Author: Hope Hoolihan

Opportunities

Now that the summer is nearing the end, it’s looking likely that I will continue working with Insight during my school year. I’ve mentioned earlier that Tony is looking for another student that won’t need much training in and has at least a baseline knowledge of appraisal. The team has […]

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Increased Workload

Now that I’ve been settled into the office’s routine, the Insight team decided to increase my responsibilities in terms of the scope of work I do in the front end portion of their appraisal reports. Tony went through two different appraisal reports (restricted and self-contained) and broadened my workload to […]

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Property Inspection

This week I tagged along with one of the appraisers, Josh, to a property inspection. He had me look up the property and create front-end work for the properties before we toured so that I was familiar with the property. When we got there we greeted the property owner and […]

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Computer Problems

Since the start of my internship I was given a computer system already set up with all the software and programs needed for completing my day-to-day tasks. Because the computer that I was given was set with one of the appraisers, Josh’s, credentials I had to wipe the computer clean […]

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Regression Analysis Assignment

My next assignment for Insight is to create tables that will be used for a regression analysis to predict values based on various property features.  The blueprint for this analysis is found in the scholarly article [first picture]. Basically, there is a data set of comparable sales of industrial properties that […]

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Food Trucks

Insight’s office is located right in Lowertown St. Paul so we walk to different places to eat everyday. When the weather is nice, food trucks line the blocks of Mears Park. Today was especially busy so we stopped at one food truck and got Po Boy’s, sat in the park, […]

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Tuesday Meetings

Every Tuesday the Insight Realty team gathers for a weekly Tuesday meeting. During the meeting we go over the different projects we are working on. I mostly am there to listen in, but it is interesting to listen to them bounce different ideas off of each other on how to […]

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Final Inspection

I got the opportunity to tag along with my mentor, Tony Lesicka, in a final inspection tour of the property. A final inspection is necessary when an appraiser is hired to value a new construction or renovated property. The client is a bank that requests two appraisals, an “as-is” appraisal […]

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Lunch in Lowertown

After awhile, searching for tax information, zoning ordinances, and creating map views of properties can get tiring and sometimes even boring. Luckily I snagged an internship in Lowertown St. Paul and have the opportunity to venture out on the streets for lunch. The team at Insight have made it a […]

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Eminent Domain

Throughout the courses I’ve taken within Real Estate PM, the term eminent domain always was brought up in discussion. By definition, eminent domain is the right of a government or its agent to expropriate private property for public use, with payment of compensation. Today I’ve been asked to assist one of […]

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Zoning Maps & GIS

The first week consisted mostly of getting familiar with the front end work of an appraisal report (property info, tax info, zoning). One of my main tasks is the create exhibits of the property so they can implement those exhibits in the report so the reader can have a clear […]

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Creating Templates, Creating Shortcuts

Tony Lesicka, my employer, put me up to the challenge in creating an excel template that will create a shortcut for him and his team when they are reviewing another appraiser’s report. To explain what an appraisal review is further, on occasion a client will present an appraiser a report […]

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First Day Setup

First day at Insight Realty Advisors, Inc. as a commercial appraisal intern consisted of learning the “front end work” of an appraisal report. Front end work consists of searching through specific county and city websites in order to find tax information on appraised properties in order to include the properties […]

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