FAQ

Entry Screen

Sessions

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Data and the Datasets Screen

Transactional Adjustments

Transactional adjustments are those that are based on a feature of the transaction (rather than a feature of the property). For example, was it arm’s length? Was it a distressed sale? Was it cash equivalent? Were there seller concessions involved and what were the property rights transferred (fee simple, leasehold, etc). In order to obtain accurate adjustments, these MUST be adjusted for in a specific order and once these are all accounted for then (and only then) are the other adjustments (for property features) calculated. See The Appraisal of Real Estate (14th Edition or higher) and Valuation by Comparison: Residential Analysis and Logic.

Synapse performs these transactional adjustments to be accounted for prior to feature adjustments. The following are the Transactional Adjustments that Synapse will allow the appraiser to calculate and adjust for prior to calculating the “property feature” adjustments. You can get to the Transactional Adjustments screen by clicking on Transactional Adjustments at the top right of the Datasets screen OR by clicking the Gear icon then Session Settings then Transactional Adjustment Settings.

Property Rights: Property Rights are accounted for prior to all other adjustments. Check the box to remove all Leasehold properties so that they do not impact the adjustment results. Synapse will allow later calculate results for leasehold properties to allow you to determine the Leasehold adjustment on the Results screen.
Financing Terms: Financing Terms are accounted for second. Check the box to remove all properties from future calculations that sold with a Financing Type that you deem to not be cash equivalent. This typically includes Owner/Seller Financed properties but you can select any that you prefer to exclude. Synapse has the ability to assist in determining an adjustment for different Financing types on the Results screen.
Conditions of Sale - Distressed Sales: Distressed Sales fall under the "Conditions of Sale" category as a Transactional Adjustment and are accounted for third. Check the boxes to the right to remove REO and/or Short Sale properties from the calculations. Synapse will later be able to provide results from calculations to assist in developing an adjustment for REO and/or Short Sale properties (on the Results screen).
Conditions of Sale - Seller Concessions: Seller Concessions also fall under the "Conditions of Sale" category of Transactional Adjustments (although some appraisers consider them to fall under Financing Terms but both are legitimate) and they are accounted for fourth. Check the box to tell Synapse to deduct the seller concessions from the sale price of each property.
Market Condition (aka Time Adjustments): Time adjustments are accounted for last among the transactional adjustments. Synapse will adjust for differences in time based on Contract Date (though you can choose Sale Date instead using the checkbox above). Synapse will perform multiple analyses for each dataset to determine the trend line that best fits that data. By default, it will then apply time adjustments to each sale in the dataset based on the formula for that best-fit line, adjusting all sales to the effective date. Note: The polynomial options require 10 datapoints per inflection point. As an example, if your dataset has 17 datapoints, then "Polynomial-3" (2 inflection points) and Polynomial-4" (3 inflection points) are options that cannot be chosen as "best fit". ALTERNATIVELY, you can manually select whichever trend line you prefer from the drop-down in the Detail section below (or choose "None" to not apply any market conditions adjustment). You can also select "Type My Own" and type in your own adjustment percentage to utilize.

Results Screen (Primary Screen in Synapse)

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CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO SHOWING HOW YOU CAN ACTUALLY DETERMINE ADJUSTMENTS

On the Results screen you will see several "widgets" which are the small rectangular boxes. Each widget represents a feature that Synapse is analyzing and running many different calculations on so you can hopefully reconcile the results to an adjustment for that feature.

The dots (which represent the results of calculations) are color-coded based on the dataset that you uploaded. The legend at the top left shows you which color goes with which dataset. The dots are arranged horizontally to correspond to the calculation method they represent. For example, the results that are based on using the Paired Sales method will be lined up horizonatlly with the words "Paired Sales". The same with Grouped Data, Regression, Sensitivity, and Depreciated Cost (we will add more methods in the future). Keep in mind that Grouped Data and Paired Sales have both an average and median result (so you will see two dots representing the same method on each dataset - one for the average and one for the median). It's also important to keep in mind that Regression is not simply one method but six as Synapse runs six different types of simple regression for each dataset.

At the top left of each widget is what we call the Exclude icon. You can hover over that and Synapse will show you the results that do not show up as dots in the widget for one reason or another

Your job as the appraiser is to reconcile the data (aka results) by throwing out "garbage" data and then reconciling from the range of remaining results. For some this might mean placing more weight on datasets that represent properties more similar to the Subject, for some it will be placing more weight on lower error scores (lower is better when it comes to error scores), and for others it could mean placing more weight on results where all or most methods all line up at about the same number. This is similar to how you pick comparables to utilize in a sales grid from amongst a larger set of data by excluding sales that may not be relevant and then reconciling the adjusted prices to your final opinion of value. You may place more weight on properties that are most similar in features to your subject, or maybe place more weight on those that sold more recently or are closest in proximity. Each situation can be a bit different and there isn't one "best" way to do it.

There are other tools in Synapse to help you when results seem "wonky". These include excluding results that are not realistic both manually and using settings, modeling (perhaps the most powerful tool in Synapse), and also modifying settings that control, for example, how depreciated cost is calculated, or what makes a matched pair in your opinion, etc. We'll get into those later in the following responses.

For now, if you'd like to see how this screen can be used and how you can determine adjustments, check out this video

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The depreciated cost settings allow you to control quite a bit and there are several different settings screens for depreciated cost. The first is Feature Defaults so you would click the Gear icon and then Session Settings ->Depreciated Cost Settings ->Feature Defaults. This screen with allows you to control the size of certain features. For example the default size of a patio area, swimming pool, garage bay, etc.

Note that for depreciated cost with some features (like GLA, Basement Size, Garage, etc) Synapse looks for a "step" below your Subject and above. With Garage it find the cost to build a one, two, and three-car garage and then averages the difference between those but for GLA, it looks for a dwelling 15% smaller and also 15% bigger than the subject and then it averages the differences between all three to arrive at the adjustment

Next, we'll get into the UAD Quality Conversion Settings (Gear icon and then Session Settings ->Depreciated Cost Settings ->UAD Quality Conversion Settings). These allow you to allow Synapse to default to certain settings based on the UAD Quality rating you assign to the subject. You can tell it that UAD Quality of 4 (for example) should have a Lifespan of 60, a DwellingCost quality rating of 4.0, a Swimming Pool Quality of Standard and a Patio Quality of Standard. You have control over all of those and each of the 12 different quality settings you can have within Synapse. Note that Lifespan impacts the physical depreciation applies if you're using the Age-life method (where you type in the Effective Age). If you have chosen to type in the actual depreciation percentage then Lifespan is not utilized.

Next, are the Percent Remaining Economic Life settings (Gear icon and then Session Settings ->Depreciated Cost Settings ->Modify Depreciation: % Remaining Economic Life). Here you can choose to apply a percentage of the remaining economic life to the property which will modify the actual physical depreciation and therefore the adjustment result based on depreciated cost. For example, if the GLA result is $80 per sf but you know the market is paying $60 per sf then you can set the GLA setting to 75%. To do that you would click Add Setting, then in the screen that comes up choose GLA from the dropdown and then type in 75 and then click Done. NOTE: the true math of this is to multiply the remaining economic life by your percentage in the setting; in this case 75%. So if your remaining economic life is 40, then 75% of that would be 30. Then Synapse will find your effective age by subtracting that 30 from the lifespan. Then, once it has that modified effective age it will divide that by the lifespan to get the actual physical depreciation to apply. Be aware that if you instead chose to enter the actual depreciation (rather than entering the effective age, when prompted in Synapse, then the math is slightly different. Basically, it follows the same rules but instead of using Lifespan, replace that with 100% (which is the equivalent when dealing with percentages).

The last settings you can utilize for depreciated cost is Additional Depreciation (Gear icon and then Session Settings ->Depreciated Cost Settings ->Modify Depreciation: Additional Depreciation). This allows you to apply an additional dollar amount or percentage depreciation. For example, with swimming pools, buyers typically do not pay full physically depreciated cost for that feature so you would need to add more depreciation to arrive at a reliable adjustment result. If you want to apply an additional 25% depreciation to swimming pools you would do the following from that settings screen: click Add Additional Depreciation to Improvement then select Pool as the feature and Dollar as the type, then enter 25 in the final box and then click Done. As above, this can be determined through other methods and then applied to cost data using this setting.

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You'll often get results that seem unrealistically high or low. That's the nature of analyzing features individually but it doesn't mean the results are inaccurate. There are two primary ways (in addition to Modeling, which is the most powerful) to exclude high/low results. The first is by using the Exclude Results settings. To access this, click the Gear icon then click Session Settings and then click Exclude Results Settings. From here you can tell Synapse the high/low end range of what results you believe are at the limit of being credible or something worth examining. If you choose Percent option that means that you will set the limit of what that feature could possibly be worth at the extreme high/low end. So if you have it set to 30% that means you're saying that feature cannot possibly be worth more than 30% of the value of the property (based on the median sale price of the properties you upload) so anything over that will be excluded (on the flip side, anything less than the negative of that will also be excluded). You can also choose to check the box for Exclude Negatives which means Synapse will not show negative results for that feature. Anything that does not have its own Feature on that screen will be included in the bottom All Other Features category. You can add additional features to customize by clicking the blueAdd Setting button. You can hover over the "Exclude" icon in the top left of each feature to see what results were excluded from being shown and why.

You can also, manually exclude specific results in a feature by using the "Constraint" slider at the top of each Feature widget. There is a low and high handle you can use to exclude the low and high results. You simply click the right-side handle in the "Constraint" slider and drag it around to "grey out" whatever results you are deeming to be not relevant. When you grey something out, you are telling Synapse that you do not want to place any weight or consideration on that result (which also impacts how comments are created (see below). You can also "snip" out the grey area by clicking the "Scissor" icon. This "zooms in" on the white (or non-greyed out) area. Snipping just makes it easier for you to see the remaining results but has no impact on anything else. last, you can also put everything back to how it originally was by clicking the "Reset" icon which appears in place of the "Scissor" icon after you click it.

NOTE: All results that you exclude, grey out, or snip out will always go into your digital workfile. Also, don't forget to use Modeling!

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If you want to add a Feature in Synapse to assist you, for example, in determining what the adjustment for a Gated community might be, just click Add Feature at the top right of the Results screen. In the window that comes up choose the Feature you'd like to add and then click Done.

NOTE: You can choose to compare two features within a broader category by choosing the Compare option and then choosing the two features you want to compare. For example, you can choose Exterior Features then choose the Compare option then choose the two features you want to compare against each other (e.g. Pool vs Tennis Court). CLICK HERE FOR THE "COMPARISON FEATURE" VIDEO

To delete a Feature, simply click the X at the top right of the Feature you'd like to remove and when prompted, select Yes, Remove It!. If you'd like to change the order/placement of the Features simply click and drag the Feature around using the "handle" icon on the right-side of the Feature in the middle (looks like three horizontal lines).

You can now also add a custom feature that is not already built into Synapse! See the following for details and instructions

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To add/create a custom feature, click Add Feature and then click where it says Or Create A Custom Feature. On the next screen choose a name for the feature you'd like to create and analyze then click Next. Now, either use the dropdown to find the feature from your MLS file that you'd like to use to analyze OR start typing the name and Synapse will narrow down the list based on the file(s) you've uploaded. Once you select the field you'd like to use, Synapse will ask you to choose what Type of data it is: numeric, selection, or text. It will also suggest to you which it believes it to be and show you examples of the data from that field in the area below. Click the blue circular "question mark" icon for more information on how to choose the data Type if you're unsure. Once you select the Type of data, click Yes, That's The Correct Field & Data Type!.

If you chose Numeric then you're almost done. Just click Done and the feature will be calculated and appear on the Results screen. On the Results screen you can choose Save Layout to save this new custom feature to your template.

If you chose Selection, then you'll be prompted to select which options available under that column of data in your MLS you'd like Synapse to use to know if a property has the feature you're analyzing.

If instead, you chose Text, then you'll be prompted to type in the text you want Synapse to search for.

Whether you chose Text or Selection, you will be shown in the top left of this screen how many properties match your criteria. Click Done once you're ready. Finally, you can either choose Done or, if you'd like to add another field to this feature, click Add Another Field. If you have more than one field added, this screen will prompt you to choose whether you want to require all fields to be true (by choosing AND) or if you want it so that any (not all) feature can be true (by choosing OR). As always, once you get back to the Results screen, click Save Layout to save this new feature to your template. NOTE: You can also remove fields you've selected by clicking the red Trashcan icon.

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On the Results screen, click the green Menu icon adjacent to Export. This screen will determine what all goes into your digital workfile when you click Export. Then, when you click Export, simply click where it says Click Here next to Workfile. Synapse will download a folder to your computer that has all of the documents inside of it.

NOTE: The more documents you download, the longer it will take the Export process. In addition, the Matched Pairs document and Images can be quite large and add a decent amount of time to your export process so only turn those on if you really want them. Since all sessions are saved, you can always come back to Synapse and download the pairs document or images later if you were to need them. Here are the different files we can load into your digital workfile

Primary Adjustment Summary: This document show the different features you marked as Done and what adjustment you chose for each of those features. It also shows which methods were utilized during your reconcilation process (the methods you considered relevant) and what the results were for each of those methods. This document comes in both PDF and RTF (text document).

Adjustment Comments: This document shows the dynamic comments that were created by Synapse based on your customization and settings. Depending on your settings it may also show the methods utilized and the range of those methods that you utilized during the reconciliation process (the methods you considered relevant). This document comes in both PDF and RTF (text document).

Adjustment Method Summary: This is a document that summarizes each adjustment method utilized in way that's brief and easy to understand by your reader.

Adjustment Method Detail: This document goes over each appraisal method that Synapse can utilize and the details on how that method works including formulas and examples.

Property Feature Detail: This document goes into the details of every feature that you analyzed, describing how many datasets were utilized, how many analyses were "run" on that feature, how transactional adjustments were calculated, and then it provides the details of each different analysis/method that was run, noting which you placed weight on.

Matched Pairs: This document has a table of every matched pair that Synapse found and the information needed to replicate the matched pair calculations.

Property Information: This document shows your default data source for property features where you can choose between MLS and public records. It also shows properties where the data for any feature was modified and also any properties that were manually deleted.

Settings Documents: These are documents that cover all of your settings related to how the different methods were calculated (e.g. how you defined what a matched pair is, what depreciated cost settings you utilized, etc).

MLS Data Files: These files are the CSV files of the original data you uploaded to Synapse (the raw data from your MLS). You will get one file per dataset that you uploaded.

CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO

Synapse will show you what your "peers" chose for adjustments in "similar" sessions. Regarding what exactly is considered "similar" see the question immediately above. When you first start a session, Synapse will determine any other sessions that are considered "similar" based on your settings and in the same zip code and it will look to see what other appraisers chose as adjustments for those "similar" sessions. If any particular appraiser/peer has more than one session that meets the critera for "similar" it will take the median of all of those sessions by that one appraiser and that will be that appraiser's adjustment for "similar" sessions. Next, Synapse will take the adjustments from all appraisers and it will find the median and the average of all of those and show those to you as purple dots on the Results screen.

The results from each appraiser can be viewed in an anonymous fashion by clicking the little blue eyeball next to where it says Prior Choices on the feature widget that you're looking at. This brings up a histogram of your prior choices and peer adjustments results. You can the click where it says "click here" and see the list of appraisers and their corresponding adjustment from "similar" sessions. Appraisers will always be identified anonymously. It will say "Appraiser 1", "Appraiser 2", "Appraiser 3", etc. In addition, we will not show results unless three or more other appraisers have at least one "similar" session. Throughout that session, Appraiser 1 will always be the same person for each feature. So, if Appraiser 1 chooses $5/sqft for lot size adjustment, that means when you see Appraiser 1 chose $20,000 for swimming pool, it's the same person. Some appraisers may have adjustments for GLA but not for swimming pool so, in that case, that appraiser will show up as N/A under the swimming pool section.

IMPORTANT: You can opt-in or opt-out at any time from anonymously sharing your results with your peers. See the question above this regarding what defines a "similar" session and how you can customize it and that same setting screen is where you can opt-in or opt-out of peer sharing. For clarification, the moment you opt-out of sharing and click Done ALL of your data will be removed from sharing so any new sessions created from that moment on by anyone will not have any of your data in them. In addition, the moment you opt-in, all sessions created from that moment onward will have all of your adjustment results shared anonymously. NOTE: We verified both with the Appraisal Standards Board and with multiple USPAP instructors that this is acceptable. Last, if you do want to see peer results and share your data but you do not want Peer Adjustments to show up in the Adjustment document or comments, you can also turn that off in the "Similar" Settings screen. All of this peer adjustment results that you can view on the screen in Synapse also goes into your digital workfile in the Details folder.

Miscellaneous Questions

Customizing Calculations and Comments

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Some improvements depreciate at different rates and typically faster than the overall dwelling itself. You can modify how depreciation is applies to more accurately represent the subject's market. There are two main settings to do this. First is the Percent Remaining Economic Life settings (Gear icon and then Session Settings ->Depreciated Cost Settings ->Modify Depreciation: % Remaining Economic Life). Here you can choose to apply a percentage of the remaining economic life to the property which will modify the actual physical depreciation and therefore the adjustment result based on depreciated cost. For example, if the GLA result is $80 per sf but you know the market is paying $60 per sf then you can set the GLA setting to 75%. To do that you would click Add Setting, then in the screen that comes up choose GLA from the dropdown and then type in 75 and then click Done. NOTE: the true math of this is to multiply the remaining economic life by your percentage in the setting; in this case 75%. So if your remaining economic life is 40, then 75% of that would be 30. Then Synapse will find your effective age by subtracting that 30 from the lifespan. Then, once it has that modified effective age it will divide that by the lifespan to get the actual physical depreciation to apply. Be aware that if you instead chose to enter the actual depreciation (rather than entering the effective age, when prompted in Synapse, then the math is slightly different. Basically, it follows the same rules but instead of using Lifespan, replace that with 100% (which is the equivalent when dealing with percentages).

Using the Right Data

Determining Adjustments

CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO

When you're on the Results screen, click the Add Feature button. In the window that pops up, choose the drop-down for Feature and choose the feature you'd like to add. In the Placement drop-down you can choose where that Feature will get added (i.e. the order).

You can now also add a custom feature that is not already built into Synapse! See the following for details and instructions

If instead, you chose Text, then you'll be prompted to type in the text you want Synapse to search for.

Synapse Instructions / FAQ

Entry Screen

Sessions

Templates

Data and the Datasets Screen

Transactional Adjustments

Results Screen (Primary Screen in Synapse)

Miscellaneous Questions

Customizing Calculations and Comments

Using the Right Data

Determining Adjustments

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Synapse Instructions / FAQ

Entry Screen

Using the Entry Screen

Sessions

Sessions and Session Management

Templates

Using Templates and Template Management

Data and the Datasets Screen

Setting Up the Custom Export for Your MLS

Error When Uploading Data

Loading Data

What Properties Are Used and Which Are Excluded

Adding More Properties and Deleting All Properties.

View All Properties and Edit/Delete Individual Properties.

Getting Back to the Datasets Screen (from the Results screen).

Naming your datasets.

How Do You Choose the Right Data and How Many Datasets Should You Use?

How Many Properties Do You Need?

Data Source Settings.

Settings to Override Property Features.

Settings to customize Basement Area calculations (only available in some MLS systems.

Settings to customize Basement Bath type (only available in some MLS systems.

Settings to customize GLA area when Unknown (only available in MRED MLS).

Transactional Adjustments

Transactional Adjustment Settings.

Results Screen (Primary Screen in Synapse)

Okay, You've Made it to the Results Screen. Now what? How do I determine adjustments?

Understanding Settings that Control Paired Sales.

Understanding Settings that Control Depreciated Cost.

Understanding Settings that Control Sensitivity.

Understanding Settings that Control Grouped Data.

Modifying What Results are Shown

Why are there so few dots/results for a particular feature?

How Do I Customize the Comments?

Adding a Feature to Analyze, Deleting a Feature, and Moving Features

What are Error Scores and Do I Care About Them?

Why are My Results Way Too High or Way Too Low and How Do I Prevent That?

How Does Modeling Work?

How Do I Prevent Modeling From Impacting Certain Results?

How Do I Get Information Into My Appraisal Report?

What Goes Into Your Digital Workfile and How to Control It.

What is a "Similar" session and what about My Prior Choices?

How do Peer Results work?

Miscellaneous Questions

How do I load in data?

How do I get data into my appraisal report?

What if the PDF I attach to my report is fuzzy/unclear?

When I open the file from my MLS why does it open in another program?

Why does Synapse say my file is missing fields?

Where can I see your help videos or get help right inside of Synapse?

How do I update/change/cancel my Synapse subscription?

How does the unlimited subscription work? Is there a discount for multiple appraisers?

Where does all the data go? What about my workfile?

Can I view all of my activity in a particular Synapse session?

Where does the Synapse public records and cost data come from?

Some fields for specific properties are blank or empty. How can I get them to populate?

Customizing Calculations and Comments

What if I don't want lot size in SqFt but in Acres?

How does Synapse determine what is a "matched pair" in the Paired Sales Analysis?

Depreciated Cost Results are Too High? How do I modify the depreciated cost method to customize the calculations and results?

How do I customize the comments?

Using the Right Data

How do I choose the right data and how many datasets should I use?

How many properties do I need?

Determining Adjustments

How do I add a feature that I'd like to get an adjustment for?

How do I remove a feature?

What does top "slider" bar do in the Results screen?

How do I tell Synapse I'm done determining the adjustment or that I DO NOT want this adjustment to be finalized?

Why are some results way too high or way too low and how do I prevent that?!

What exactly does Model do and how can it help with wonky results?

How do I prevent modeling from altering the results in a particular feature?

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