Software for residential appraisers: private orders, inspections and fees

Most mortgage appraisals reach you through an appraisal management company, which sends the order, sets the fee and pays you, so there's little admin left to fix. The work you sell yourself is different: a date-of-death value for an estate, a divorce, a pre-listing appraisal, a property tax appeal. The client is a homeowner or an attorney, they want a fee on the first call, and once the report is delivered the invoice can sit for weeks. That private work is where SoloWOS fits.

A private appraisal, step by step

1. The client fills out your order form: intended use (estate, divorce, pre-listing, tax appeal), property address and type, approximate square footage, effective date and intended users. Pick estate and a conditional question asks for the date of death and the attorney's name; pick divorce and it asks whether both parties agreed to the inspection.
2. For a standard job, the form sends them to a meeting type per product, such as "Single-family appraisal, private" at your fee (for example $550), which charges the full amount by card when they book the inspection.
3. For anything unusual, like acreage, a retrospective value or litigation, you send a proposal instead: scope, fee, turnaround in business days and, in the terms, that the report is delivered once the invoice is paid. It expires in 15 days.
4. The inspection meeting type asks for the gate or lockbox code and who will let you in as required questions, with 30 minutes of buffer for driving. Turn on the 1-hour reminder: an occupant who didn't know you were coming costs you a trip.
5. The deed, survey and any prior appraisal arrive by email, because forms can't take file uploads.
6. Share the finished report through Document Tracking as a view-only PDF, with downloads off and the viewer's email stamped on every page, so the attorney can read it while the balance is open. When the invoice shows Paid, send the final PDF.
7. If you're called to testify later, log deposition prep and court time on Time Tracking and bill it hourly.

A typical week

• Monday: three orders came in over the weekend: an estate in a 1950s neighborhood, a divorce on a condo and a pre-listing for a builder home. Two booked and paid their inspections from the form; the estate on acreage gets a proposal.
• Tuesday: the estate attorney accepts the proposal and pays the deposit invoice by card.
• Wednesday: two inspections in the same zip code at 9:30 and 1:00, with the drive blocked between them.
• Thursday: the attorney opens the view-only report and spends most of the visit on the sales comparison page.
• Friday: the estate balance is paid and you send the final PDF. A tax appeal invoice is a day late, and its reminder goes out on its own.

All 13 tools, one by one

How an appraiser uses each tool on private work, from the order to the paid invoice:

• Link in Bio: a page with your private appraisal services, your state license number and the order form, for your email signature and your Google Business Profile.
• Short Links: a separate short link to the order form for each estate attorney, family lawyer and agent who refers you, so click counts show which referrals pay off.
• Forms: the order form with intended use, effective date and intended users, plus questions that appear only for estate or divorce assignments.
• Scheduling: the inspection with access details as required questions, drive-time buffers, the 1-hour reminder and the full fee charged at booking for standard products.
• Proposals: the engagement for a non-standard assignment: scope, fee, turnaround and delivery-on-payment terms, accepted online with the client's name.
• E-Signatures: barely needed for a homeowner order; useful when an attorney or a company wants a signed engagement letter before paying a retainer for litigation work.
• Document Tracking: the report as a view-only PDF with downloads off and the viewer's email as a watermark, so the client reads it before the balance clears.
• Screen Recording: a recording of up to 5 minutes on Solo walking a homeowner through the comparable sales, when the value came in under what they expected.
• Notes & Boards: a board with a column per stage (ordered, inspected, writing, review, delivered) and the due date you promised on each card.
• Time Tracking: barely matters on flat-fee appraisals; it's for litigation work billed by the hour, such as deposition prep and testimony.
• Invoicing: the fee or the balance with a pay link, email reminders before and after the due date, and checks from attorneys marked paid by hand with a note.
• Expenses: mileage to inspections, MLS and data subscriptions, E&O insurance and license renewal, each with the receipt, plus profit for the month.
• Automations: when an order form comes in, a thank-you email with your turnaround and the documents you need, sent before you've seen the order.

USPAP and appraiser independence

USPAP doesn't let an appraiser accept an assignment that includes reporting a predetermined opinion or conclusion, and your state appraiser board enforces it. Keep the fee in your proposal tied to the property, the scope and the turnaround, never to a value someone needs. On lender work, Fannie Mae's Appraiser Independence Requirements keep the lender's loan production staff from selecting the appraiser or having substantive communications with you that bear on value. That work runs through the lender's process or an AMC, not through your own booking page.

This is general information, not legal advice. Rules vary by state; check yours with a lawyer or your licensing board.

SoloWOS or Wave: which fits

Choose Wave or HoneyBook if:

• All you need is to send invoices and you want a free plan (Wave).
• You want payment schedules on one invoice and a native mobile app (HoneyBook).

Choose SoloWOS if:

• You want the order, the paid inspection, the view-only report and the invoice tied to the same client.
• You hold the report until the balance is paid and want to see when the client opened it.
• Card payments should land in your own Stripe account, with no extra fee from SoloWOS on top of Stripe's.

SoloWOS features checked on October 23, 2026. Wave's plans and card fee were checked on its own pages on October 19, 2026 (Wave vs SoloWOS); HoneyBook's rows come from its own pages as summarized in our HoneyBook comparison.

Start with these three

Forms so orders arrive complete, Scheduling with your fee charged at booking, and Document Tracking to deliver the report against payment. The order-received automation is the fourth.

Free tools that help

• Business days calculator to promise a delivery date that skips weekends and holidays.
• Mileage deduction calculator for the drives to inspections.
• Payment fee calculator to see what a card payment nets you.
• Invoice late fee calculator for balances that sit after delivery.
• Self-employment tax calculator for what to set aside from each fee.

What SoloWOS won't do for an appraiser

• No appraisal forms, comparable sales data or value calculations; your appraisal software does that.
• No connection to AMC portals or lender systems, and no report delivery to a lender. Lender orders stay where they come from.
• Not a workfile system: keep workfiles in your appraisal software or your own storage.
• Forms can't take uploads, so deeds and surveys arrive by email.
• No offline mode for inspections; photos and measurements stay on your phone or in your appraisal app.
• SoloWOS doesn't file taxes, issue 1099s or collect sales tax for you. Invoicing sends the invoice with a pay link (card through your Stripe account) and your other payment details; your accountant or tax software handles the rest.