Herron Todd White impressed with Landchecker
Herron Todd White, one of Australia’s largest independent property valuation and advisory groups, utilises Landchecker’s online property platform to increase productivity.
Company
Herron Todd White is Australia’s leading property valuation and advisory firm.
htw.com.au
Headquarters
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Industry
Valuations
About
Herron Todd White is Australia’s leading property valuation and advisory firm. For over 50 years, this national independent advisory group has been committed to providing high-quality solutions to enable clients to maximise their property assets. Its vision: to be the most trusted property advisory organisation.
Now with offices in most regional centres across regional Australia, as well as in every capital city, the experienced and knowledgeable team of over 900 experts operate across residential, commercial and agribusiness sectors, servicing a diverse client base that includes financial institutions, property developers, investors and owners.
Challenges
As a consequence of significant growth and a rapid increase in volumes and market activity, Herron Todd White continues to meet the industry-wide challenge of sourcing property data, streamlining processes and refining systems to ensure that reliable, accurate and impartial reporting is delivered to clients.
Cameron Fox, Senior Valuer at Herron Todd White, estimated that in the residential sector alone, the volume of valuations currently conducted are upward of “thousands per day”.
“This level of volume means that we must now, more than ever, rely on systems and available technology to ensure that we continue to meet performance targets set by our major clients,” said Fox.
“We see an opportunity to collaborate even further with the Landchecker team. Essentially, Landchecker could be an important component of an industry-leading, commercial valuation system”.
Solutions
Herron Todd White hoped there might be an alternative solution and is now piloting Landchecker, a “one-stop-shop” – for fundamental data on any property in Australia. This product provides a comprehensive set of data that can be downloaded seamlessly, which, Fox stated, provides a more streamlined approach to property research.
Herron Todd White began the pilot of the Landchecker app in October 2021 and has since fast tracked testing of the platform, with over 130 Herron Todd White staff in Victoria now utilising the technology.
For Landchecker, Herron Todd White is set to become one of its biggest customers. James Leaf, Chief Commercial Officer at Landchecker, said more valuers use the online property platform than any other property profession.
The recent partnership has led to Landchecker adapting some of its application’s features to meet valuers’ specific needs, in response to Herron Todd White employees’ feedback. These might be minute amendments in the scheme of things, but as Fox explained, “shaving minutes off in a valuation is invaluable considering current demand”.
Outcomes
Through using the Landchecker application, Herron Todd White valuers have already benefited from the on-map functionality.
The planning permit feature enables valuers to determine instantly whether a property should be allocated to their commercial division as a development property as opposed to residential. For Fox and his team, this has been a major time-saver.
Site Finder is another tool that has proved particularly useful. “My colleagues and I are often faced with a scenario where there’ll be a small lot with zoning that is unique to the area. In the search to find a comparable site within a high-density area, trying to find other little corridors that have those sites can be really challenging. Landchecker is a great tool for that”.
An important aspect of Fox’s valuation work now centres around the growth corridors of Metropolitan Melbourne, where large allotments represent future residential development opportunities, and zoning changes open up the potential for further investment.
It’s Herron Todd White’s IT integration that has enabled the group to lead the industry in developing the bespoke operating system ‘Hawk’, which increases analysis and reporting efficiencies even further. Fox is involved in the development of recently announced “Hawk – Commercial” where “we see integration of information as the key to reducing time spent on valuations, and therefore increasing productivity”, he said.
In regards to Landchecker, Fox said: “We see an opportunity to collaborate even further with the Landchecker team. Essentially, Landchecker could be an important component of an industry-leading, commercial valuation system”.
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