Appraisal & Brokerage

Training path and guides for appraisers, land brokers, and land managers.

New to CamoAg? Start with Terms to Know, then personalize your account — your profile photo and contact information appear on CMAs you share — and review Reports, Data Sources, and Update Frequency.

For appraisers, land brokers, and land managers who value property, research sales, and advise clients. Work through this page in order to go from first login to building subject properties, valuing them against comparable sales, and sharing the results with clients.

Most of this page works with any CamoAg subscription. Guides marked (Enterprise) require a CamoAg Enterprise subscription. Guides and modules marked (Add-on) also require an additional data subscription or integration, such as AgWare.

What You’ll Be Able to Do

• Set up your account and navigate the map and its layers
• Build a subject property from parcels, a legal description, or hand-drawn boundaries, and edit its fields and acre types
• Create a CMA with at least 5 comparable sales and share it with a client
• Find recent sales and upcoming auctions, and share an auction with a customer
• Generate aerial, soils, FEMA, and topography maps for a property
• Use CamoAg on your phone or tablet in the field

Part 1: Getting Oriented

• Who/What is CamoAg?

CamoAg brings together land, ownership, operations, sales, and financial records in one place. For appraisers and brokers, that means building subject properties, finding comparable sales, and producing maps and reports for clients.

Guide	What it’s for
Terms to Know	Definitions for terms used throughout CamoAg
Reports, Data Sources, and Update Frequency	Where CamoAg’s data comes from and how often it updates

• Account Settings

Set a default location (your primary market area), and add a profile photo and phone number. Clients see these on CMAs and auctions you share.

Guide	What it’s for
Personalize Your Account	Set your default location, photo, and contact details

• Map Layers Overview

A quick tour of the base layer, additional layers, land boundaries, company layers, Operations, and Financial. Farm Sales gets deeper coverage below.

Guide	What it’s for
Map Overview	Navigate the map and turn layers on and off

Try it: turn on Land Boundaries and Farm Sales in your own market area.

• Search

What you can search, how to narrow results, and how to find a landowner or parcel in your county.

Guide	What it’s for
Search Overview	What can be searched and how results work
Using the Search Feature	Video walkthrough of search settings and filters

Try it: run one search of your own and find the parcel on the map.

Part 2: Building and Editing a Property

• Building a Property

Add a subject property to your account from one or more parcels, all parcels owned by an entity, a legal land description, or a boundary you draw yourself.

Guide	What it’s for
Adding a Property Using Farm Builder	Search for and add a property, including creating fields from CLU data. Includes videos.
Locate All Parcels Owned by an Entity (Enterprise)	See an owner’s entire footprint and save it as a farm. Includes a video.
Getting Started with the Deed Mapper	Create a boundary from a legal land description
Using the Draw Polygon Tool	Draw a parcel or field by hand, or remove non-productive acres from a field

• Editing a Property

Refine the property once it’s in your account: cut out building sites, set productive and non-productive acres, move fields between farms, and rename farms and fields.

Guide	What it’s for
Using the Cut Tool	Cut a building site or other area out along a field border
Properties Added to Your Account	Edit acre types between productive and non-productive
Moving a Field to Another Farm	Consolidate or split farms by moving fields
Editing a Farm or Field Name	Rename a farm, field, or parcel

Activity 1: Build a Subject Property

Build a property you might appraise or list, using modules 5 and 6.

1. Add the property

   Use Farm Builder to add a property from one or more parcels in your market area.

2. Create fields

   Create fields from CLU data, or draw a field by hand with the Draw Polygon tool.

3. Cut out a building site

   Use the Cut tool to remove a building site or other non-productive area from a field.

4. Set acre types

   Mark the remaining acres as productive or non-productive.

5. Name it

   Rename the farm and its fields so a client would recognize them.

Part 3: CMAs, Sales, and Maps

• Creating and Sharing a CMA

Build a CMA from a subject property, select comparable sales, adjust the value, and share it with a client by PDF or URL.

Guide	What it’s for
Comparative Market Analysis	How CMAs work
How to Create a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)	Build a CMA from a subject property, select comps, and adjust the value. Includes a video.
Creating or Editing Multiple CMAs for a Property	Create additional versions of a CMA for the same farm
Sharing a CMA	Share by PDF or URL, with or without contact info and values
CMAs Created Report	Compare every CMA created in your organization

• Finding Sales and Upcoming Auctions

Use the Farm Sales layer and reports to find recent sales and upcoming auctions, record your own private comps, and see who is buying and selling land in your area. The guides below are grouped by the subscription they require.

Included With Your Subscription

Guide	What it’s for
Using the Farm Sales Map Layer	Find sold farms and upcoming auctions, and see where each sale’s data came from
View Sales Within a Distance of a Parcel	See nearby sales without building a CMA. Includes a video.
Creating a Private Comparable Sale	Record a sale visible only to your organization
Copying an Auction or Sold Farm to Make Edits	Copy a public sale into your account and correct it
Comps Created Report	See every private comp your organization has entered
Largest Farmland Buyers and Sellers	See who is buying and selling land in your area
Identify Potential Land Investors	Find the most active land buyers in your market and build an outreach list. Includes a video.
Accessing the Land Sales Bulletin Report	Sales data from Land Sales Bulletin, available in ND, SD, NE, MN, IA, WI, IL, IN, MI, and OH

Requires Enterprise

Guide	What it’s for
Upcoming Auctions Delivered to Your Inbox	Set up a report delivery so you never miss an upcoming auction. Includes a video.
Owners Report: Use Cases	Generate a list of owners and addresses in an area
Generating a Mailing List for an Upcoming Auction	Pull a list of landowners around an auction with the Owners report. Includes a video.

For moving sales comps into AgWare, see Working With AgWare.

• Generating Maps

Produce maps and exhibits for a property: aerial, soils, FEMA, and topography maps, measurements, structure pins, and historical imagery.

Guide	What it’s for
Generate a Report: Aerial, Soils, FEMA, Topography	Download a map packet for a property
Downloading Soil Maps for a Farm or Individual Fields	Soil maps and ratings for a whole farm or one field
Using CamoAg to Measure Square Footage of a Building and Distances	Measure buildings, areas, and distances
Using CamoAg to Drop Pins on a Property to Denote Structures	Mark buildings and other structures on a property
View Historical Imagery for a Property	Open a property in Google Earth with its boundaries

Try it: generate an aerial and soils map for the property you built in Activity 1.

Activity 2: Create a CMA

Value the property you built in Activity 1 and share the result, using modules 7 and 8.

1. Start the CMA

   Open the property from Activity 1 and create a CMA.

2. Select comps

   Select at least 5 comparable sales. If you know of a sale that isn’t in CamoAg, add it as a private comparable sale.

3. Set the value

   Review the comps and adjust the market analysis value.

4. Share it

   Choose whether to include your contact information and the market analysis values, then share the CMA by PDF or URL.

Activity 3: Share an Upcoming Auction

Find an auction a customer would care about and send it to them, using module 8.

1. Find the auction

   Turn on Farm Sales, then under Status select Active to show only upcoming auctions in your market area.

2. Review it

   Click the auction to open its details. Note the acres, soils, and auction date, and download the sale flyer from Documents if one is available.

3. Share it with a customer

   Share the auction with a customer who might want to bid, such as a neighboring landowner or an investor.

Part 4: Using CamoAg on the Go

• Mobile App

Look up parcels, owners, and sales, take notes, and get driving directions from your phone or tablet.

Guide	What it’s for
CamoAg iOS App for Apple	Get the app on your iPhone or iPad
Getting Started with the iOS App	Install the app and find your way around. Includes a video.
Search on iOS	Search for parcels, owners, and operations in the field
Notes	Log notes on operations and contacts from your phone. Includes a video.
Installing CamoAg on a Phone or Tablet	Add CamoAg to your home screen on any device
Accessing Driving Directions on a Mobile Device	Get directions to a parcel from the plat map

Working With AgWare (Add-on)

This section requires an Enterprise subscription with the AgWare integration add-on.

Build subject properties and sales comps in CamoAg, then import them into AgWare Maven to complete the appraisal.

Guide	What it’s for
AgWare Integration	How the CamoAg and AgWare integration works
CamoAg to AgWare: Creating a Subject Property	Build a subject property in CamoAg and import it into AgWare
CamoAg to AgWare: Creating a Sales Comp	Create a comp in CamoAg and move it into AgWare

Next Steps

Pick one workflow from this page to use in the next week. For help, contact CamoAg support.