Five Steps to Shorter Turn Times

The appraisal profession is constantly evolving. Regularly, it seems, appraisers are asked to supply additional information or have steps added to their appraisal process. They do this additional work to ensure their client receives the most useful analysis that can be achieved. To keep up with the continuously changing requirements, Tri-County Appraisals is constantly researching additional tools and improving processes to increase efficiency so we can do more work for in less time. Since Tri-County Appraisals knows that time is important to everyone, below are some items you can do to reduce turn times on any appraisals ordered from Tri-County Appraisals:

  1. Order your appraisals electronically. With online ordering, you automatically get e-mail notifications that the request was received, and fast, secure .PDF format report delivery. It's the single biggest time saver available to both of us! We don't have to retype information from a fax, and you don't have to wonder whether we got the order.

  2. Complete and accurate subject property information is crucial. 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. Feel free to call us at 970-888-3733 if you have any questions about your property or a job we're working on for you.

  3. Are you telling us up front any details of the property that might make it unique? It's relatively easy to appraise a cookie-cutter home. What takes time is analyzing how differing characteristics add 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 characteristics of the home or surrounding area -- for example, it's had a recent addition built on, it's subject to zoning restrictions, and it's predisposed to flooding. While these are things that we'd find out on our own, knowing them sooner will likely make your report arrive earlier.

  4. Be sure the homeowner knows the plan. One of the most time consuming parts of the appraisal process is confirming an appointment with the occupants of the home. Some current homeowners are clearly uneasy with the idea that an unknown persons wants to come in their house, look around, and make copious notes. One common belief is that they need to make the place spotless before the appraisal inspection, having the thought that will increase the appraised value . So they delay the inspection until they can get around to cleaning.

    Coming from you -- a trusted party with whom they already have a business relationship -- a little information 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. Please feel free to point your clients to our website, where we have lots of pages of relevant information for homeowners as well as others regarding the appraisal process. They can even call us if they want to meet our staff and learn more about our services. Remind them it's in their interest to set the appointment as quickly as possible!

  5. Our website is a great resource for following the status of your report. 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 can be viewed instantly online. It's never been easier and faster to track the status of your report.