electronic appraisal status of pooled fund, fhwa/texas project john zimmerman, director, acquisition...
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ELECTRONIC APPRAISALStatus of Pooled Fund, FHWA/Texas Project
John Zimmerman, Director, Acquisition Section TxDOT
Right of Way Division512-416-2928
[email protected]/FHWA AUSTIN 2005
Outline of Presentation
• →Status of Pooled Fund Project• →Appraisal a Critical Element• →Expediting Right of Way Acquisition and
can the appraisal process be streamlined? • →Discuss and define Artificial Intelligence
and its application to appraisal review • →Presentation by University of Texas
Researchers of current status of project
New Research Project May Help in Appraisal Review Electronically
• Texas is now the lead State in an AASHTO/FHWA Pooled Fund Research Project:– 1. To develop an electronic format for
transmittal of appraisals.– 2. Once in an electronic format, to develop
artificial (electronic) intelligence programs for assisting with appraisal reviews.
States With Committed Funds:
• Alaska, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin
• Benefits of participation are being able to provide input to the researchers and participate in surveys specific to a state’s appraisal process
IT IS NOT TOO LATE
• If additional states would like to participate we can still accept more states willing to contribute ($10,000), as this is a multi-year research project.
• Please contact me or Hilda Correa (512) 416-2902 to make arrangements to participate (John Zimmerman, TXDOT, (512) 416-2928).
Appraisal of Right of Way is Very Critical
• Private property rights have always been very important under the Uniform Act.
• Both the U.S. and state constitutions require that adequate and just compensation be paid when private property is acquired for a public purpose.
• Land appraisal is a key up front element in the right of way acquisition process.
Two Important Appraisal Purposes
• 1. To comply with constitutional requirements to adequately compensate a private property owner when such property is being acquired by the “public”.
• 2. To also ensure that the governmental agency that is paying for such property is not paying an excessive amount.
This is sometimes a difficult balancing act!
Appraisal Review
• Under Federal and State procedures, land appraisals (usually prepared by independent fee appraisers) are reviewed by a state DOT staff appraisal reviewer, or a ROW consultant’s reviewer:
1. To be sure the appraisal has been prepared properly and within the law.
2. To ensure both the landowner’s and the public’s protection from unsupported values.
Traditional Manual Appraisal Review
• Reviewer actually reads a paper appraisal report page by page and makes notes and manual calculations from figures in report.
• Average paper appraisal reports may consist of 50 pages, some more, some less.
• Review process can result in a delay in the acquisition process when there are many ROW parcels being acquired on a project.
Streamlining the Appraisal Review Process
• In today’s technology advanced environment, there may be ways to use technology to assist in appraisal reviews.
• Some refer to this as “artificial intelligence”• The first step is to have the formal appraisal
reports and information entered into an electronic format (document and text preparation on a computer is part of this process (word processing)
Artificial (Electronic) Intelligence
• This is utilizing a computer program, to search for certain key (defined) items, words, amounts, dates, etc.
• This allows both reports and charts to be prepared as a summary, as well as specific pages or parts to be flagged so a reviewer may not have to read every word or amount in a 50 page report.
Examples of Artificial Intelligence Already in Use
• The most simple form, which many of us already use, is being able to use a computer to find a specific word or group of words (or numbers) within an existing document.
• A more complex program some have used, is the electronic tax preparation software, like “Turbo-Tax”. It checks for both math and information errors and calculates taxes.
Ways Appraisal Review Can be Improved with Artificial Intelligence• 1. Speed up the process by flagging the key
areas that appear to need more intensive review by the person doing the review.
• 2. Looking for specific inconsistencies so that the quality of the review can also be improved.
• 3. Allowing comparison of other parcels in same project so better uniformity among the appraisals of multiple parcels, increasing possibility of acquiring more parcels by negotiation.
Presentation by Researchers
• Dr. Zhanmin Zhang and Dr. Carlos Caldas
• University of Texas Center for Transportation Research
Austin, Texas
