Hopefully you are not like me and haven’t waited until the last minute to do your Christmas shopping. If you still need to buy a gift or two, here are some last minute gift ideas for your favorite real estate appraiser. (Gift image by mysza)
1. A car organizer
My wife bought me a car organizer two years ago and I have loved it. Appraiser’s have a lot of gear in their cars and this is a great way to keep it all organized. Plus, if you need to take your appraisal gear out of your car when you travel or when your car is in the repair shop, you just have to remove one thing and all your stuff stays together. Here is the list of the appraisal gear I keep in my car: several packs of graph paper, two 100 ft tape measures, a 12 foot tape measurer, a measuring wheel, a few tools (pliers, screw drivers, etc), a flashlight, extra batteries, and gloves.
You can find car organizers at Target, Organize Your Ride, EBags, and Trunk Organizer.
2. A Pocket Camcorder
I have a Flip Mino camcorder and love it. I take it with me on all of my appraisal assignments and have made several videos with it. Here is the video I made with my Flip camcorder of a bank owned property I was appraising.
Two good pocket camcorder options are the Flip Camcorder and the Kodak Zi8.
The Flip Mino is around $118.00 and has 2 BG of flash memory and can record up to 60 minutes of VGA-quality video.
The Flip MinoHD is around $199 and has 4 BG of memory and can record up to 60 minutes of HD-quality video.
The Kodak Zi8 is around $210 requires a SD memory card and can record full HD 1080p videos.
3. A Gorillapod
The Gorillapod is a portable flexible tripod. It is a great tripod because it is small enough to carry with you and can be attached to all kinds of things (like tree branches or poles) because it has flexible legs. The Gorillapod is made by Joby and comes in different sizes to fit all kinds of cameras and cell phones including the iPhone. The Gorillapod small enough for most compact digital cameras costs around $22.00 and the Gorillapod for iPhones costs around $40.00. You can look at all of the Gorillapods at the Joby Store.
4. A New Cell Phone
As real estate appraisers become more mobile, a web enabled cell phone is going to be a requirement. Today there are several great choices. My personal choice is the Apple iPhone 3GS. CNet just released their picks for the best 5 cell phones. They include the Apple 3GS, the HTC Droid Eris, the Motorola Droid, the RIM Blackberry Bold 9700, and the Samsung Instinct HD.
If you are not quite ready to buy a new phone, TechCrunch just reported that Google will be selling their own Google Phone early next year. I am a big fan of Google and am sure this will be a pretty awesome phone.
5. A GPS Unit
I am not an expert on GPS units. I use my iPhone to make my routes and find my way while doing real estate appraisals. However, a lot of people like a dedicated GPS unit and there are plenty of options and price ranges. CNet has good GPS reviews and a list of their editors favorite GPS units. You can view their Best 5 GPS systems as of 11/30/2009.
6. Gloves
Gloves seem like a boring Christmas gift but I received a pair a gloves from my brother-in-law last year and I thought they were a great gift. It usually doesn’t snow where I live in Georgia but in the winter I do like to wear gloves while measuring a house. The problem is that most gloves are too bulky and I can’t hold my pencil and write well while wearing the gloves. I found some gloves at REI, at Gloves-Online, and at PalmFlex that sounded like they would keep my hands warm and were thin enough so I could still write on my clipboard.
7. Cell Phone Car Mount
As a real estate appraiser, I am in my car a lot. A cell phone mount is nice because it keeps my cell phone where I can easily reach it. I use the maps on my iPhone to make my routes and the phone mount keeps my iPhone in front of me so I can easily see the maps. There are phone mounts that attach to the car’s windshield as well as mount into a cup holder. Some of the mounts can charge your phone as well. There are good phone mounts on Amazon.com and Arkon.com for all phone sizes and for GPS units.
Do you have any other gift ideas for real estate appraisers?
Posted by Bryan McDonald (Follow him on Twitter)
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Nice list, Bryan. I would definitely add on a Starbucks card to your list. Or maybe a police radar gun detector for those appraisers who speed. :)
Great ideas! Thanks Ryan.