Paperless Appraisal Office - A Small Firm's Approach - The Workfile

In the article "Paper Cuts – Do they HAVE to hurt?" I talked about the small business love affair with paper and two of the basic tools that I use to ease the pain of breaking up! In this article I want to gets hands-on! We'll see how I've combined an inexpensive sheet fed scanner and PDF creation software to develop a "less-paper" protocol for my small appraisal office. If you're like me, there's just no getting away from creating some paper in the course of developing a real estate appraisal. Maybe it's:

• Field Notes
• Property Sketches
• Phone messages / emails
• Data verification on MLS listing sheets
• Assessment / Recorder's Office printouts

Much of this will be incorporated into the actual appraisal report, but much of it may not! A year or two down the road, when asked about my "development process", if I don't keep some of that extraneous data, I may not be able to document all of the steps that I took in my Scope of Work.

So how do I efficiently handle that paper and store it in a Paperless Workfile?

To start, I developed a basic plan that my "one-man" office could work with on a day-to-day basis over the long term.

• The first step was to replace my individual fax machine, scanner, copier and card reader, with a single 4-in-1 one multi-function device that was network ready and had sheet-feed capability. I still have my "production" B&W laser printer and ink-jet color printer for the occasional printed appraisal, so my low-end Brother 420-CN unit gets very little use as a printer/copier.
• The next step was to install the PaperPort software that came with the 4-in-1 device, and upgrade it to the full version. The PaperPort standard or professional versions include an excellent PDF writer and editor. PaperPort is also integral to organizing paperless files.
• Finally, I made a few decisions on how I would implement the hardware and software technologies into my existing workflow. I had to decide if I would keep some paper? How would I do backups? At what point do I create a transitional or permanent workfile of individual appraisals? etc.

Here's How I Do It!

1. Eliminate paper at the source: For each new assignment, I create a folder on my Windows desktop to temporarily hold files that will be created in the process of developing the appraisal. By default, I print everything to PDF so that I resist the temptation to print to paper first. If I need a paper copy, I'll print it from the pdf. That simple step eliminates the need to later scan all that stuff. The pdf's are all saved to their respective temporary folder on the desktop. ALSO: emails, fax tif files, voicemail files, screen shots, maps, etc. are saved to that same folder.
2. Going from paper to pdf: As soon as my assignment is complete and delivered, I purge my existing paper workfile of all extraneous and duplicate documents that may have been printed throughout the assignment. For example: If a map is IN the appraisal, there's no need for me to also save it to a workfile. Most commonly the remaining paper will be field notes, sketches, and data confirmation sheets. My sheet-fed scanner is set to scan documents using PaperPort's PDF creator and save to the Appraisal folder in My Documents. Everything will be scanned to a single multi-page PDF
3. Bringing it all together: At this point I have data in two separate folders and we really only want to have it in one place. A simple solution would be to drag the "temporary" desktop folder into PaperPort and then add the scanned pdf to it. PaperPort will then allow you to add search criteria and keywords so that you can find it again. In my case, my appraisal software has the ability to add [drag and drop] workfile documents directly to the appraisal's digital workfile. I open up the appraisal's workfile and then the temporary folder. I do a [select all] and drag all of the previously created files right into my appraisal report file.
4. Backup! Backup! Backup!: We all know that we have to keep our appraisal files and workfile for a MINIMUM of five years! That means that we need to have some plan for storing those electronic files. Discussing all the various file backup solutions are beyond the scope of this article, but suffice it to say that only keeping them on your computer's hard drive is NOT the best plan. You should have redundant backups and you should have some means of storing files off-site in case of disaster or theft. In my case, I save files to CD, to a networked PC in my office, and to a software integrated service called The Vault. Because I added all of my workfiles into my appraisal report, each time I save a back-up of my appraisal, I'm also saving my workfile as well.
5. What to do with all that paper? But . . We're now PAPERLESS! Right? Well not yet. We've scanned the paper but now what? Do we just throw it out? Shred it? Save it? My plan is to save the remaining paper for one year or until my lateral file drawer is full. That drawer is for temporary file storage and fast retrieval of relatively current report workfiles [*note - I have NOT printed paper "True Copies" of appraisal reports for years]. I used to move those files into long-term storage boxes for the balance of the five-year retention period. Having implemented my 4-step program above, I feel confident that I can retrieve all files and workfiles electronically.

I feel that this is a simple protocol and requires a minimum amount of change in my normal "paper-based" workflow developed over the years. Each year I find that my reliance on paper is diminished due to advancing technology. The use of dual-monitors is one the the biggest paper-savers that I've incorporated lately. Electronic data collection devices and software have been improving year after year and with the advent of the UMPC, combined with new sketching applications, we may be rapidly approaching the ultimate paperless solution for appraisers!

If you enjoyed this post, subscribe and get FREE updates! Appraisal , Real Estate , Appraiser , Technology , USPAP