-off assignments and allows you to weaponize your valuable data. Plus, Valcre generates professional-looking reports, accurate data analysis, and offers an entire suite of valuation tools to generate your market-driven assessment results. The time is now to seek efficient solutions. The time is now to do your homework on Valcre.

Office Pricing May Face Long Road to Recovery

October 1, 2021
Office Pricing May Face Long Road to Recovery More than 18 months after the pandemic transformed millions of office employees into remote workers, the future of the office sector remains one of the hottest topics in commercial real estate. A wide-range of voices has failed to reach anything approaching consensus on the subject. Some predict the vast majority of companies will depend on some level of remote work well into the future, while others forecast that only a precious few prestigious tech firms and other innovative companies will be able to outlast an eventual mandate to return to the traditional office. Post Pandemic Office Survey To gain further insights into the health and expected performance of the post-pandemic office sector post-pandemic, we surveyed appraisers and valuation experts who are at the center of every transaction and consume enormous amounts of comps and public property data on a daily basis. Participants Seventy-six appraisers – whom combined service every commercial real estate asset type across the U.S. and Canada – were questioned about the health and future recovery of the office market. As recently covered in GlobeSt. , their responses reflected the generally murky view of its future – with just over 30 percent deeming the market “unhealthy”, and about half calling its prospects “unclear”. Just under 12 percent of those polled said pricing across the sector was currently healthy in their estimation. The majority of respondents believe that occupier demand for office space could take up to five years to push property values to pre-pandemic levels. Current Rents When asked about current rents for office space, roughly 75 percent of respondents said they believe asking rents are too high, given their read on current market rents for office properties. When asked how long it might take for rents to return to pre-pandemic levels, most agreed that it would be a long road ahead: 34 percent said between 2-3 years, and another 27 percent pegged it at 4-5 years. Roughly 30 percent of respondents took a more rosy view, saying rents would bounce back within the next two years. Appraisers play a critical role in observing market factors for not just the office sector, but all areas of commercial real estate. As the premier software solution for commercial real estate appraisers, Valcre’s users have a wealth of market knowledge and insights that can be extremely valuable and reliable in charting the trajectory of any number of asset types within a given market and on a national scale. Valcre is the premier appraisal software solution for the commercial real estate industry. The platform offers appraisers a singular tool that simplifies job and client management, allowing them to save countless hours by providing access to prior jobs, historical data and comps. Contact us for more information, to schedule a demo or if you’d like to explore our mobile app.

What Does a Commercial Real Estate Appraiser Do? A Step-by-Step Guide to Commercial Property Appraisal

August 2, 2021
Despite the fact that property appraisals are at the heart of the built environment – it's how we determine the market value of the places in which we live, work and play – many individuals still don't understand exactly what a commercial real estate appraiser does. In a nutshell, commercial real estate appraisal is the process in which a trained and licensed professional assesses the value of a commercial property according to its intended uses. Many seek out commercial real estate appraisal companies when they are looking to buy or sell a storefront, an office building, vacant land, or any other property that’s not residential, while others hire a commercial real estate appraiser for tax appeal purposes. However, that short description does not do justice to the importance of the work done by trained and licensed appraisers. These valuation professionals possess a unique understanding of the market and the many factors that can affect what a commercial property is worth, impacting decisions to buy, sell, and build. Below we discuss the most common types of commercial appraisal and the four steps involved in appraising commercial real estate. Types of Commercial Appraisals When evaluating a commercial property, it’s essential that you find a commercial real estate appraiser (as opposed to residential). Residential appraisers have different training requirements. Contact them, and they will ask you a few questions about the location and history of the property, and discuss commercial appraisal cost. A commercial appraiser has access to specialized databases and understands how to parse and select which information is relevant. For instance, they will check the tax history, zoning, deeds, property damage, potential obsolescence, and other onsite elements to inform their final result. You can use the resulting valuation amount in court, to sell a property, or to change insurance. If you’d like to read a good interview with a real commercial appraiser, check out this post featuring Jeffrey Harris of Harris Property Advisors. First Step: Review the Documentation Don’t make the mistake of trying to fool your commercial real estate appraiser into valuing your property higher than it’s really worth. Property appraisers are particularly bound by their integrity to perform accurate valuations, and they know all the tricks in the book. They know that they might be summoned to court if there’s ever a property dispute, so they make sure they set a number they can back up with proof. Gather up any and all documentation related to income statements, property taxes, renovations, and more. Don’t withhold anything! Be transparent about the property’s history and let your commercial appraiser do their job. If you don’t have a required document, let them know. It happens frequently and your appraiser can recommend ways to solve the problem. Second Step: Site Visit When most people think about commercial real estate appraisals, they imagine a site visit that includes an in-person inspection of the property. This is an important part of the valuation process. Depending on the size and specifics of the commercial property, your appraiser may bring a team. It may take as little as one hour or longer. They may use a smartphone or tablet with the Valcre mobile app to photograph the property, and collect and organize their findings. They will be looking to verify information in your documentation. They will also utilize their training to spot problem areas (and positive areas) that could alter the final valuation of the property. Don’t worry, they’re not there to judge your mess or which end tables you chose for the waiting room. They are primarily examining the structure itself and making observations. Third Step: Research & Analysis Now they must conduct the research and analysis portion of your valuation process. Your commercial real estate appraiser needs to review zoning records and neighborhood demographics to assess the value of your property. Are there any zoning restrictions or violations? What do the data trends indicate about the future viability and value of your property? If it’s a rental building, what are the vacancy rents, and what indications are there that rent is increasing (or decreasing) in your area? This research can take weeks or months, depending on the size and complexity of the property. The commercial appraiser will go through records of public ownership, tax data, and other databases to compare and corroborate information. In combination with their onsite assessment, all of this information goes into the final calculation of your property’s value. Final Step: Valuation Finally, you’ll receive the valuation report . If the appraiser has used the cost approach, the value will be expressed as the amount it would cost to build a replica of your property. This is typically used to evaluate newer properties. Another common assessment approach is income capitalization, which is primarily used to assess income-generating properties like office buildings or any other leased property. Your valuation will take into account how much money your property could generate over its lifetime. A market sales comparison approach is the most common type, and it examines similar buildings and sales figures to determine the market value of your property. Now that you have an official valuation in hand, you can thank your appraiser for a job well done. You are now in a strong position to negotiate a sale of your property. Valcre is the premier appraisal software solution for the commercial real estate industry. The platform offers appraisers a singular tool that simplifies job and client management, allowing them to save countless hours by providing access to prior jobs, historical data and comps. Contact us for more information, to schedule a demo or if you’d like to explore our mobile app.

See You in Orlando for the 2021 Appraisal Institute Conference

July 26, 2021
Meet Valcre At The Appraisal Institute’s 2021 Conference – The Only Way To Conduct More Appraisals, In Less Time Valcre’s New Features + Improved Functionality On Full Display At Upcoming 2021 Appraisal Institute Conference Valcre, CRE’s Premier Appraisal Solution, Sponsors 2021 Appraisal Institute Conference Friends and Valued Clients, This month we’re excited to announce that our team will join hundreds of appraisal professionals in Orlando, Florida for the 2021 Annual Appraisal Institute Conference on Aug. 9-10. After more than a year of pandemic-induced isolation, remote working, and virtual conferences, we’re looking forward to seeing our industry peers in-person to showcase the new integrations and features Valcre has incorporated this past year to further improve appraisal workflow. As the commercial real estate industry’s premier end-to-end appraisal software solution, our team of engineers and appraisal experts have been working tirelessly to deliver solutions that dramatically reduce the time spent on reporting and manual data entry. Valcre is the only platform on the market that offers appraisers: The ability to interactively select individual parcels and automatically load the corresponding property and comp data for more than 150 million properties (data includes accurate prices and values information, land/improvement sizes, county assessment details, tax data and more) Robust options to conduct Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) modeling calculations which easily integrate into appraisal reports The ability to generate customized, branded, and elegantly designed reports Access to a wealth of market analysis captured in sophisticated graphs, charts, and maps The option to conduct building inspections, monitor workflow and access their personal database using our mobile app Demand for appraisals skyrocketed this year after the market recovered from its mild panic at the height of the pandemic. Valuation professionals currently have more business than they can handle, and are actively seeking a modern, organized system that can anticipate their needs and streamline workflows in this new normal. We have made it our mission to address the needs of today’s commercial appraisers with surgical precision by offering a holistic, turnkey solution that completely transforms the tedious and time-consuming appraisal process, saving valuation professionals a minimum of 2 hours a day. Join us at our booth (#18) for a demo and to learn more about our newest features and functionality. We look forward to seeing you there!
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How to Build a Successful Work-From-Home Program

February 1, 2021
To keep your real estate appraisers safe and healthy, your workplace has moved from your firm’s office to the home office. Now that your expert appraisers are working from home, you need to find ways to help everyone adapt and continue their work utilizing and employing new methods and practices. If your appraisers have committed years or decades to working in your office and directly in the field, they may feel panicked while adjusting to tracking, reporting, and holding client meetings from home. Now face-to-face interactions and in-person meetings are limited or no longer an option altogether, so you need to count on technology more than ever before. So how can you help your team establish an efficient workflow while working from home? You’ll need to develop a new system for your team to adapt to digital processing and define new requirements in order for them to safely continue assessing properties without putting their own or others’ health at risk. You’ll need to encourage your team and offer the necessary resources to help them track and organize their appraisal data from home. Here is how you can establish an effective work-from-home program for your remote appraiser workforce: Be Decisive During these uncertain times, your appraisal team may not know how to maintain stability in their daily work life. As a senior appraiser, you need to make definitive choices to offer guidelines for your staff to follow. Some essential decisions to make include: Scheduling Now that your appraisers are working from home, you need to establish structure for your team and clients to follow. While your office had established hours of operation that circumscribed the time-frame in which your staff worked and interacted with clients, your appraisers may now believe they are obligated to work around the clock because they are not entering or leaving a physical office. They may be conducting client consultations, submitting reports, and tracking properties beyond your original office hours because they no longer apply at home office setting. It’s important to maintain a stable work structure so your real estate professionals can manage consistency and establish work-life balance. While some work fields have the privilege to allow employees to choose their remote work hours, consider honoring the original scheduling that you followed when your office was open. That way, you can notify your clients that your appraisers are only available within a specific time-frame and cannot continue correspondence or perform assessments beyond these limits. Approaches to Property Inspections Your team may also not be sure whether it’s worth leaving their homes to conduct physical inspections. As a leader, you will need to make the difficult decision to confirm whether your staff should continue visiting sites or whether they will need to take time to avoid in-person inspections until it is safe enough. Open Team Communication Channels With your appraisers working from home, they can no longer collaborate in-person. If they need advice from you or have questions from peers or other departments like accounting or administration, they can no longer walk over to one another’s desks or offices for fast answers. With more email correspondence or phone tag delays, you may notice a lag in task completion, inter-staff communication, and reporting, causing slower productivity rates. Now you must guide your team to adjust to digital communication. Avoid the potential mistakes resulting from them assuming their answers rather than seeking help from you or their coworkers. By relying on a communication software platform , your appraisers can continue finding instant solutions so they can complete their work on time and error-free. Rely on Innovative User-Friendly Appraisal Software When implementing an efficient work-from-home program, you will want to rely on highly user-friendly appraisal software. Find a platform that is well-organized and logically planned so your real estate experts and team can adjust to using it quickly. It’s best to choose a program where all reporting, tracking, follow-up processes can be completed to ensure simpler functioning. Remember that your staff has committed years or decades to perform their appraisal duties without such a heavy reliance on technology, so this new approach to working can be overwhelming. Choose the best software that your appraisers can easily navigate and learn to implement into their work. Valcre offers an innovative appraisal platform that will help your team input valuable data and track clients and their appraisal assignments from anywhere. You’ll find improved efficiency in your ranks, as your staff can rely on Valcre for establishing your work-from-home team’s workflow. Request a free Valcre demo today.

Q&A with Valcre user: Alex McIntosh, MAI of MAC Advisory and Valuation Services

By Sarah Mason • January 16, 2021
Q&A with Valcre user: Alex McIntosh, MAI of MAC Advisory and Valuation Services
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