Use Tables and Headers/Footers

Tables & Headers/Footers: Making Your Appraisal Report Look Professional

(by David Maloney) As a personal property appraisal course writer and instructor since 1994, I’ve reviewed many appraisals submitted by my students. Non-students also often ask me to review their appraisals for completeness or for USPAP compliance. Other than a couple appraisers who prepare their reports in MS-Excel, most all appraisals I have reviewed are prepared in MS-Word. (This article focuses on the Windows user. Similar features, of course, are available to the MAC user.)

Over the years I’ve often noticed a couple report shortcomings that occur on a consistent basis – specifically, these shortcomings include the failure of the appraiser to make use of MS-Word’s “Table” feature and MS-Word’s “Header/Footer” feature.

It is for good reason that appraisers using Windows most often use MS-Word to prepare their reports. MS-Word contains numerous features which, if used, will result in a report that is not only well-designed but also professional in appearance. But, as noted, two of the most important but most frequently under-utilized features of MS-Word are the Table feature and the Header/Footer feature.

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