ZDS’s appraisal fulfillment process begins with the establishment of geographic Zones (~ 7500) in each city across the United States. Each Zone consists of about 10,000 properties. Both appraisers and photographers have zones to which they are assigned. ZDS’s data and software allows appraisers, who often have an abundance of raw data available to them, to take a logical approach to organizing, evaluating, analyzing and reporting values for the real estate appraisal market in a very meaningful way.

The comprehensive nature of our appraisal system is unmatched in the industry. Photographs are taken to exact specifications and then merged with property information before being inspected and appraised by a qualified appraiser. Market conditions are continually monitored and property values are adjusted on an ongoing basis. Every appraisal report is validated with a qualified appraiser’s signature. And, because the appraisal is completed in advance, customers receive unbiased information instantaneously.

To accomplish this, ZDS is creating a complete and comprehensive database of every property in the 250 largest cities in the United States. The process starts with a photographic database that will eventually include over 75 million property photos. Photographs are taken of every property from the street level by a ZDS trained photographer. ZDS partners with elite local appraisers to combine the residential photographs with a comprehensive analysis of the value and selling appeal of every residential property in a particular city and contain information such as relevant comparable property sales figures, assessment data, and analysis of local market issues and trends, along with an exterior inspection and signature of a local professional appraiser. ZDS stores completed appraisals in what is becoming the largest repository (AKW – Appraisal Knowledge Warehouse ™) of official real estate appraisals by licensed appraisers in the world. ZDS’s proprietary solution allows our appraisers to update the value estimate of each property in an entire city, in real time, daily, weekly or monthly, as may be needed by the client. No other company has ever taken the time to put “feet on the streets” to verify the property data.

This national database can be accessed by lenders, for a fee, via the ZDS website. The company earns revenue from the sale of zone licenses to local appraisers for the rights to a particular zone in a city and on an ongoing basis from the sale of appraisal reports and other valuation products and the sale of images on a per image basis or by way of annual subscription to the databases. At this time, there is no equivalent product available and ZDS has no direct competitors.