Save your spot with Jeff Weiner (CEO of Realquantum, 100% web-based commercial appraisal analysis and report writing software) and Chase Pursley (Founder of Appraisal Inbox, appraisal order management and scheduling software) for our second joint-webinar on November 17 where we will be discussing how commercial appraisers can adopt new technology to streamline their operations, grow their revenue and regain their sanity.

Save your spot here: LIVE WEBINAR | Commercial Appraiser Tech Tools (Update)

As the cliche goes, communication is key. On your team, you may have several people working on a specific appraisal order. For example, maybe there's someone who schedules and manages the assignment, the licensed appraiser, a trainee or two, an inspector and perhaps even a reviewer. Conversations between these various assignees often take place across a number of places like email, phone calls, messaging apps - making it difficult to keep everyone on the same page.

But instead of having to juggle it all, Appraisal "Inbox" brings conversations around a specific appraisal order into one place. With Team Messaging, your team has a single unified location to communicate about the appraisal order. In addition, Appraisal Inbox sends emails containing unread messages to the assignees on the order (optional - team members can unsubscribe). This means you don't even have to leave your email inbox to discuss an appraisal order with your team!

Keeping your schedule organized is a key part of running a successful appraisal business. Appraisal Inbox has a built-in Schedule featuring agenda and month views that are automatically populated when you set Due and Inspection dates for an appraisal order.

You can manually sync dates into your Google, iCal (Apple), Outlook or Yahoo calendars. And if you're a Google Calendar user, you also have the option of having Due and Inspection dates automatically sync from Appraisal Inbox into your Google Calendar.

To learn more, check out our Google Calendar integration guide.

On a daily - even hourly basis, appraisers are inundated with "request for quote" and other order emails from their AMC & lender clients. Dealing with this influx of emails is a major time sink and quite frankly, a huge annoyance. Each order and its status must be tracked which generally means manually copying and pasting the order details into Appraisal Inbox. This means less time focused the important value-added tasks like inspecting subjects, researching comps & typing reports. But what if there were another way?

Our "Order Forward" feature allows you to forward these order emails to a special email address and Appraisal Inbox does the rest! With a little magic, Appraisal Inbox automatically pulls in the order details - meaning you no longer have to manually enter it! No more copy-paste-tango, email juggling & time-wasting double entry. If you want to take it to the next level and automate the whole process, set up auto-forwarding rules in your email client. Additionally, you can add notes to your order and assign appraisers by cc'ing them.

To learn more, check out our Order Forward guide.

According to the USPAP Record Keeping Rule appraisers must keep a comprehensive and complete Workfile. In the process of an appraisal, appraisers need to collect any number of files and pieces of information to support their value. For example, in an assignment, the appraiser might need to obtain a copy of the rent roll spreadsheet from the landlord, floor plan scans and the past few years of assessments in PDF format from public records. Additionally, interior, exterior and other photos of the subject property as well as comps are typically taken and need to be stored. And once the appraisal is completed and delivered to the client, the final report (and any revisions) need to be stored as well.

Appraisal Inbox's Workfile storage gives your team a secure and convenient place to store, share and retrieve all of the files, photos, reports and other supporting documents involved in the assignment.

One of our goals with Appraisal Inbox is to keep everyone on your appraisal team in the loop. At any time, your staff should be able see exactly where an appraisal order is in the valuation process. We've recently redesigned views so that everything is grouped more logically - making information both easier to understand at a glance and faster to input & update. At the center of it all is "Activity" - an activity feed (also known as an audit log) which is a historical record of what was updated, when changes were made and who made them to an Appraisal, Client, Contact or Team Member.

Back in 2012 I was working as an appraiser at a small firm. One of the major benefits of our practice was that staff had the option to work from a home office. When not in our office typing reports, we were on the road inspecting properties. However, working remotely and frequent travel caused communication gaps that often left us wondering:

• When is my next inspection scheduled?
• Which reports are due this week?
• What's the current status of this order?
• Who's assigned to that appraisal?
• Which appraisals have we done nearby?
• Where's the phone # for the property owner?
• What are the client's report requirements?
• Who currently owes us money?
• How did we do last quarter?
• What is the turn time of a specific appraiser?
• What percentage of bids are we winning?
• Are our fees increasing over time?

In earnest, I tried to find a solution that could work for our entire team. My first attempt was to build a “super” job-log with Microsoft Excel. While it sort-of worked for a while, the file continued to get larger and larger and… you get the picture. Additionally, in order to share the job-log we still had to email the spreadsheet back-and-forth to all team members each time any of us made a change. Not very efficient and prone to error - we never knew who had the correct version.

Then I realized that there must be software out there that solves our problem. After trialing several software suites built “just for appraisers” and a few general project management and CRM systems, none of them really did the job. The “appraiser” software was clunky, outdated and not really team-oriented while the general purpose software was not specific enough for the appraisal profession. And importantly, they were all too difficult for the boss to learn and use on a daily basis.

Not being content getting stuck with spreadsheets or clunky software, I embarked on creating Appraisal Inbox (formally known as Appraisal Flow). Originally, Appraisal Inbox was built just for internal use until conversations with other appraiser friends helped me realize that the entire industry was experiencing the same problem. After many improvements and new features over the years (based on feedback from our wonderful customers), I’m proud to say that Appraisal Inbox is the product that I wish had existed back then.

Today, I’d like to invite you to join the satisfied appraisal teams who are already using Appraisal Inbox to manage their appraisal businesses. Whether you’re ready to move on from spreadsheets, you’re fed up with other complicated software or have no system in place yet, I hope you’ll give Appraisal Inbox a shot. I’m so confident that it will save your team time and increase productivity, that no contract is required and you can cancel your subscription at any time.

I’m always glad to answer your questions! You can email me any time at chase@appraisalinbox.com and connect with me on Linkedin.

Chase Pursley, Founder