When drawing a commercial building, you start by selecting Define Area (F4), just as you would a residential. For the area type, select “OTHER”. For the area name, enter the 5 character code without any spaces, as described below. Our example would be entered as CM011.

The area name is divided into three sections:

1. CM - This will always be the same, and simply identifies it as a commercial building.
2. 01 - This is the occupancy number. Each area to be priced is given a separate occupancy number. For example, if this parcel had 2 buildings, you would draw one as occupancy 1, and one as occupancy 2. However, you could have more than one occupancy in the same building. For example, a building that has a retail store in the front and a warehouse in the back would be priced as 2 different occupancies: one for the store and one for the warehouse. Each area would be drawn individually and labeled as such.
3. 1 - This is the floor number. It is important to remember that this is the floor of the occupancy and not the physical floor. For example, if you had a two story building that had a retail store downstairs and an office upstairs, the retail store would be drawn as occupancy 1 floor 1 (or CM011), and the office would be occupancy 2 floor 1 (or CM021). The 2nd area would be floor 1 since the office area is only 1 floor, even though it is physically on the 2nd floor of the building.

Commercial and Agricultural Estimators have two methods of entering elevators:

• Elevators by Count, for which you enter the number of elevators.
• Elevators by Area, for which you enter the area served by the elevators.

It is always better to price elevators by the Count Method when the type and number of elevators are known.

For elevators by count, base your selection of the rank on the quality of the elevators (not necessarily the quality of the building) using the following:

• (Rank 1): Small capacity, slow speed, simple systems, such as those typically found in low-rise multiple residences.
• High (Rank 4): Better quality elevators with a large weight capacity and higher speed, such as those typically found in high-rise office buildings.

The elevator types available in Commercial and Agricultural Estimators are:

650 Elevators (By Area) 651 Passenger Elevators 652 Freight Elevators with Power Doors 653 Freight Elevators with Manual Doors 654 Man Lift 655 Escalator 656 Wheelchair Lift

Note: The Marshall Valuation Service automatically includes elevators in the cost for some occupancy, class and rank combinations. However, Commercial and Agricultural Estimators do not automatically include elevators in any occupancies. You must use one

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