Use case: Automatically generate valuation reports with Microsoft Power Platform

When selling their house, property owners often contact a real estate agency to prepare a valuation report. This document is a snapshot of the property's value at that time. Producing valuation reports can take a lot of time and effort, especially when done manually. Cegeka has developed a user-friendly, all-in-one canvas app using Microsoft Power Apps that allows real estate appraisers to generate clear and detailed valuation reports in just a few clicks.

The importance of valuation

A valuation or appraisal report is a detailed document that outlines the value of a property based on its condition, location, and upon prevailing market conditions. This document is the result of a thorough assessment of the property by a real estate appraiser.

A valuation report is important for several reasons:

• It offers a neutral, objective estimate of a property’s market value at a particular moment in time.
• It helps prevent mortgage lenders from offering oversized loans to borrowers.
• It allows potential buyers to negotiate a better deal with the property owner.

The challenge

One of our customers – an enterprise specializing in real estate services and investment management – was taking a rather cumbersome approach to creating valuation reports:

• At the beginning of the day, appraisers received a list of properties to be assessed.
• They drove to each property, manually assigned a series of scores and took photographs.
• After all the properties were assessed, the appraisers had to drive back to the office to re-enter the same scores into a template, add the photos and then finalize the valuation report.
  
  

Together with our client, we set out to find a more efficient way to create valuation reports and thus avoid duplicate work for appraisers.

The approach

We used Microsoft Power Apps to create a comprehensive, easy-to-use, custom canvas app that drastically changed and streamlined our customer’s valuation process:

• Now, upon opening the application, the appraiser first sees an overview of all ongoing projects.
• Each project consists of one or several properties.
• For each property, the appraiser can:
  • check the address
  • open a navigation tab with a detailed map
  • browse additional information
  • open the scoring tab
  • open the photograph tab
• In the scoring tab, the appraiser can initiate the valuation. The level of detail depends on the type of valuation – either a simple drive-by appraisal or a full assessment. The appraiser assigns 1 to 5 stars to a variety of aspects, such as public transport accessibility, property orientation, and type of glass and window frames used.
• Once the assessment is complete, the appraiser opens his camera within the app and takes pictures of the property.
• After completing the valuation, Microsoft Power Automate automatically sends all the data to a SQL database. From there, the report is automatically generated, and the appraiser can move on to the next property.
  
  

The results

Today, our customer is reaping the benefits of his new valuation app:

• Goodbye duplicate work: instead of needing to return to the office to manually copy all the data and finalize the report, the appraiser can automatically generate the valuation report from the app.
• Consistency is key: the report is presented in a standardized template that includes all scores and photos.
• Each valuation is different: appraisers can choose between a basic report for drive-by valuations or a comprehensive one for more thorough inspections.
• Select what needs to be highlighted: it’s also possible to customize reports and add additional aspects to be scored.