Use CoPilot to route you from property to property

As I've traveled the country over the past few years teaching mobile technology that appraisers use in their day-to-day workflow, one app comes up time and again in my conversation with appraisers: CoPilot.

Appraisers use CoPilot on their cell phones and tablets to route themselves from one property to another using the most efficient route possible. Most appraisers, when they go out into the field, will visit several properties in one day. Since this usually involves properties from more than one report, a set of differing location maps from a formfiller is likely insufficient to truly help. Many appraisers, however, still use some sort of paper list they create manually before heading out into the field.

With CoPilot, you simply plug in your starting point (home?), an end point (office?), and any subjects or comps you need to visit for the day into CoPilot. Then, the program can route you the most efficient way from one to the other. The app runs about $10, though it usually begins with a 14-day trial period.

The CoPilot app on your mobile device is a melding of the best of two worlds: you get excellent turn-by-turn directions spoken aloud just like your GPS unit, but also the flexibility and ease-of-input of a mobile device. For example, in my own use I find it's easier and faster to use the speech-to-text on my mobile phone than to even type the addresses into CoPilot.

I've even used CoPilot in my personal life. When my wife ran for public office last year, the job of delivering yard signs fell to me. Using CoPilot GPS, I was able to deliver yard signs to almost 100 properties in just over five hours one night, a task that would have taken me hours longer using Google Maps — and almost impossible if using a printed list. That's one property about every three minutes, including drive time. I've been a big proponent of CoPilot ever since.

CoPilot is one of the many apps that we suggest for appraisers to consider in the third day of our Modern Appraiser Roadshow. Click here to see the topics in our roadshow, and click here to read more or get CoPilot.