May 1, 2014

Volume 10 - Newsletter 9

Streamlining the Business of Commercial Real Estate

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Did you know...

Barbara Phelps
Director of Implementation

You can print multiple sets of comp write-ups from DataComp to Edge via custom word profiles (even from the same DataComp module). For example, from the Multi-Family Lease module, you can print both a set of market rent and a set of restricted rent comp write-ups then merge them into your report through EDGE. You can also have multiple Excel adjustment grids and comp maps.

Feel free to call us directly at 813-221-0703 or email us at techsupport@realwired.com and we will promptly respond back.

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Past Newsletters

If you missed our prior Newsletters, you can view them by clicking here.

Timely Advice

Heidi C. Lee, MAI, MRICS "Specializes in commercial appraisal review and bank regulatory/process consulting."

My father was a smart man; not a genius, but very smart. He was a member of Mensa. He wrote poetry in iambic pentameter and read Canterbury Tales in old English. He spoke four languages besides English - Russian, German, Korean, and Japanese - all of which he learned during his stint in Army Intelligence. No one would dispute that my father was smart, but was he wise? When you learn he never finished college because he refused to take the lower-level courses he found boring, you might doubt his wisdom. When told of how he turned down a free-ride to medical school because he was "not particularly" interested in becoming a doctor, that opinion may be reinforced.

Despite those decisions, there are two pieces of fatherly advice I still recall for their practical wisdom. The first is very applicable for appraisers: if you do something right the first time, you will not have to do it over again. As a review appraiser, that is advice I would sometimes like to pass on to a fellow appraiser. The second bit of fatherly wisdom is this: time is all we truly own, and then only briefly before it passes beyond our grasp forever.

Everyone agrees that "time is fleeting," but few of us really take that to heart. Instead, we waste time - all the time, hours at a time, days and weeks and months of our lives with nothing to show for it. And yet time is the ultimate unsustainable resource. We can do nothing to stop it from passing us by.

My father died just before the PC revolution made them part of everyone's lives. He used an abacus to balance his checkbook, not only because he liked the historicity of the tool, but also because the technology that is so integral to our lives today was little more than a novelty then.

Today, right now, this minute, we do not have the same excuse. Technology is ubiquitous, for good or for ill. Despite the draw to lose ourselves in technological playgrounds, we should remain mindful that technology is the surest path to better management of our tasks and our time. Yet even if we jettison high-tech time-wasters and focus on the time-savers, technology can still tie us in knots on occasion and defeat its intended purpose. Technology reaps the best results when we keep in mind three maxims:

Only consider technology that meshes with your current work process. Resist the allure of the Gucci pump. Instead make sure the shoe you buy fits so well you can walk out of the store with it on and go hiking without getting blisters.
No matter how powerful or impressive, do not buy technology with a large learning curve unless you will use it frequently, are a perpetual student, or a glutton for punishment.
Focus on technology that automates or shortens the time you spend on the stuff that is not your expertise. In other words, use technology to spend more time doing what makes the most money and less time on all the other stuff.

Beyond efficiencies and maximized profits, technology can free up our time to do things other than work. Yet many appraisers do not take advantage of this benefit. Maybe it will help if I introduce you to Zacchaeus. He was a rich man who spontaneously decided to give away half his possessions when he met Jesus. I thought about his decision when I read that passage again recently. How would I feel if I had half of my present possessions? Would I be less happy? Would I be impaired?

Having lost the bulk my stuff in a hurricane named Katrina, I know for sure I would be neither less happy nor in any way impaired if my possessions were so reduced again. I think the same would be true for you. So work a bit less; you do not need any more stuff. Use some of your precious passing time to enjoy your life and those you care about the most.

Listen to my father. Maybe he was a genius after all.

Guest Writer
Heidi C. Lee, MAI, MRICS
ARC - Appraisal Review and Consultation
504-512-6881
heidileemaimrics@gmail.com
www.appraisalsolutionsforbanks.com

If you would like to join a discussion about this topic or Appraisal Best Practices, go to our blog or contact Jeff Hicks.

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