Data is the life-blood of the appraisal process. The importance of clean, accurate and verifiable data cannot be emphasized enough. It is not only vital to the credibility of the appraisal report, it is the key to improved lending decisions and ensuring compliance to the increasing level of regulatory oversight for both lenders and secondary market investors.

Appraisers are taking advantage of the power of data with the use of statistically-based tools and improved scopes of work. The risk-adverse attitude in our industry will continue and will lead to a demand for improvements in the packaging and delivery of the appraisal report.