Commercial Complete Narrative Builder Overview

The new Narrative Builder feature makes the creation of reports and entire narrative report sections very easy. Because both of the Narrative Builder editors, the Report Editor and the Assembly Editor, are integrated with Commercial Complete's real estate database and income analysis capabilities, complete narrative appraisals, promotional brochures, and other real estate related documents can also be easily created. Finally, Narrative Builder can serve many of your everyday word processing needs.

Compatibility with Other Word Processors
Text that is created in the Narrative Builder editors can be copied with the single click of a button and pasted directly into MS Word documents or WordPerfect documents. The text and tables retain their formatting. Styles in the Narrative Builder document are also transferred. This allows you to continue to use your present word processor to create your final documents because it is easy to copy reports or automated narrative sections and paste them directly into your current word processor.

Documents created in Narrative Builder can also be saved in RTF format, a standard word processing format that can be loaded directly by most other word processors.

Save Time, Improve Accuracy, Enhance Work Product
You will find that by using the Narrative Builder feature, you will increase your productivity immediately, after only a short learning period. If you are already an Investment Analyst user, the learning curve is practically zero. We can show you how to use it in a 5 minute phone call. The accuracy of your final work product will also improve immediately because much of the information can be pulled directly from a property record or an income analysis. Re-typing information that has already been entered is reduced or eliminated, thus avoiding many errors that otherwise might appear in your final work product. Finally, the quality of your final work product will also benefit because specific details about the property can be added that you may have been reluctant to add before. Adding them would be time-consuming without the assistance of Narrative Builder. For example, it is easy in Narrative Builder to add paragraphs that contain specific details about your income analysis such as vacancy rate, debt coverage ratio, terminal value, selling costs, etc. You might not do that now because it takes time and the numbers in each income analysis are different.

We recommend that you begin automating your narrative documents while continuing to use your present word processor as you do now. Use the Narrative Builder features to create Property Datasheets and automated appraisal sections that can be easily copied and pasted into the document in your current word processor. As you continue to work with Narrative Builder you will discover its many powerful automation features and you will expand how you use it. But start with the basics and continue to use your current word processor. You will begin saving time on every narrative immediately.

How Much Time Can You Save?
It is not necessary to change your present method of creating narrative appraisals in your current word processor in order to save a significant amount of time in preparing each narrative appraisal. You will benefit immediately, even while using your current word processor,. The Narrative Builder feature in Commercial Complete takes care of the formatting chores, it aligns reports, and it can automatically insert information from the property database. It can even prepare your entire Income Approach almost instantly, ready for pasting into the document in your current word processor.

Among the many, many features that you will discover as you work with Narrative Builder, it automatically prepares Property Datasheets in the Report Editor window. These datasheets can be copied with the click of a single button and pasted into a document in your present word processor. The datasheets are already formatted and the photograph is already sized and centered. Using your present method of creating a narrative appraisal in your current word processor, you can expect to save at least 15-30 minutes for the Subject and each comparable that you use in your narrative appraisal. There is almost no learning curve here. Just enter the data for a property on the Data Entry tab and then switch to the Narrative Builder tab. The Property Datasheet is automatically generated. Then just click the Copy Report button, switch to the document in your current word processor, and click paste. This is time saved that is directly attributable to Narrative Builder. But remember that you are also building a database of properties as you go, so you will be saving more time in the future and your data will be organized.

If you use the Sales Comparison options that are built into Commercial Complete, the time savings get even better. After you have associated the comparables with your Subject property and reviewed and edited the Sales Grid using the Sales Grid tab, you can switch to the Assembly Editor in Narrative Builder and assemble the Subject, comparables, and Sales Grid into a single document in about 10 seconds. Just select the appropriate option from the Assemble Document dropdown button that is displayed when you are in the Assembly Editor. Then click the Copy Assembly button, switch to the document in your current word processor, and click paste. Again, the datasheets are already formatted and the photographs are sized and centered. The minimum time saved is at least one and one half to two hours per narrative appraisal.

The time savings are even more impressive when an income analysis is included in your narrative appraisal. After using the income analysis features of Commercial Complete to prepare your income analysis, switch to Narrative Builder and select the Assembly Editor. By selecting the appropriate option from the Assemble Document dropdown, Narrative Builder will build your entire Income Approach in about 10 seconds, including customized narrative paragraphs and the reports that are appropriate for a Stable Income Narrative or a Lease Income Narrative. Click the Copy Assembly button, switch to the document in your current word processor, and click paste. This should save you a minimum of 2 to 4 hours for each narrative appraisal, all while using your current word processor.

So as not to mislead you, every property is different and every income analysis is different. You very likely will need to edit some of the narrative that we provide and you will probably want to add additional paragraphs to the Income Approach narrative. For example, there is no direct discussion of comparable rentals in the Income Approach narrative that we provide and no specific discussion of line item expenses, so you may want to supplement our sample narrative by adding additional explanatory paragraphs. The editing can be done in Narrative Builder or you can paste the automatically generated narrative into your current word processor and continue editing it there.

The time savings do not stop here. As you learn how easy that it is to create your own narrative sections, you will find many other time savers. If you use Commercial Complete's development of the building cost, the itemized breakdown can be easily created in the Narrative Builder, copied, and pasted into the document in your current word processor. Automated narrative sections can be created for practically any document section: Intended Use, Site Description, Building Description, Letter of Transmittal, etc. Eventually, you may decide to prepare your entire narrative appraisal in Narrative Builder and save a whole day or more for each narrative appraisal. But we recommend that you start with the basics; Property Datasheets, Sales Grids, and automated income narrative sections. If you never move beyond these, you are still way ahead of the game.

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