Does It Really Matter Who Tells You How Much Your Property Is Worth?

Appraisers have been accused of "sour grapes" on the whole AVM vs. human valuation of residential real estate. So, just out of curiosity, I ran six addresses that we appraised in the last six months through the Zillow software to see how close the numbers would come up. I was shocked at the results! I had always assumed that Zillow would tend to overvalue property and that only fueled homeowners' beliefs that their property is worth more than it really is. But, not one property came in at the value that we appraised it for! In fact, every single property came in on Zillow for thousands less than we appraised it for! The smallest difference was a paltry $12,000.00 (enough to make or break a purchase or a refi, for sure!), and the largest difference was an astounding $280,000.00! Averaged over the six properties I researched, Zillow undervalued properties at $141,000.00. There are many factors that contribute to the differences, but no matter which side of the argument you are on, the numbers prove that there is no substitute for the human factor in property valuation!
I read a great article recently, also, in The Detroit Free Press about AVM vs. Appraisal. It was written by Kenneth R. Harney, who is the Washington Post's real estate guru. He says, "Bottom Line: Even FNC calls appraiser-collected data "the gold standard." AVMs can be useful starting points - although Zillow's free "Zestimates" have been criticized for frequent inaccuracy by a variety of groups,.......If you truly want to know what a property is worth, don't settle for less than an experienced appraiser, live and on site."
To read the entire article, visit washingtonpost.com and search for articles by Kenneth R. Harney.
I welcome comments on both sides of this argument! Have a great day!

Oh, Happy Days!

So, let's start with some good news and pics of those dear to my heart!

On May 11, 2007, my beautiful, sweet little girl , Danielle Marie, married the man of her dreams, Roger Dale Reynolds, Jr. They are an adorable couple and we are all very happy for them! We are postponing the wedding reception until August, so family members who are in the Armed Forces may attend.



What a whirlwind of events during their wedding week! My other beautiful, sweet little girl, Hannah Catherine, came home from Arizona, and brought her beautiful, sweet little boy, Oliver Andrew! (He is the love of MY life - sorry, hubby!)


And, in the middle of all of this commotion, my handsome, sweet son's beautiful, sweet girlfriend, Sarah, threw him a surprise 30th birthday party. You may witness from the photos (they all look much too happy!), that I was not in attendance at this party - I had the honor of keeping company with my first grandchild, Oliver.

Oh, Happy Days - I promise not to bore you often with all of this sweetness! We will get back to business next week!

I now have a live blog on my website, so I will just copy and paste news from one to the other. My website blog is not as pretty as this one!

Photos: Danielle and Roger on their wedding day

Danielle, Hannah, and Jacob at his surprise 30th birthday party.

Jacob and Sarah at his surprise 30th birthday party.

Oliver Andrew - the love of my life!

Breaking News

BREAKING NEWS

Ford's 2006 loss totals record $12.7 billion.....

Pfizer to Lay Off 10000, Close Plants in Cost-Cutting Moves.....

Michigan's average unemployment rate for the first ten months of 2006 has been 2.1 percentage points higher than the corresponding national figure.....


Okay, so none of this is "breaking news"! We all know firsthand how Michigan is suffering, again! Having lived here all of my life (with the exception of two years spent in New Mexico when I was young and adventurous), I know that this is the downside of a cycle that we will pull out of and Michigan will survive, if not flourish!

With that thought in mind (I mean the thought that Michigan will turn around again!), I opened this company last year; and at that exact same moment, the real estate bubble burst....and no, that was not part of my business plan! But, like Michigan, Appraisal Pros has just kept plodding along, always thinking forward, doing everything we can think of to reach our customers.

In the nine months that we have been operational, we have contacted thousands of potential customers, done mass mailings, practiced guerilla marketing over the internet (sorry about that!), hosted a contest, and printed dozens of different coupons. We are registered with at least 30 appraisal management companies (one of them must be yours!), and are listed in over 40 internet directories. We made sure to have the best possible technology upon opening, and even learned how to use it all! I have done the necessary networking, made personal deliveries of our introductory packet; in short, done everything that I know to do that is within our budget to attract your attention.

So, do you want to know what the "breaking news" is?

In spite of the fact that 90% of our contacts are Michigan based, only 2% of our orders are coming to us from Michigan companies!

We have received orders from companies in:

Irvine, California
San Ramon, California
El Segundo, California
Lake Forest, California
Warwick, Rhode Island
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Raleigh, North Carolina
Knoxville, Tennessee
Chicago Heights, Illinois
Toledo, Ohio
Frisco, Texas

and we are very appreciative of all of our new friends and customers!

And, we have received a handful of orders from our wonderful Michigan friends in Taylor, Oak Park, Southfield and Brighton.

But, if Michigan companies don't help each other, who the heck will?

So, come on, we are not asking for all of your appraisal business!

If each of our Michigan contact companies would send us one appraisal a month, we would be rockin'!

Now, if all of our wonderful Michigan contacts and friends send us one appraisal all at the same time, we will be in trouble! So, just keep us in mind over the coming weeks and send a little work our way!

I know it's hard to leave your comfort zone and do the extra work to take on someone new. But, with Michigan losing jobs faster than any other state, it is important that we support each other, and help sustain the new entrepreneurs out there!


And, now, for the other breaking news! Let me introduce you to my first grandchild, Oliver. He was born December 16, 2006; just a little peanut at 5lbs 6oz. But, he is gaining quickly now! He is wonderful! But, sadly, he lives about 3 thousand miles away in Arizona and cannot yet talk to me over the phone or the computer.....I did get to meet him for a few days in January, and am hoping to get back there soon!
















Questions?

I am posting this on my blog space, also, which you can locate near the bottom of the home page of our website http://www.appraisalpros.biz.

I guess it is possible to respond to a blog, though I have never attempted to do so. Please feel free to respond to our "breaking news" through my blog page, if you'd like, or ask us any questions that you may have.

Or call us at (313) 292-3200 if you have any questions or need more information from us.
Hope to hear from you soon! Thx!

Another new person to be....

My baby girl had her baby boy on Saturday, December 16, 2006. The little peanut was not due for another two weeks! I was able to watch him eat, cry, and sleep on video via his Daddy's MySpace page. So, MySpace is good for something! All I ever hear about MySpace is bad, bad, bad.....
So, now I have another new hat to wear. Grandma.....oh, boy.....not having had any grandmas to speak of (one Grandma had already passed on by the time I was born, and the other Grandma was very old and I never really knew her), I only have this wonderful image of what a Grandma is supposed to be....chubby, wearing an apron, baking cookies....oh, wait, maybe that's Aunt Bea. I have only just started getting used to wearing this "owner of my own company" hat...good thing the poor child is three thousand miles away and doesn't expect this Super Grandma person to appear every day to spoil him!
I am happy to say that this week has been busier than I expected! My predictions were that this week and next would be dead, due to the holidays, but I received orders and quite a few inquiries today....yeah! If you would like to see the video of my new, and quite adorable, grandson, visit www.myspace.com/debseivers. I hope to put some new ones on the page tomorrow, but I know that my baby girl is very tired and Baby's Daddy needs to tend to her before MySpacing.
So, until tomorrow, it's all good!
Deb Seivers
http://www.appraisalpros.biz
http://www.myspace.com/debseivers

Shame on ME!

It has been two months since my last blog....not good! I know that I am supposed to post new "stuff" every day, or at least every week! And the blog has not been neglected because we are too busy. In fact, quite the opposite! We have been so slow, that I have been spending all my time looking for and entering new contacts into our database. Poor Michigan suffers so when the economy is bad....or even semi-bad!
But, along with the silence of slow business comes the craziness of the holidays! How is it that my children are all grown and gone from the nest and Christmas still takes so much time? I love to decorate the outside of the house, which I guess takes up a big chunk of time. If I can get a decent night picture of the lights, I will post it for you. I am the absolute worst photographer in the world and have never gotten a decent shot of either the outside Christmas lights or my oh-so-cheerful indoor Christmas tree.
I promise today to do a better job at keeping you informed about The Appraisal Pipeline and my own personal Pipeline!
So, until next time, Happy Holidays and it's all good! Deb Seivers

Thanks for all the help!

There are so many helpful websites out there for business owners; whether you are just starting out, or looking to grow, or are a woman owned business (like mine!), or seeking networking opportunities...the list goes on and on. I have visited countless websites over the last eighteen months; from the day that I decided to give this business ownership thing a try, and just about every day since then. Many websites have been a godsend and some entertaining; some a waste of time and space (cyberspace!). I just want to give you a short list of the websites that have been of the most help and inspiration to me.

1. First and foremost is the website "Start Up Nation" at www.startupnation.com. They have the most uncanny ability to cover the subjects that are bothering me at any given time. And, when I was trying to set up my network, they gave me personal one-on-one advice....which they probably won't appreciate me telling you. Their articles are concise, short, and interesting. And, the whole attitude of the website is so encouraging and upbeat...I love that! I feel like I am talking to a person, instead of just reading some dry, old words that were tossed into cyberspace. So, thanks to all of you at S/U Nation for sometimes being the only bright spot in a crappy day!
2. You may be surprised at my second choice, but I am impressed with their level of customer service and the overall intelligence of the website and the staff. I enjoy the Microsoft website for small business (www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness) and have had the pleasure of attending some of their webinars, which were extremely helpful and informative. So, thanks to you, Microsoft, you big monster company, for making this little, teeny-weeny company feel important and confirming my existence!
3. And, last but not least, I am super impressed with my software vendor, AlaMode. (www.alamode.com) Their website is aimed at those involved in real estate, but anyone would appreciate the quality of their presentations, their webinars, and especially, their superior customer service and troubleshooting staff! Only at IBM have I seen the kind of dedication, intelligence, and patience that these people present to me every day! I cannot tell you how much it has helped me in this endeavor to know that someone was on the support kiosk 24/7 to help me if all of this crashed down around me!

That's enough gushing for one day....I just wanted all of those faceless friends out there to know how much I have learned from them and how much I appreciate their efforts!

'Til next time, then...it's all good! Deb Seivers www.appraisalpros.biz

Now we are clickin'!

Okay, now this is more like it! We are moving right along here the last couple of days.....for a while, I felt like we had fallen off the face of the earth! Maybe consumer confidence is gaining...or those who have not yet jumped on the real estate band wagon are getting their cash out now before the interest rates go any higher...I have two points to make this morning; two points that I am quite embarrassed to admit. First, I have no idea why anyone, anywhere, at any time, would read this blog. I have to confess that I believe blogging is the single most arrogant action of these modern times, especially for regular folk like me. Believing that anyone out there gives a darn about what I have to say is so ludicrous...but all of the experts say blogging can generate more traffic to your web site, which I am definitely all about right now! I am a novice business owner, I do not have my appraiser's license (I run an appraiser support company, which means we do all of the grunt work for the appraisers), I have never considered myself to be a "career" woman, I do not have my Master's degree, or a PHD, or a Doctorate, or even any special certifications....in short, I am not an expert on any subject....except maybe everyday, regular, "down in the trenches" life! So, if you are looking for a expert in "s*it that happens", you have your man (or woman, in this case!). So, point number one - I think blogging is very vain and I think my offerings to this blogging world are very minimal, but I will give it a try! Second, I have to say that I don't generally take to heart all of the advice that is available in this huge global community of bloggers. I refuse to get caught up in all of this doom and gloom, and ups and downs, and good and bad numbers (I can manipulate numbers to say whatever I would like them to say, by the way....that's creative accounting!)....if I let myself listen to every Chicken Little who insists that the sky is falling, then I lose sight of the important things that I need to do every day in order to survive in the business world. That is, make some phone calls, send out some emails, talk to my friends and neighbors....you know, make real contact with people and not just push some words into cyberspace! No anonymous, unidentified, and, for all I know, no more qualified than me person or person(s) is going to shake my faith in my own abilities, my own experiences, and my own committment. So, point number two is - I don't believe everything that I read, no matter who the author! So, all of you disheartened small business owners (and double that for starter-uppers!), take heed - keep your chin up and remember all of the reasons why you got yourself into this mess in the first place! Believe in yourself and your goals....and only listen to the bad news with half an ear. Until next time - it's all good! Deborah Seivers http://www.appraisalpros.biz