Coester Appraisal Group announces “New World for Appraisers”: Offering 5 Tips for Appraisers to adjust

Over the 40 years my family has been in the appraisal business to say we have seen a lot of changes would be an understatement. In the 70’s and early 80’s appraisals were just a one page piece of paper with the appraisers signature and company letter head.  In the 80’s and 90’s they introduced the forms, then photos and licensing. Currently it seems as though you have to swear your children on the appraisal and go through an extensive background check before they will accept a single appraisal. The changes which have occurred over the years are generally a good thing, and even through all of the changes appraisals have fundamentally remained the same. The appraiser looks at the subject finds the most recent comparable sales and concludes with a value.

The changes that have taken place this year and that are taking place right now in the appraisal world have not only changed appraisal reporting but have reinvented the industry.  I remember the days when your local appraiser would know all the lenders, banks and brokers in their service area on a first name basis. Only up until a few months ago an appraiser could spend time with the loan officer’s; it was essentially your friends sending you business. Now, mainly due to the HVCC regulations times have seriously changed for appraisers. Not to say the HVCC is good or bad but if you want to stay in business, you must adjust with it.

Here are some tips that might help you as the times change so your business may continue to thrive:

1. Work with appraisal management companies – AMC’s are here to stay and will be a part of the appraisal industry long-term. They provide a valuable service to the client and ensure compliance with all regulations. Keeping appraisals in house is extremely costly for a lender and current regulators frown upon having “in house” appraisal management companies.
2. Keep your information up to date for all of your clients – If you renewed your license, expanded your coverage area, changed your fees or got an additional certification this is something that your clients will really want to know. Keeping this information up to date will ensure the possibility of receiving work as well as prevent the possibility of automatic removal from some panels (like FHA connection). A good way to keep track of this is by having a simple spread sheet of people you are signed up to do business with an keeping your login information ready . Once you change or update something you can spend a few hours updating all of your information and you are good to go.
3. When you do get an order communicate every step of the way – Most clients will want a daily update on all outstanding appraisal files you have with them. Everyone is in the service business and when you fail to keep the appraisal management company abreast of any changes regarding your files, it reflects negatively on you as well as the AMC. When the client calls and asks’s for an update saying “we can’t get in contact with the appraiser” is not a status and it looks extremely unprofessional. If the problem is consistent good AMC’s will stop doing business with you as communication is a must.
4. Turnaround time- It’s not like it used to be when the loan officer called and told you they needed the appraisal in a week and you could take your time. Right now the lender and the loan officer don’t know who you are, don’t have any idea what the value of the appraisal will be and the last think they want to do is wait a long time for an appraisal. Most lenders and appraisal management companies track the average turnaround times for their vendors and the details as to why a particular file took a long time is not always clearly communicated. They also look at total turnaround and not time from inspection. This is important to remember if deciding to accept work. If you know you can’t see a property for another week or two it might be better to just turn down the file rather than mess up your turnaround. For revision 24 – 36 hours is the maximum time it should take unless clearly communicated as to why this is not possible. To be on the safe side always under promise and over deliver. Most lenders and AMC’s will accept a 4-5 day total turnaround on appraisal anything more  your are putting yourself at risk at being beat out by another appraiser. This does vary from state –to state and county-to-county.
5. Make your appraisals “crystal clear” – In the past, the underwriter knew who you where and you knew exactly what they expected from you. Currently your client based as just tripled as the one or two banks you were doing work for has gone up to 30 or 40 as most AMC’s work with more than one lender. Due to this making sure your appraisals are clearly presented and professional the first time is extremely important. Very often when we call an appraiser for a clarification on a report they go into this very professional  logical rationale on why they did what they did, our next logical questions is always “where does it say that in the report?”. Most appraisers know what they are doing the only thing is they do a poor job communicating this on the report. The vast majority of revisions as well as quality control problems could be avoided if the appraiser would just explain why they did what they did.

This is not a complete list however is a good stepping stone for you to be on track to getting the most out of the current appraisal regulations and changes. The most important thing to remember as an appraiser is that you have finally gained your independence and can focus on appraising and not all of the other things like in the past. Now is the time where the best appraisers will really do the best and not the ones just “hit the numbers”.