A Few Tips for Faster Turn Times

The appraisal profession is evolving constantly. Regularly, it seems, appraisers are asked to present extra information or have steps added to their appraisal process. They do this additional work to ensure their client is presented with the most useful data possible. In order to stay current with the continuously changing requirements, Allstate Property Appraisal Services is always seeking additional tools and tweaking processes in order to increase efficiency so we can do more work for our clients. Since Allstate Property Appraisal Services knows that time is important to everyone, we've listed some items you can do to accelerate the process whenever you order an appraisal from Allstate Property Appraisal Services:

  1. Always order your appraisals online. With online ordering, you automatically get e-mail acknowledgements that the order was received, and fast, secure .PDF format report delivery. This tip alone will save the most time! No longer do we have to re-key information from a fax, and you don't have to wonder whether the order was received.

  2. Are you providing complete and accurate data about the subject property? 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 in the area is welcome — however, remember that professional appraisers are lawfully required to do their own due diligence on comparable sales, and ours may differ from yours.

    3. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about your property or an assignment we're working on for you.

  3. Are you telling us up front any characteristics of the property that might make it distinct? It's relatively easy to appraise a cookie-cutter home. Most of an appraiser's time is spent analyzing how differing features contribute 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 features of the home or surrounding area -- for example, it's had a recent addition constructed, it's subject to zoning restrictions, and it's predisposed to flooding. These are things we'll find out on our own anyway, and knowing them sooner makes your report arrive sooner.

  4. Be sure the occupants know the plan. One of the most tedious steps of the appraisal process is setting an appointment with the occupants of the home. Some homeowners are clearly apprehensive with the idea that a stranger wants to come in their house, look around, and take abundant notes. With the idea that it will make the house appraise for more money, many homeowners believe they must make the place spotless before the appraisal inspection and will delay the inspection until they have cleaned.

    Hearing from you -- a trusted party with whom they already have a business relationship -- some 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. Our website has several pages of helpful information about the appraisal process for homeowners. Please feel free to share it with your clients. They can even call us if they want to familiarize themselves with the staff and our services. And tell them it's to their advantage to set the appointment soon!

  5. Why not use our website as a resource to verify your report's status? Why are you still playing phone and fax tag when our website offers up-to-the-minute status updates available online, anytime, 24/7? As we complete each important milestone in an assignment, that information can be viewed instantly online. It's never been faster to keep track of the status of your report.