ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation’s premier property database, and AVM Analytics, a valuation software development firm, announced the launch of a new lender-grade automated valuation model — ATTOMIZED AVM. Valuations from the ATTOMIZED AVM are available for more than 80 million U.S. homes, ATTOM announced in a press release.
The new ATTOMIZED AVM is available for delivery via ATTOM’s various data delivery platforms, while the new ATTOMIZED AVM will be available in 2,194 U.S. counties located in all 50 States, the release said.
“The new ATTOMIZED AVM fills an important gap in the world of property valuation products that primarily reside on one of two extremes: overpriced lender-grade AVMs that are only cost-effective for a select few giant corporations; and free AVMs available to the masses but diluted due to their inherent need to be all-inclusive — not to mention they are typically not available to be delivered in bulk,” ATTOM Data Solutions CEO Rob Barber said in the release. “The ATTOMIZED AVM targets the big middle between those two extremes, providing the marketplace with a lender-grade AVM delivered via bulk data delivery platforms that are flexible and cost-effective.”
The ATTOMIZED AVM employs multiple valuation models to calculate the estimated value of a home, and then applies a cascading model selection algorithm to choose the approach that is most accurate in the geographic area surrounding the individual property. Accuracy rates are run regularly, comparing historic ATTOMIZED AVM values with actual sales prices, to ensure the model is continuing to cascade to the most accurate approach in every geographical position nationwide. An ATTOMIZED AVM whitepaper with detailed explanation of methodology and accuracy also is available.
The model, according to the release, also intentionally excludes several types of properties that can have a negative impact on the predictive value of other homes and that require more situation-specific data and modeling outside of the methodologies that work best for standard residential properties of one to four units. Some excluded property types are mobile homes, extremely high-end luxury homes, special use properties, homes on farm land, and multi-unit homes with five or more units.
“What we exclude is important,” AVM Analytics Vice Chairman and co-Managing Director Clifford A. Lipscomb said. “Not only do we exclude certain anomalous property types, but we also exclude the subject property itself, making our monthly accuracy tests a true out-of-sample comparison.”