The confidence level is the product.
A value without a confidence level is a liability wearing a decimal point. The number your routing rules actually run on is the one next to it.
High confidence decides on data, medium takes a desktop, low goes to the doorstep - the confidence level, not the value, is the field your routing rules run on.
Every AVM prints a number. The number is the easy part. Any model can pick a point on a distribution and render it to the pound. The hard part, the part that decides whether a case can clear on data or needs someone on the doorstep, is how sure the model is - and whether it will say so plainly when it is not.
That is why we treat the confidence level as the product, not a decoration on the value. It is the field your rules read first.
Confidence as a routing input
A lender runs the same triage on every case. Which cases can be decided on data. Which need a desktop. Which need a physical valuation. The triage is only as good as the confidence level behind the value and whether the attributes underneath it are true.
So the confidence level is banded for exactly that use: high, medium, low. You set the thresholds; we publish the basis for them.
IF property_value_confidence = HIGH AND ltv <= 0.80 -> decide on data
IF property_value_confidence = MEDIUM -> desktop
IF property_value_confidence = LOW -> physical valA single number without a confidence level is a liability wearing a decimal point.
The range is the working
The confidence level does one more job: it sets how wide the sensible range needs to be. Anybody can print a band. The job is making the band as tight as the evidence allows, and widening it honestly when the evidence is thin - a flat in a market that rarely trades, unique stock, an estate with few recent comparables.
A fixed percentage band lies in both directions. Too wide where the evidence is strong. Too tight where it is not. Tying the width to the confidence level keeps the range honest per property, which is the only place honesty is worth anything.
Where to set the thresholds
Start where your current AVM declines. Measure the recovery. The confidence bands are not comparable one-to-one with an incumbent score - the scales differ - so calibrate side by side on your own completions rather than assuming a mapping. A run on cases you already know the answer to settles it faster than any deck.
The value tells you a number. The confidence level tells you whether to believe it. Route on the second one.