Believe It or Not: Creating Credible and Supported Adjustments

Course overview

This course is designed to teach students when recognized adjustment methods and techniques are credible and how to support them. This is done, in part, by explaining the conceptual basis for statistical and logic-based adjustment methods. To do this, the course includes basic instruction in statistics, algebra geometry and graphing. These mathematical concepts help students understand the difference between causation and correlation in the data and what makes the results credible. The importance of judgement in the adjustment process is emphasized throughout the course as it relates to outliers, data entry errors and credibility. While the course demonstrates the most common adjustment methods used in residential valuation, the concepts and theories apply to all appraisal practice. The course is designed for students with some knowledge of adjustment methods, basic math skills and workfile requirements but goes into more depth in each area. The course details what USPAP and most clients require with regard to developing and reporting adjustments. After completing this course, students should understand how to use correlation and causal techniques, which methods best apply and how to support them in a workfile.