Automated appraisal – do you trust the machine???

Submit your query online and get accurate appraisal report in a few hours or why waste time and energy, when you can generate the property appraisal report online?

With the mushrooming growth of property appraisal agencies in NY, such adverts are common. These promotional taglines suggest the concept of computerized property appraisals. They say that there is a cheaper and quicker automated appraisal technique, where based upon a few details, the appraiser will prepare an auto generated appraisal report. No time wastage, no hiccups, no expensive price tags and total accuracy… but really?

In this computerized model of property appraisal in NY, details like prices of other comparable properties in vicinity, property area and few other basic details are pulled up from historical sales data and are used to calculate the appraisal value. There is no personal visit to the property and neither is an appraiser really interested in actually studying the property’s condition. Do you think such a report can be of any value? Property appraisal is a serious process requiring the knowledge and expertise of an experienced property appraiser. If a computer could manage the task, why would anybody bother to pay an appraisal company for an in person appraisal process?

People pay because they understand the relevance of a detailed appraisal exercise. A property cannot really be evaluated, until and unless, it is personally examined. Rates of other similar properties can be obtained, but that is not the sole deciding factor. To determine the true worth, one needs to ascertain the state and condition of the property. If a property needs more of repair works, the property appraisal findings should say so and the vice versa. Likewise there are many other aspects which are totally ignored by a system generated shallow appraisal report.