How New Tech Tools Are Transforming Home Appraisals
Home appraisals play an important role in major financial transactions like buying, selling, or refinancing a property. Appraisers are tasked with accurately determining a home's market value based on recent property sales and other marketability factors. While the core skills of appraising remain the same, new technologies are helping appraisers work more efficiently in today's fast-paced housing market.
This blog explores some of the cutting-edge tools that appraisers are adopting to streamline their processes. From drones and 3D scans to powerful online databases, innovative technologies are saving appraisers valuable time that can be better spent analyzing properties and writing detailed valuation reports. At the same time, these tools also benefit homeowners by enabling quicker turnaround times and more comprehensive documentation of their most important investment.
Drones for Aerial Property Photos
One game-changing technology is drones equipped with high-resolution cameras. Instead of just making assumptions, appraisers can now fly drones around homes to photograph the exterior and surrounding area from every angle. This provides a bird's-eye view of roof conditions, all sides of the structure, and hard-to-access areas like waterfront properties.
Drones capture everything in just minutes, improving safety by eliminating fall risks. The aerial photos also give valuable context about a home's location and improvements that traditional ground shots can't match. For appraisers doing many residential inspections each month, drones save significant time versus traditional methods while producing better documentation.
3D Scanning Replaces Manual Measurements
Taking property documentation further is 3D scanning technology. Using laser scanners or smartphone cameras, appraisers can now digitally "scan" entire interior spaces in three dimensions. This allows them to measure room sizes, count windows and doors, and develop floor plans automatically while significantly saving time.
3D scans create highly accurate virtual models that are also useful for marketing purposes. While 3D scanning requires an initial investment, it truly revolutionizes the inspection process by automating measurements and documentation. For high-end residential work or unique property types, it's a must-have tool.
Powerful Online Property Research
Major technology upgrades are also happening in online property data access. Many local MLS real estate listing services now offer robust search and analytics tools through their websites and mobile apps. This gives appraisers instant access to vital listing details, sales histories, tax records, permits and more with just a few clicks.
Outside of MLS’s, other data aggregators consolidate even more public records on valuation trends, neighborhood demographics and property attributes into centralized online research hubs. With so much information at their fingertips, appraisers should leave no stone unturned in finding comparable property sales and data to base their valuations on.
As you can see, innovative technologies are truly optimizing the home appraisal workflow from start to finish. Drones, 3D scans and powerful online databases are streamlining processes in ways that benefit both appraisers and homeowners alike in today's digital real estate landscape.