Whether you’re just starting out in real estate, or you’ve been selling homes for years, you may be looking for opportunities to increase your income. Choosing a real estate side hustle can be challenging because you don’t want anything that will require an extensive time or financial investment to get started like flipping properties. You also need something you can ramp up or scale down with market fluctuations, unlike real estate marketing that requires consistent work and attention.
Becoming a property data collector may be the real estate side hustle that checks all your boxes. We’re providing some of the details you need to determine if it’s right for you and how to get started.
Understanding the role of a property data collector
Property data collection is a fairly new role in real estate that gained traction starting in 2019 and 2020. Before 2019, lenders could had to choose between requiring a full property appraisal or waive it entirely. In all but the lowest-risk loans, they required the comprehensive appraisal, but this led to delays that slowed down the loan origination process. To reduce the length of time, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac offered three new appraisal options to speed up the process without increasing risk for lenders: desktop appraisals, hybrid desktop appraisals, and property data reports.
All three types rely on accurate, standardized property data collection to form the foundation of these appraisals. That’s where a property data collector comes in. Property data collectors inspect the property and record factual, observable data, such as:
- Exterior and interior materials (like brick or vinyl siding, asphalt roofing, or carpeted floors)
- Property foundation, such as basement, crawl space, or slab
- Floor plan details
- Property features, like a pool or outbuilding
- Utility connections
- Obvious physical safety issues or structural integrity issues
Property data collectors log this information into an application and use it to…