Comparable and Appraisal Database Setup

Overview

The comparable and appraisal database is integrated with StartDeck Commercial and Multifamily templates. The database supports the following types of records:

Commercial Land Transactions
Improved Commercial and Multifamily Transactions
Commercial and Multifamily Leases
Complete Appraisal Records

StartDeck uses Google's BigQuery service for database hosting as part of your monthly subscription. Each individual or team account has a private database. Each database is organized according to the Appraisal Data Schema, described below. All records in the database may be downloaded to a spreadsheet at any time.

What is BigQuery?

BigQuery is a data service provided by Google. This is a powerful, cloud data service capable of advanced functions, but for our purposes think of it as a robust cloud database for comparables and appraisal data.

What is the Appraisal Data Schema?

The appraisal data schema organizes the fields in your database, including data types (dates, numbers, currency, text), and views of the data (sale, lease, etc.). The schema is also used to create calculated fields, such as price per square foot, cap rates, multipliers, ratios, etc. Learn more about the Appraisal Data Schema here.

How Does it Work?

The Database runs in the Google sheets sidebar and is used to manage your database records. Two types of records are supported:

Comparable Records
Comparables are managed in Google Sheets with the Database Search and Editor. From the sidebar comps can be searched, previewed, retrieved, edited, and new records saved. Learn more about Database Search and Editor here.
Appraisal Records
For appraisal records, data is automatically collected from both the appraisal document and spreadsheet and consolidated in the spreadsheet in the Appraisal Data table. Appraisal records contain substantial detail, capturing over 400 fields of subject description, assignment, scope and valuation information. This transforms appraisals from unstructured data rich documents to structured data. At your option, the appraisal data file may be provided to your client as part of the deliverable. Note: The data file does not include comp data. Learn more about the Appraisal Data table and saving appraisal records here.

How Do I Set up the Database #

Step 1:

Important: If this is a Team account, the database must be set up by the Team Owner.

In Google Sheets, open the StartDeck Tables sidebar and click on Utilities (top right). Next click on Set-up My Database.

Step 2:

Confirm set up.

After confirmation, your private database will be set up with 30 sample records and the sidebar. The 30 sample comps are fictitious, but contain realistic data for learning and experimenting with the database. Use these comps to learn editing, duplicating, calculations, image management and populating analysis grids. The 30 sample comps include:

6 land sales
6 improved commercial sales
6 improved multifamily sales*
6 improved mixed-use sales (commercial and multifamily)
6 commercial leases
6 multifamily leases (each lease record contains multiple unit types)*

* The multifamily sales also include leases records, thus the 30 sample comps contain 36 records.