A LightBox Valuation customer success story
- Megan Warner of Keystone Appraisals, a small appraisal firm, used LightBox Valuation to help her get her business off the ground.
- The templates are flexible, allow her to create personal style to differentiate the firm, and help her save time.
- LightBox tech support responds quickly to questions and has been able to help her every step of the way.
LightBox recently caught up with Megan Warner of Keystone Appraisals, who runs her own firm working in retail, industrial, and multifamily. She explained how Valuation’s functional, visually appealing templates and top-shelf tech support helped her kickstart her own business.
How did you find Valuation? What brought you to LightBox?
At my previous firm, our appraisal product was pretty good. When I left to start my own company, I couldn’t bring their templates with me, and I wanted to find something that worked as well as or better. I looked at what LightBox had to offer, and Valuation seemed like the best tool for me as I plunged into jobs with my new company.
How has Valuation changed the way you write appraisals or improved day-to-day efficiencies?
Valuation works better than the tool I was previously using because of how diligently LightBox works to keep the platform updated. Because of this, I don’t run into the issue of things breaking and never getting fixed. Templates are always updated and ready to go, enabling me to quickly deliver my work in a reliably professional way. The service team helped me choose a style and showed me how easy it is to use different fonts and headings in my templates. Valuation has allowed my company to create a personal style—we don’t want our reports looking like everybody else’s. With LightBox, we can differentiate ourselves to maintain our value with clients.
What results have you seen from Valuation?
I would say I can work at least twice as fast as before, if not more. The days of cutting and pasting are finally behind me—the fact that I don’t have to enter something dozens of times makes a huge difference. Even if I’m working with a new property type, a template is there and I can go back and use it again if need be. I always label everything, like tables, so that everything can send over. I don’t want to relabel things multiple times, and with Valuation I don’t have to.
What’s your experience with the onboarding process?
My onboarding was amazing—the LightBox support team was very helpful during the process. I was very impressed, and it’s one of the main reasons I stayed with the company. When I have a questions, I usually get a response within hours, or a day at the most. The support has always been excellent, and I’ve learned a lot from the team—for example, they helped me figure out how to transfer my templates and maintain the same appearance while using the software.
What was the acclimation period?
I had to plunge right in in order to get my work done. My first project took me a week, but after that I was comfortable using Valuation and the process became faster. There was a bit of stress trying to learn it while on the job, but I got past that pretty quickly. Valuation immediately starts saving you time, and that instant gratification is extremely valuable.
Does Valuation eliminate the need for other subscriptions appraisers use?
Yes. I definitely don’t require any other template or software subscriptions.
If you were to recommend Valuation, what would you say?
I would tell anybody opening their own shop that Valuation isn’t too expensive and that LightBox will help you with everything you need. When you work on your own, that’s a big thing—you need tech support. I’ve told others about it and showed it to them, and I’ve shared comps and templates with colleagues. I love LightBox software, but it can be hard to convince people to switch to a new product. Appraisers launching their own companies shouldn’t hesitate: Go with LightBox.
