I shall never forget the day I walked into that appraiser’s home office in Garland, Utah and looked at his desk. There was no computer to be found. Just an oversized, beige typewriter. “Where’s your computer,” I asked apprehensively?
“Oh, I am too old to learn that new, fandangled technology stuff.”
I was speechless. The year was 2002! I know some of us are resistant to change, but this was a bit extreme. Certainly, I will not compare using only one monitor in 2014 to clutching the past of paper and ink ribbon in 2002, but the case could be made that you might be a bit behind the curve if you have not yet set up a second monitor.
My firm is a paperless office. That is a post for another day, but whether you are paperless or not, you should—at the very least—be using two (or more) monitors. Allow me to tell you why.
Appraisers (or their assistants) do a great deal of data entry. Much of that data is simply transferred from one place to another. We read information from a tax record or MLS sheet and enter it into the appraisal software. Unless you are using software like Datamaster® or mapping the data through export, you are looking at one thing and retyping it to something else. Unless you have more than one monitor, that means you are either toggling back and forth between programs, or you are wasting a lot of ink and paper printing. Dual monitors will solve that problem.
I have transitioned from dual monitors to triple monitors and am now exploring an even greater increase. At least one appraiser in my Dream Team Mastermind program is using six monitors. Multiple monitors allow the use of the same computer, but the ability to see your appraisal software, your MLS or tax sheet, your email, your text addendum, and possibly your music or Netflix stream.
Setting up a second, third or sixth monitor is not hard. Most people think you need to completely redo your computer’s hardware. This is no longer the case. With USB 3 and a good hub, you can set up monitors to run multiple programs without tragically affecting your overall CPU use.
I have coached many appraisers encouraging them to move to a minimum of two monitors. In every case—without exception—they are glad they did and said they would never go back. Dual monitors for appraisers is cheap, easy, and will save you a great deal of time and money
Dustin Harris, Creating ‘Value’ for Real Estate Appraisers
For more information on this subject, please listen to The Appraiser Coach Podcast Episode:
