These days, we’re all looking for ways to make real estate transactions faster, easier and more efficient. For decades, the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) has been helping real estate professionals do just that. For over 20 years, MPAC has operated one of the country’s leading automated valuation models (AVMs) and their passion for service and innovation is leading them into the future.

20 years ago, MPAC developed its AVM to address the question of how home valuation could be made more accurate and efficient using technology. Until then, your options were limited to traditional fee appraisals.

We spoke to Max Ma, who works in Business Development at MPAC, about how the AVM benefits real estate professionals, and what the future holds.

“MPAC has data for every single piece of real property in the province of Ontario, by legal mandate,” explains Ma. “That’s what makes our AVM one of the best – it can give a complete picture and it’s built on impartial, trustworthy data.”

The AVM replaces the need for traditional appraisal in many circumstances.

“The benefit of the AVM over a full appraisal is, first of all, reduced costs for individuals and organizations,” says Ma. “Our AVM can cost significantly less than a full appraisal. You can also access the AVM in real-time, whereas with an appraisal, you may have a 24 or even 48-hour turnaround time.”

Initially, MPAC’s AVM was used in the mortgage insurance industry and now 20 years later, it's being used by everyone from lenders to banks, insurance companies, property technology companies, appraisers, mortgage brokers and more.

“I would say within the last six years, we’ve noticed that realtors have become our fastest-growing markets for AVM usage,” says Ma. “Lenders and realtors can benefit from our AVM because they can, and do, see considerable savings. The AVM also mitigates risk, because you get a second opinion of the value of a property. Realtors can use our AVM to assist with their CMA and negotiations. Or, to set them apart from the rest of the pack in getting a hot lead.”

With use in so many fields, the AVM has a lot of people relying on its timeliness and effectiveness. Even given the sometimes-unpredictable course of home values in the last 10 years, MPAC has kept pace with market changes and adjusted to provide even more accurate valuations all along the way.

“In 2016 and 2017, we experienced a similar hot market that was moving very fast. To keep up with the fast past market, our valuation team moved from monthly to weekly valuations for all Ontario AVM products. Our team has also developed our own system of algorithms to time adjust for the changing market as well.”

For realtors or other industry professionals looking to make home valuation easier, quicker, and more cost-effective, the MPAC AVM can provide everything you need. Their AVM data, along with other supporting information on properties across the country, can be accessed through their propertyline™ web service. MPAC also offers webinars to realtors looking to learn more about the AVM or other real estate topics.