Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear — 1997! Back then, we brought the industry's first EDI servers online, and people said we'd taken leave of our senses. Printing reports, taping maps and photos to template pages, photocopying and faxing to clients was a cumbersome process but it was a familiar cumbersome process. Besides, a prescient argument went, brokers and loan officers would be reluctant to go for "e-mailed" reports.
It did take time to go from 2,000 appraisals routed through our Project 2000 EDI servers that first month in 1997 to the two million per month they handle now, and a lot of clients still haven't cut the fax line cord. But appraisers have two main features, we think you'll agree: They're skeptical, and therefore clinical and dogged in their evaluation of something; and they'll try just about anything that will let them turn reports around more quickly. Wireless technology certainly does that.
Everyday wireless applications and field tools abound. The problem was that originally, these tools were developed for computer experts who happened to be away from the office. Certainly not for people who had jobs, and therefore no time to get an associate's degree in computer science. Happily, the times they are a'changin'. Today, "plug and play" really means plug it in, and you're ready to play.
Wireless technology, commonly referred to as Wi-Fi, is no longer for just the gadget geeks and early adopters. If you have a cell phone, you can get high speed Internet in the field. Pocket PCs with Wi-Fi cards that give you field Internet access combined with other important timesaving functions to deserve a serious look, even for the Wi-Fi shy.
This very minute there are appraisers who are sitting in their cars reading this newsletter. No, they're more likely sending their reports and sketches and handwritten notes from their Pocket PCs to their laptops. Those same appraisers are then downloading their location and flood maps, selecting, sizing and placing their subject photos, and putting the final touches on the sketch. That being done the notes are saved in the workfile, the report e-mailed to the office, the car put in drive and it's off to the next stop. We could have sold that ten years ago as a plot line for a sci-fi movie. Now, it's the workflow of many Wi-Fi-enabled appraisers. (Field tools that save you time and don't break the bank was the impetus for our development of Pocket TOTAL. Pocket TOTAL on your Pocket PC literally saves you 30 minutes per appraisal. And it doesn't take an advanced degree to use.)
But what about price? It's one thing for wireless technology to be easy to use, and another if you're paying through the nose. Digital cameras aren't the only things whose prices have bottomed out recently. Good Pocket PCs cost little more than $200. Pretty much every wireless application you could want runs less than $75, and the monthly service won't break the bank, either. And the best time to invest time and money into a new productivity tool is before you need it to differentiate your service level and turn times to keep getting plum assignments.
There are hundreds of places to thoroughly research any techno-tool you're interested in, starting these days with some of your colleagues. Not only have they probably tried stuff that didn't work that they can warn you about, but even the most grizzled is likely to have a cell phone or Pocket PC recommendation for you. The Yahoo WinTOTAL and Pocket TOTAL user group is a great resource to discuss Pocket TOTAL, Wi-Fi and other timesaving tools with fellow appraisers. Invest some time in learning about some of these tools and you'll be glad you did.
