Tolerances allow for inexact searching for Paired Sales. When comparing entries for the purpose of figuring out whether 2 different values are “close enough” to be ignored, appropriate rules will vary from user to user. 

Each tab of the Tolerance Editor has a yellow a yellow section with reminders about what the specific tab does.

The buttons along the bottom of the form allow you to reuse the changes you’ve made so you don’t have to adjust them every time you want to run pairings.

Restore settings undoes all your changes and reloads the editor with the last saved settings.

Facroty defaults loads all of the original settings back into the editor.

Apply settings uses the current settings, but doesn't save them to disk.

Cancel closes the dialog without saving any changes.

Save settings records the current settings to disk. These will be the settings the next time you start Appraiser Grunt.

Fields To Ignore Tab

Some things make no sense to compare (sale prices, for example) when you are pairing sales. The best way to handle these is to simply ignore those fields, which is what the Fields To Ignore tab handles.

Fields that are not checked will be compared to determine whether or not two comparables are similar. Checking the box next to a field will flag that field to be IGNORED when searching for comparable sales. Field tolerances in the Tolerances Tab are disabled for any fields checked on this tab as a reminder that the tolerance limits will have no effect.

Tolerances Tab

Two numerical values may be close enough to consider the same. For example, most appraisers would consider a 1490 square foot ranch to be the same size as a 1500 square foot ranch when looking for matched pairs. The Tolerances tab is made to handle these instances.

Note: Fields checked in the list on the Fields To Ignore tab are disabled.  

Edit each enabled box with 0, a number, or a question mark:

0 - Numerical values must be equal

# - The tolerance for differences between the comparables.
(For example, if you would consider a 0.1 acre difference in lot sizes to be insignificant, you would enter 0.1 in the Site Area box.)

? - A match occurs if the field for both comps is empty, or both have some value regardless of the value.

Aliases (a.k.a.) Tab

Many synonyms and abbreviations for property characteristics can vary by locale, user, and even assignment. In the context of pairing sales, though, even a subtle difference in spelling can disqualify a sale from being recognized as a potential matched pair. The Aliases tab helps you quickly all the variations in your dataset for each field and identify alternative entries as being equal for the purpose of comparing properties.

Field selector lists all available fields. Selecting your field populates the Unique, unaliased entries list, the Selected alias group list, and the Aliases tree with all currently assigned aliases for that field.

Unique, unaliased entries list contains all the unique entries contained in your dataset that don't appear in the Alias tree. This list is sorted alphabetically. In the graphic to the right, 5 different entries were found as variations on the des_styStyle field as abbreviations for the style the appraiser called, "New Englander". To move these entries to the tree, simply drag and drop them as a block to the branch of the tree (in this case highlighted as "N Engldr"). You can also double-click entries to move them to the currently selected branch of the tree view.

If you move an entry to the wrong branch by mistake, you can drag it to another branch, back to the Unique, unaliased entries list, or double click it. You can also use the delete or backspace key to send the selected branch entry(ies) back to the Unique list.

Alias tree (shown expanded in the graphic) lists the collections or families of values that are treated as equal when searching for matched pairs. The first entry for each group is called the Family Head.

 To expand a branch of the tree (to see the entries in a family) click the small > to the left of the name. To collapse a branch click the small v to the left of the name.

Double clicking an entry will return it to the Unique, unaliased list. Note: Deleting or removing a family head also removes all of the aliases within that group.

You can drag and drop entries into other family branches and back to the Unique, unaliased list.