ure" pages. Then the widespread use of email and electronic signatures eliminated the need to hand deliver or mail reports. It is now literally possible to receive a request for an appraisal and have the completed report in someone's email box within a few hours.

For many people, the amazing transformation of the appraisal process has been a blessing. For others it has been a curse. It is a blessing for commissioned salespeople in brokerage and lending because it means they get their commissions faster. It is a blessing for the seller or buyer under pressure to complete a transaction in a hurry. It is a blessing for the appraiser who is willing and cap

When I first got started as an independent appraiser on my own, it was 1975 and it was a different world. I would arrive at my office and the phone would ring with someone calling in a request. Back then the standard "turnaround" time (the time between receiving a request and delivery of the completed report) was 9 calendar days, which means that Saturday and Sunday were included. In effect then, it meant 7 working days. Today, If someone were to call and I told them it would take 9 calendar days to complete the report, the caller would probably either hang up or faint. In fact, most callers are hoping I will say I can have it done by the end of the day or tomorrow at the latest. How have things changed and why the rush?

When I began, owning a computer was impractical. The desktop PC hadn't been invented yet. It was still a big deal to have a desktop calculator that had a LCD readout! Computers were the domain of universities and large companies. It was still the heyday of the IBM punch card computer. Likewise, when someone signed a contract to buy a home, they went in person to a lending office to apply for a mortgage. The time to complete the application process and issue a mortgage note was anywhere from several weeks to several months. Much of the time was spent getting forms such as employment verifications and credit reports sent and received back by mail. Back then, as now, an appraisal was not ordered until the borrower was approved for the mortgage, however, it still took at least a couple of weeks after mortgage approval before closing could take place. There was therefore not such a rush for an appraisal as there is today.

These days, a mortgage can often be approved in a matter of minutes. Most of the infor5mation that is needed to qualify and approve a borrower is online and many of the more "burdensome" information needs have been "streamlined" away. It is now routine for me to receive an appraisal request where the borrower signed the sale contract a few days ago and they are wanting to close within a week of signing. Most of the speedup can be attributed to the proliferation of computers and the internet.

In the days before computers were in use for appraisal, we typed our reports on a typewriter. Computer forms processing software eliminated the typewriter. Various software evolved to make the processing of the forms appraisers use lightning fast. For many years though, the biggest remaining problems were in the use of photographs and delivery of the finished report. The advent of digital photography finally eliminated the need to take traditional paper photos and paste them onto "picture" pages. Then the widespread use of email and electronic signatures eliminated the need to hand deliver or mail reports. It is now literally possible to receive a request for an appraisal and have the completed report in someone's email box within a few hours.

For many people, the amazing transformation of the appraisal process has been a blessing. For others it has been a curse. It is a blessing for commissioned salespeople in brokerage and lending because it means they get their commissions faster. It is a blessing for the seller or buyer under pressure to complete a transaction in a hurry. It is a blessing for the appraiser who is willing and capa

omorrow at the latest. How have things changed and why the rush?

When I began, owning a computer was impractical. The desktop PC hadn't been invented yet. It was still a big deal to have a desktop calculator that had a LCD readout! Computers were the domain of universities and large companies. It was still the heyday of the IBM punch card computer. Likewise, when someone signed a contract to buy a home, they went in person to a lending office to apply for a mortgage. The time to complete the application process and issue a mortgage note was anywhere from several weeks to several months. Much of the time was spent getting forms such as employment verifications and credit reports sent and received back by mail. Back then, as now, an appraisal was not ordered until the borrower was approved for the mortgage, however, it still took at least a couple of weeks after mortgage approval before closing could take place. There was therefore not such a rush for an appraisal as there is today.

These days, a mortgage can often be approved in a matter of minutes. Most of the infor5mation that is needed to qualify and approve a borrower is online and many of the more "burdensome" information needs have been "streamlined" away. It is now routine for me to receive an appraisal request where the borrower signed the sale contract a few days ago and they are wanting to close within a week of signing. Most of the speedup can be attributed to the proliferation of computers and the internet.

In the days before computers were in use for appraisal, we typed our reports on a typewriter. Computer forms processing software eliminated the typewriter. Various software evolved to make the processing of the forms appraisers use lightning fast. For many years though, the biggest remaining problems were in the use of photographs and delivery of the finished report. The advent of digital photography finally eliminated the need to take traditional paper photos and paste them onto "picture" pages. Then the widespread use of email and electronic signatures eliminated the need to hand deliver or mail reports. It is now literally possible to receive a request for an appraisal and have the completed report in someone's email box within a few hours.

For many people, the amazing transformation of the appraisal process has been a blessing. For others it has been a curse. It is a blessing for commissioned salespeople in brokerage and lending because it means they get their commissions faster. It is a blessing for the seller or buyer under pressure to complete a transaction in a hurry. It is a blessing for the appraiser who is willing and cap

ations and credit reports sent and received back by mail. Back then, as now, an appraisal was not ordered until the borrower was approved for the mortgage, however, it still took at least a couple of weeks after mortgage approval before closing could take place. There was therefore not such a rush for an appraisal as there is today.

These days, a mortgage can often be approved in a matter of minutes. Most of the infor5mation that is needed to qualify and approve a borrower is online and many of the more "burdensome" information needs have been "streamlined" away. It is now routine for me to receive an appraisal request where the borrower signed the sale contract a few days ago and they are wanting to close within a week of signing. Most of the speedup can be attributed to the proliferation of computers and the internet.

In the days before computers were in use for appraisal, we typed our reports on a typewriter. Computer forms processing software eliminated the typewriter. Various software evolved to make the processing of the forms appraisers use lightning fast. For many years though, the biggest remaining problems were in the use of photographs and delivery of the finished report. The advent of digital photography finally eliminated the need to take traditional paper photos and paste them onto "picture" pages. Then the widespread use of email and electronic signatures eliminated the need to hand deliver or mail reports. It is now literally possible to receive a request for an appraisal and have the completed report in someone's email box within a few hours.

For many people, the amazing transformation of the appraisal process has been a blessing. For others it has been a curse. It is a blessing for commissioned salespeople in brokerage and lending because it means they get their commissions faster. It is a blessing for the seller or buyer under pressure to complete a transaction in a hurry. It is a blessing for the appraiser who is willing and cap

contract a few days ago and they are wanting to close within a week of signing. Most of the speedup can be attributed to the proliferation of computers and the internet.

In the days before computers were in use for appraisal, we typed our reports on a typewriter. Computer forms processing software eliminated the typewriter. Various software evolved to make the processing of the forms appraisers use lightning fast. For many years though, the biggest remaining problems were in the use of photographs and delivery of the finished report. The advent of digital photography finally eliminated the need to take traditional paper photos and paste them onto "picture" pages. Then the widespread use of email and electronic signatures eliminated the need to hand deliver or mail reports. It is now literally possible to receive a request for an appraisal and have the completed report in someone's email box within a few hours.

For many people, the amazing transformation of the appraisal process has been a blessing. For others it has been a curse. It is a blessing for commissioned salespeople in brokerage and lending because it means they get their commissions faster. It is a blessing for the seller or buyer under pressure to complete a transaction in a hurry. It is a blessing for the appraiser who is willing and cap

ure" pages. Then the widespread use of email and electronic signatures eliminated the need to hand deliver or mail reports. It is now literally possible to receive a request for an appraisal and have the completed report in someone's email box within a few hours.

For many people, the amazing transformation of the appraisal process has been a blessing. For others it has been a curse. It is a blessing for commissioned salespeople in brokerage and lending because it means they get their commissions faster. It is a blessing for the seller or buyer under pressure to complete a transaction in a hurry. It is a blessing for the appraiser who is willing and capable of doing appraisals in high volume. But it is a curse in some ways for the lending industry and for the highly detail-oriented and conscientious appraiser simply because of the intense pressure to complete jobs as fast as possible.

Some types of residential appraisals are easier to complete than others. The appraisal of a small home in a "cookie cutter" neighborhood where plenty of market data is available is relatively easy. But anyone who believes that this is the normal scenario is mistaken. Every home is different and so is every neighborhood. Most of the work that I do is quite varied and requires enough time to be able to think about the situation and perform a decent analysis. This can be difficult when one has people constantly calling in a panic to get the completed report. So it's a mixed blessing in that I will make more money but deal with more pressure.

Every residential appraiser faces reviews of his or her work from time to time. For one reason or another, a percentage of my reports will be examined by others. I do a lot of this work myself for various clients as part of their quality control system. As time goes by I have gradually seen a deterioration of quality in residential appraisal reports. Not in presentation, for the various brands of report software give beautiful presentations, but deterioration in analysis and detail. The nuts and bolts of the report. Having better than 30 years in the business it is plainly obvious to me that the routine rush nature of mortgage lending appraisals has had a negative effect on appraisal quality. Too much is being overlooked or sped through. Reports are often filled with small errors that should have been caught by proof reading and analyses of problem situations are often shortchanged or omitted. Residential appraisers are simply under too much pressure to get these reports done too quickly in mortgage lending. Of course, there is the greed factor present in every job or profession, that motivates some people to do sloppy or dishonest work as well as the desire to compete, but I believe that time pressure is the primary culprit in deteriorating quality.

In the ever-increasing desire to complete real estate transactions in a flash, lenders have been attempting to make use of software appraisal solutions such as the AVM or Automated Valuation Model. These are basically computer programs that perform an analysis of public and private records to provide an "appraisal" of a home. These AVM products have come increasingly into use as a replacement for the traditional human appraiser, considered much too slow for today's market reality. Being a h