Much of the appraisal process, from a lender’s point of view, is primarily communication.
Correspondence initially begins with the request to the appraisal company,
continues with ongoing status updates throughout the process,
and is finalized when the user receives the report once it has been completed.
The primary cost benefit of using the AppraisalLinkä system is the increased efficiency with regards to this process.
Because of the technology involved with the AppraisalLinkä solution,
the online ordering process is quick and complete. When selecting contacts responsible for the file such as Loan Officer,
Processor, Assistant and Administrator, AppraisalLinkä has drop-down menus that recognize individuals
from your specific office. This specialized ordering process helps to eliminate errors and costly delays.
The contacts that are selected during this ordering phase will determine who will be able to access the
“Appraisals In Progress” section of AppraisalLinkä, enabling those individuals to track the process of each assignment.
The “Appraisals In Progress” section of AppraisalLinkä has the potential of saving the lending professional significant
time throughout the appraisal process. The ability to track the actual progression of the appraisal assignment
enables the user to relay real-time information to key individuals. A simple example displaying the time that
can be saved with regards to typical communication process on an appraisal file is as follows:
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Listing agent calls loan processor for status on property inspection.
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Loan processor calls appraisal company office for this information.
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Appraisal administrator calls appraiser.
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Appraiser indicates to administrator that he was dealing directly with the selling agent for access and has already inspected the property.
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Appraisal administrator calls loan processor back with requested status.
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Loan processor returns the listing agents call with updated information.
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Listing agent calls loan processor for status on property inspection.
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Loan processor logs into AppraisalLinkä while agent is momentarily placed on hold, and determines from their “Appraisals In Progress” page that the property has already been inspected.
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Loan processor takes agent off hold, and cannot only inform him that the property has already been inspected, but also can give him the date it was inspected and the proposed completion date of the appraisal.
The typical communication process without the use of AppraisalLinkä, as outlined above, includes two individuals that
never needed to be involved – the appraisal administrator and the appraiser.
The time frame between the loan processor getting the initial inquiry from the agent and the processor subsequently
calling the agent back with the updated information is directly hinged on the availability of all the people involved
in the communication process. If the appraisal administrator and/or appraiser were unavailable at the time the initial
phone calls were made, additional attempts would need to be performed and the original inquiry from the agent may be
delayed as much as a day or more.
In the example above, the confirmation that the property has been inspected with the utilization of the
AppraisalLinkä system takes less than a minute from the initial call made by the agent.
Given all the updateable tasks involved in a typical appraisal assignment combined with numerous questions,
inquiries and changes that may arise throughout the process, the time savings that could be recognized by utilizing the
AppraisalLinkä management system could be literally hours to days per appraisal.
Saving lending professionals this kind of time enables them to be much more productive,
saving wasteful overhead while enhancing production.
In the current real estate market, the majority of all appraisal reports are delivered utilizing email,
attached as a PDF document. The AppraisalLinkä system has further enhanced the efficiency of the appraisal
delivery by allowing the user to open and print the PDF file directly from their “Appraisals In Progress” page
within the AppraisalLinkä site. The completed files will remain on their page for 21 days.
Following this period they will then be archived so the user will be able to search, view and print the
appraisal reports if needed in the future.
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