Eighty years ago, when the Farm Credit System
was in its infancy, a loan officer would often ride
horseback around the perimeter of a large farm
or ranch to assess the property that his lending cooperative
was planning to finance.
Like his Farm Credit predecessors, Jon Mask often finds
himself in remote country on his job as an appraiser for
Southwest Texas ACA. From the rugged ranchland in
the Davis Mountains to South Texas brush pasture, he
frequently travels rough roads and overgrown trails that
seldom see a pickup or even a horse.
But Mask and his colleagues who appraise rural real
estate don't worry about getting lost or breaking down in
the field. Thanks to global positioning systems (GPS) in
their vehicles these days, Farm Credit appraisers always
know their precise locations.
"GPS has changed the way we work more than any other
technology that has come along, outside of computers,"
says the veteran rural real estate appraiser. "With current
technology, we can do our jobs quicker, more efficiently
and with greater accuracy than ever before."
Gone are the days when Farm Credit appraisers and
loan officers carried rolled-up, dog-eared topographic
maps in their vehicles. Today, working from their offices
or their cars, they use topographic mapping software
to locate and delineate properties on their computers,
saving time and money, and -- most important --
doing so with precision. If they need to check recent
landmarks, they will download satellite images of the
property from the Internet.
"You can tell me this is Grandpa's farm, and I can take
the legal description of the property from the deed of
trust, map it on my computer, and then tell you the
acreage. I don't even have to go out there," Mask says.
|
When the appraiser does visit the property, he will use
GPS to verify the property location by establishing longitude
and latitude positions and examining features
such as buildings, fences and access roads.
"GPS does not replace visual inspections. We inspect
every property that we have a loan on," says Mask.
"GPS is just another tool that allows us to see things we
might not otherwise see."
There are many times when a visual inspection and
topographic map alone are insufficient. An example,
says Robby Vann, vice president and chief appraiser for
the Farm Credit Bank of Texas, is when a property is
on the edge of a floodplain. The use of GPS with digital
mapping will determine if buildings on the property
are in the floodplain and therefore need to be covered
by flood insurance.
In another case, Southwest Texas ACA recently worked
with two loan applicants who were interested in buying
a ranch that had not been surveyed. They planned to
divide the land between them and apply for separate
loans. Although they knew there was a well on the
property, they didn't know where. Mask located the
well and then used his GPS to determine on which half
of the property it was located.
Some Farm Credit appraisers also use software that
allows them to delineate a property on a map on their
computer and then overlay it with soil maps and satellite
images. "This kind of information helps the lender
to do a thorough appraisal more efficiently and to
reduce the cost of operations," says Vann.
"There is no doubt about it -- technology is helping
appraisers in the Tenth Farm Credit District to provide
top-notch service to its customers," he adds.
- Staff |
