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16 APPRAISAL SURVEY SAYS … Seventy percent of appraisers plan to utilize desktop technology in the next two to three years to streamline their work, according to a new survey by Computershare Loan Services. Full survey results can be found in the company's white paper, "Property Appraisers in 2020— Embracing New Technology to Reinvigorate the Industry." Of the more than 400 answers received from Computershare's current network of appraisers, 35 percent responded that they are already utilizing desktop technology for a least a quarter of their appraisers. Overall, Computershare found that their survey results point to the fact that "U.S. appraisers believe their industry is on the brink of significant change." Despite only 12 percent of respondents reporting that desktop appraisals make up half their work, 37 percent said they expect to join this number by 2020 or 2021. Desktop appraisals differ from the standard appraisal method where an appraiser will visit the property to personally evaluate the interior and exterior. With desktop appraisers, appraisers instead utilize public records and online tools to make their assessment. Some appraisers choose to employ a hybrid method of the standard and desktop appraisals. Among the challenges appraisers face is the issue of supply and demand, according to Computershare. Citing data from a 2017 Appraisal Subcommittee report by the Federal Financial Institution Examinations Council, appraisers are outnumbered by real estate agents 25-to-1. Time and cost is also a factor for today's appraisers, according to Computershare. Citing Property Solutions data, the company revealed that an appraisal in some parts of Washington state took nearly four weeks to complete at a cost of $1,800—while in suburban Illinois this was decreased to less than a week and $450. "Like many professions, property appraising currently faces some interesting challenges, as well as the emergence of significant technological changes," Nick Oldfield, CEO of Computershare, said. "However, our white paper shows that, by embracing new methods, whether desktop appraisals, cloud computing or the use of drones, the industry can dramatically increase its efficiency and overcome other issues, such as declining numbers and a shortage of new appraisers entering the industry. ON THE WEB WEBSITES TO GET TO KNOW. Organizing meetings or events in today's landscape of busy schedules can be challenging at best. Sending along a Calendar invite can tell you whether someone's available for a given time, but what if you're trying to coordinate between a group of people? Which Date Works tries to fill this gap. e website is designed to help simplify making plans with friends or family, but there's no reason it can't work just as effectively for business purposes. e site allows multiple parties to enter their availability within a window of time, color- coding everything green or red for available or busy. Once you settle on a date, you can easily track everyone's confirmations as well. Available as a free version, as well as monthly and yearly subscription plans and a business- focused option, Minutes.IO aims to provide a simple, hassle-free way to take meeting minutes. Everything is designed to work without the user having to take their hands off the keyboard in order to increase speed and efficiency, so you won't even need to reach for your mouse or trackpad. Minutes.IO also provides assorted hotkey options to speed up the minutes-taking process as a meeting unfolds. e program even works offline as well as online, so you won't be hampered by spotty internet connections. When you're done, you can easily send a clean, professional- looking copy of the meeting's minutes to all the attendees. Mailstorm is perfect for anyone whose inbox looks like the digital equivalent of an episode of Hoarders. Mailstrom is a web-based email client that makes it easier to take bulk actions that affect your inbox. Mailstorm offers standard functions such as delete, archive, block, and move, but it also gets creating with features such as "chill," which removes an email or group of emails from your inbox, returning them on a date you select—perfect for a problem that needs to be dealt with but not yet. It also allows you to set up recurring rules so that future messages of the same sort or from the same sender will be dealt with in a similar fashion. MINUTES.IO 2 WHICHDATEWORKS.COM 1 MAILSTROM.CO 3