Abstract: An appraisal system obtains reliable information relating to subjective property characteristics of a property and quantifies the contributions of such subjective characteristics on the value of the property. An appraiser enters subjective property information regarding a subject property into the appraisal system, which evaluates other properties using property data obtained from property databases to identify comparable properties. Key condition data for the comparable properties is extracted from subjective property characteristics available from the real estate property data. The key condition data for both the subject property and the comparable properties is catagorized and assigned condition scores based on the characteristic's impact on the property valuation. The condition scores for each property are combined into composite condition scores, which can be quantifiably compared with property characteristics to assist in selecting comparable properties.

Abstract: In support of an appraisal process, comparable properties are ranked using an algorithmic approach that considers multiple property characteristics of multiple properties to find and order the most similar properties to a subject property. In one implementation, a deterministic linear dissimilarity algorithm is used to compare multiple characteristics of multiple properties, relative to a subject property. An appraiser can also weight various characteristic categories to emphasize features the appraiser believes to be most important in the appraisal. The appraiser can therefore customize the weightings associated with such property characteristic categories to reflect local valuation relationships.