Technology, Making The Process Easier

For the Greater New York City area, a new company is on the horizon, Bowery Valuations. The year-old company launched a program which automates the entire Appraisal process. The program allows Appraisers to virtually upload pictures and searches the internet for information and documents they would need for the report within minutes. 

Noah Issacs and John Meadows understood the need for a faster reporting process and were determined to make that happen. The two quickly began seeking investments from family and friends and in no time, James Dunnem, COO, and Chief Appraiser was on board.

We were able to sit down with James and get the inside scoop on what Bowery is all about. 

Buzz: How did the vision of Bowery Valuation begin?

James: Bowery launched a year ago last May. I have been in the Real Estate industry for 17 years and appraising for 10. About a year and a half ago I met John and Noah. Quickly, they realized the appraiser reports were outdated and needed to change. Most firms are essentially working on an excel or word document. The typical report, on average, is 100 pages. After the site visit, the appraiser has to research comparable and the surrounding market. There are websites one can search to pull the information and then manually transfer it to the Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Word document. Basically, how this process unfolds, it is a lot of writing and re-writing over old appraisal reports. 

The industry has had the mentality, “If it is not broken, don’t fix it” and certainly there have been some people in the appraiser world who have tried to tackle it and those companies have tried improving old technology. John and Noah decided to start from scratch.

Buzz: For our readers who may be unfamiliar with your company, can you tell us what the product does?

James: The difference is the way our Appraisers are pulling the information. We work with the tristate area; the NYC Department of Finance and the program automatically pulls the results from the Department of Planning and Public Records. So rather than the Appraiser searching the web and writing the reports, it is all done for them. A lot of the administrative work is cut down.

But, the program is working with the Appraiser. The Appraiser is the one making all of the decisions in terms of market rents and expenses in the building. Once the report is complete the Appraiser can download it all in a PDF format to present it. 

Buzz: Bowery created this software program but is it still an appraisal company?

James: We refer to the software side of our business as Bowery Real Estate Systems, however, we operate our appraisal firm as Bowery Valuation. Commercial real estate appraisals in their written form are complex, and our reports average 100 pages; with so many moving parts in our reports, operating an appraisal firm allows us to continually improve the software in-house by getting direct real-time feedback from our appraisers. This is important as we expand the software to handle more assets types and geographic locations. We currently license the software to our partner, Cushman Wakefield.

Buzz: The program works hand in hand with appraisers. So, basically, the software was developed to assist the process and make it easier, correct?

James: Correct. Our software walks the appraiser through the appraisal process in an organized and efficient way. Our public record integration, mapping, and natural language generation reduces the amount of time the appraiser spends doing what is essentially administrative work in the appraisal, so the appraiser can focus their time on the valuation. Our software assists the appraiser but doesn’t replace an appraiser’s knowledge, education, and experience. Our software does not provide automated valuations. However, our software passively collects all the data our appraisers enter into the app, and once our database is large enough to analyze trends in the data, we will use AI to analyze this big data and the software will make suggestions to the user.  For example, it may suggest what stabilized operating expenses to conclude to, or what adjustments in the sales comparison approach to use. However, the appraiser will always make the final decisions in their reports.

Buzz: Do you specialize in commercial or residential?

James: We only appraise commercial properties, and that’s what our software is built to handle.  Right now we have no intention of building software for residential real estate appraisals, as we’ve found that there are already multiple software firms competing in that space.

Buzz: For the valuation industry in New York City, how do you see them adapting to modern technology?

James: Certainly, there is always new technology presented in any industry. And when there is, there is caution among the market participants. Ultimately, when we present the program to a new client and show them the process and steps they are intrigued. We give them a demo and the caution is typically alleviated. Every appraisal we do goes through the program and is approved by an Appraiser. Once we provide them with a sample report, they see the quality of the report and we give it a try with one assignment. 

I am surprised how quickly they have come to accept the technology but at the end of the day, we are delivering a PDF report they would receive from any other appraiser and the admin work is significantly cut down. 

Buzz: How much administrative work is cut down?

James: When I started appraising close to 10 years ago the turnaround time was 3 weeks. Industry standard I would say for that time. We very often get appraisal requests for 1 week turn around and the industry is moving toward a 1 week turn around. Time expectation has been shrinking and a lot of that time expectation has been shrinking because of technology out there making it more efficient. 

Buzz: The appraisal industry does consist of a largely older generation, ones who are not very “tech savvy” – do you find this concerning at all?

James: It is a bit of a problem, the average age of appraisers in the U.S. is in their 50’s. With that, it is signaling me to believe that there are not enough young people in the industry. Appraisers have become more efficient even the older generation. I do not see a lack of Appraisers in the industry but as the older generation begins to retire especially the baby boomers – we need to attract the younger generation. One of the things Bowery has seen during our hiring process is excitement. We have been flooded with applications from young people right out of College. And that is because of the technology. We see people interested in technology and interested in real estate and didn’t know about the appraisal industry, even unaware of what they do, and they hear about the technology and they are excited to join the industry.

Buzz: How do you hope this will advance the valuation industry?

James: We all still rely on Appraisers. On their experience and their knowledge. But we hope to make the process easier. The Appraisers have the hard part, learning about the market and the process but hopefully, technology can only help.

Buzz: James, thank you for taking the time to talk with us. If you would like to learn more about Bowery Valuations, please visit their website.

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