Our Context® Function
Data's most important characteristics – accuracy, completeness, and consistency – rely on reasonably like-for-like comparison to be fully usable. This caveat – fully usable status – assumes evaluation references some reasonably standardized basis for comparison.
Pierce-Eislen's Context® rating system is the real estate industry's first statistical scoring model for placing relative values on property improvements and locations.
For the first time comparison – one property with another, or one location with another – can be made under a reasonably apples-to-apples basis. Recognizing that no two apples are alike, apples of similar type are easily discerned from an orange that appears to be an apple.
The Context® rating recognizes the fact that certain features among properties can make them appear similar when they are only distant cousins – sometimes considerably distant.
These differences can weigh heavily in determining a property's ability to attract specific renter market segments. The five-star resort serves a very different market than the down-and-outer motel. Apartments are distinguished similarly, but distinctions are often not clearly definitive without investigation. The Context® rating eliminates that requirement, designating property market positions as:
| Market Position | Pierce-Eislen Rating |
|---|---|
| Discretionary | A+ / A |
| High Mid-Range | A- / B+ |
| Low Mid-Range | B / B- |
| Workforce | C+ / C / C- / D |
The value in application of Context® is that standardized data provides consistency; information is more meaningful because there is less uncertainty. The user can move faster, more efficiently, with more accurate end results.
The Pierce-Eislen Context® rating is not intended as a final word concerning a property's status – either improvements or location. Rather, the result provides reasonable consistency for comparing one property with another through reference to a consistently applied standard.