So much for retirement.  I had never understood how my friends and business acquaintances, some of which were chief appraisers, had retired, only to see them back in the business a few years later as consultants. They just couldn’t stay away. I now understand as I find myself in the same boat. People say, “stick to what you know,” and I guess that is part of the reason people come back to the industry. So here I am returning to the industry that I love. This time not only helping create software to make appraisal offices more efficient, but I find myself wanting to write about the industry too (hence, our new blog).

My business partner, Jon Coco, and I retired a few years ago after selling our property appraisal software company. At that time, retirement sounded ideal. We had a great time— spending more time with our families and exploring new hobbies and investment opportunities— but we quickly learned that we missed the business we built. We missed the connections we made all over Texas. We missed the fine feeling of accomplishment after a hard day’s work by building something that helped people in the work that they do. But perhaps, we missed working with our clients the most.

If you worked with us before, you might have some questions regarding our desire to work in this industry again.  Here are some of the questions that might be on your mind:

How is this software going to be better than what my office is using today?

The technology we have selected as our platform for our new product line is incredible. I have been keeping tabs on emerging software trends and Jon even went back to school to study new coding languages. Someone once told me that if you want to compete in the fast-moving software sector– you must be willing to throw out your old software and infrastructure and start over, from scratch. That is exactly what we have done. We are building this software from the ground-up using seven differentiating technologies:

• Cloud-Computing Web App with Open API
• Business Process Management (BPM) + Workflow Enabled API
• Data Visualizations for Dashboard Concepts
• Mobile Desktop Ready
• Machine Learning and AI Algorithms
• Integration with other cloud-computing apps
• On-Demand Scalability and High Availability

I will expand more on these technologies in future posts.

I was your client before and I was disappointed when you sold the business. How do I know you won’t sell the company again? Why are you back in the industry?

Jon and I are both financially secure so building with the motivation to sell is not our goal. We decided to start a new software company to build a special place like our previous company. We are motivated by a desire to provide a wholesome company for our children, friends, clients and partners. Jon and I know appraisal and we now have up-to-date knowledge of new technologies. We are excited to build something new where these two paths intersect. We think we have something that is truly transformative for the industry.