Appraisers should always be looking for ways to diversify their services as a means minimize the "all your eggs in one basket" problems of primarily working only for lenders. One alternative that blends very well with existing appraisal skills is providing accurate and detailed floor plans sketches for FSBO and sales agent clients!
Two companies that have broken into that market and are looking for appraisers are FloorPlanOnline and MeasuringProfessionals.com
RISMedia (Full story click here) announed today that FloorPlanOnlineSM has announced its selection as a preferred vendor for interactive floor plans and virtual home tours for online listings of GMAC Real Estate agents in markets nationwide.
Property photos are linked with professionally rendered floor plans to allow agents and sellers to host a virtual open house tour of their properties, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. FloorPlanOnline provides a range of marketing materials, from property flyers to “viral” marketing tools which allow the online presentations to be delivered via email to prospective buyers and others that help showcase properties for sale.
A recent survey from the National Association of Realtors found that well over 70% of property buyers used the Internet to search for properties. And that number continues to increase. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, about 15 percent of the active Internet population visited a real estate or apartment site last April, up 26 percent from a year earlier.
According to Marlin Cone, senior vice president of sales and marketing for FloorPlanOnline: “We developed FloorPlanOnline’s products and services to help real estate agents and sellers respond to the growing trend of online home shopping. We’ve tried to make it easy for the seller to quickly sell their home and for the “X” and “Y” generation buyer to get the information they demand to facilitate their decision making process. That is where the market is headed in the future, and those who do not grasp that will likely find it more difficult to compete in the future.”
Examples of the Interactive FloorPlan presentations can be seen by clicking on: here and here. According to Matt Johnson, founder of AppraiserDepot.com,
Before I started AppraiserDepot.com, I owned an appraisal shop in Oklahoma City. Like many of you, the one part of the business that I struggled with was advertising. Since I didn't have a marketing background, I had trouble coming up with creative ideas that made me stand out from my competition. After brainstorming for a few weeks, I decided on a plan - measuring houses for a fee. That probably sounds strange to most of you, but it is a great way to make additional money and get more appraisal business.
Why would someone want me to measure a house? There are many reasons why realtors and homeowners need houses measured. Here are a few of the reasons that I encountered:
- County square footage is incorrect - A new room has been added to the house
- Should the enclosed porch or patio be considered as Gross Living Area?
- They need a second opinion on another appraiser's sketch
- The realtor does not want to be held liable for the square footage listed in the MLS
How to decide on a fee?
My measuring fees really depended on several factors:
- What is the approximate size of the house?
- Will it be difficult to measure? - How far is it from my office?
- Do I have any appraisals scheduled near the property (cuts down the travel time and fuel costs)?
- How soon do they need me to do it?
Matt Johnson's website, MeasuringProfessionals, is a directory of people who can perform a variety of measuring tasks. Those tasks include perimeter sketching, floor plans, as-built floor plans, virtual tours, and land surveys. This website isn't just for appraisers---it is for anyone that has the experience and expertise needed to complete these types of jobs.
They advertise this website to companies and individuals who require these types of services. We will also send out broadcast emails to their members notifying them of companies who are actively seeking service providers. They are already working with FloorPlanOnline and they are seeking appraisers from around the country for measuring assignments.
MeasuringProfessionals.com's directory offers a "1 county listing" for FREE. If you want to be listed in more than one county, additional county listings can be purchased for $4.99 per year. They decided to charge for this because it will keep people from "blanketing" a state with their listing (most people won't travel 100 miles to measure a house). If they want to purchase a listing in every county, they can, but it will cost them. Read more.
If you're ALREADY signed up for one of these services I'd really like to hear some of your comments about the pros and cons. Just use the comments feature at the bottom of this blog post.
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