Appraising home and land values requires a human touch, meaning the ability to get up close and personal with a piece of property. Google Earth is cool, but it can't take the place of an actual, trained appraising professional. Owning, selling, mortgaging, and renting property isn't going anywhere, and neither is the appraising career.

Technology has made the job easier, and hopefully the next twenty years will bring more technological advances to a career in appraising. A full online property records database in each state would be a great place to start, because digging in dusty old boxes for titles and such is even less fun than it sounds (and that's a pretty low starting point).

For now you may have to do a little digging in dusty old boxes here and there. Be wary of eight-legged squatters that have decided to set up camp.

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