Back in the day…

I started in the appraisal business 35 years ago. Long before cell phones and computers were even dreamed about.

As a young appraiser, many times we were given only an address and a contact name. Surveys and data were less available also. Even back then, the property contact people were unresponsive. If the property was “open to the public”, we would sometimes visit the property anyway if formal contact could not be made.

So happens, one of our staff associates was given an address of a retail site. It turned out that it was a community center. The contact person was not reachable, so this staffer made the inspection and tape-measured by hand-the building. After a full day of taking notes and photos of the property and area, the staffer returned to the office.

Upon his return he learned that an error had been made. Two digits in the address had been juxtaposed. The real assignment was for a small shoe store building. The staffer had looked at the wrong property and spent over a few hours just measuring it. Rewind- he then had to make contact and go back to inspect the correct property. Valuable time flushed down the drain. It took years for the staffer to Iive that one down.The moral is verify your facts before traveling to the wrong building. Save yourself some embarrassment (and time) with a little advance planning. GKD

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