5 Ways to Create A Better Appraisal Experience for Your Borrower

BY: GARETH BORCHERDS, MANAGING DIRECTOR AT ASCENT SOFTWARE GROUP

When looking at the appraisal process, there are two variables that create the biggest variance. How fast an appraisal is paid for and how fast it is scheduled. To set up a borrower for a better experience, make sure they understand the need to pay for their appraisal and be available to allow an appraiser to come to the property. It is critical to set the best expectations and have good transparency throughout the process to ensure you and the borrower are on the same page. Here are the 5 ways to create a better appraisal experience for your borrower:

1. EXPLAIN THE PROCESS

While analyzing thousands of appraisals we found orders that were required to be paid for up front, averaged almost ¾ of a day longer in turn time than those that were not paid-up front. This is adjusted for the time the order is on hold waiting for that payment.

The process of waiting for the payment causes operational challenges for appraisal desks and Appraisal Management Companies (AMCs).

The scheduling of an appointment is another bottleneck in the process. Most appraisers accept assignments in the current market under the assumption they will be able to get into the property within the next 24-48 hours. Especially when turn times become very competitive, appraisers are worried about scheduling issues and being able to get into the property. When an appraiser cannot get access to a property within that timeframe, they usually end up putting the appraisal back onto the back of their queue because they’ve already committed to delivering several other appraisals in that timeframe.

2. SET EXPECTATIONS OF WHAT THE APPRAISER WILL DO AT THE PROPERTY

Appraisers do not need to spend very much time at a property. The percentage of time spent inspecting a property compared to the overall completion of the appraisal report is very minimal. The majority of the time is not spent in a home, it is spent researching, adjusting, and analyzing property data and market trends. Their main role at the property is to gather an accurate measurement and evaluate the condition and quality of the property. They will have to get a photo of every room in the house. Some important things that may be good to mention to the appraiser are any additions of square footage, recently finished basements, or recently updated kitchens and bathrooms. Additionally, anything specific about the market that might be unknown to the general public, such as a new park going up, FSBO sales not listed publicly, etc.

3. EXPLAIN WHAT THE APPRAISAL IS REALLY FOR

The appraisal is not meant to be a value for the best possible price of a home. An appraisal is meant to be a snapshot in time view of the value of the home. Appraisers use recently closed sales to form a view of the value of the property. Houses under contract or for sale can slightly adjust prices, but the majority of the value comes from closed sales. The appraiser takes a fairly conservative approach to getting to the value and is meant to help the bank evaluate the risk of the loan.

4. MAKE SURE YOU WORK WITH A GOOD VENDOR

As a lender or AMC, you are only as good as the information you have on your vendor pool when it comes to assigning appraisals. You want to ensure you are staying compliant with selection processes but also select the best vendor for the property. The best way to do this is through robust reporting and comparison analysis through KPI’s.

This includes things like form type, property type, location, complexity, and speed. It’s important to make sure the information is standardized. Relying on the AMC to provide their own reports is only compounding this issue. A solid order management system can level the playing field and let the lender select the best appraisal vendor based on standardized data for a consistent borrower experience.

5. USE A GOOD APPRAISAL PLATFORM

Appraisal platforms can help make sure you create the best experience for your borrowers and appraisers. Everything from selecting the best available vendor for the job, to paying for the appraisal better quality will improve your borrower experience.

DocMagic Introduces ADACompliant Loan Documents

DocMagic, a provider of fully-compliant loan document generation, regulatory compliance, and eMortgage services, announced the addition of ADAcompliant mortgage loan documents to its extensive document library. The new digital documents are accessible to visually impaired users and others with disabilities, unlocking opportunities for these consumers into the broader mortgage market.

“Much of modern lending technology is designed to give consumers the convenience to access loan documents in the ways that work best for them,” said Dominic Iannitti, president and CEO of DocMagic. “It is imperative that our industry remains inclusive of all borrowers and that we design solutions that are accessible to all. By creating ADAcompliant documents, we can continue to ensure that more borrowers are able to easily access, and participate in, the loan process.”

DocMagic’s ADA-compliant loan documents are dynamic, data-driven and designed to automatically identify and index critical document components during the document generation process. ADA metadata tags are applied to each of these components within the documents. These metadata tags function like HTML code, logically displaying a document’s organizational structure and content hierarchy.

The metadata tags include contentlevel details as well as descriptive text for images, logos, etc. along with specific semantic instructions designed to make all text understandable via an advanced text-to-speech (TTS) engine that accurately translates on-screen information into clear speech through earphones or speakers.

The new ADA-compliant documents have been implemented at scale by some of the nation’s largest financial institutions, enabling them to serve more clients and lead the way in providing a heightened level of customer support and an exceptional user experience.

Tavant Set To Add Asset Analysis To AI Lending Platform

Tavant, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based digital lending solutions provider, announced it plans to add a new product, Asset Analysis, to Touchless Lending, its AI-powered digital lending platform.

Touchless Lending Asset Analysis is in the near-final stages of production and will be available by the end of June, the company said.

With the addition, Tavant said, Touchless Lending will further solidify itself as the most comprehensive automated underwriting solution available to mortgage lenders by providing coverage over all four major underwriting components — income, credit, collateral, and asset analysis.

“This upcoming launch of Touchless Lending Asset Analysis will perfectly complement our currently available underwriting products — Document, Income, Credit, Collateral, and Decision Analysis — and put Tavant one step closer to achieving our goal of enabling straight-through processing and fully automated underwriting for mortgage providers,” said Mohammad Rashid, head of fintech innovation at Tavant.

“Our current Touchless Lending products reduce the cost to process and underwrite by $1,000 per loan and achieve a scale of double-digit underwrites per day per underwriter.”

He added, “With Asset Analysis fitting in as the final piece, Touchless Lending will be capable of having even more of an impact on reducing cycle times and origination costs for lenders.”

Core Bank Launches Online Mortgage Platform RapidTRAC

Omaha, Neb.-based Core Bank has announced the launch of RapidTRAC Mortgage, an nationwide online mortgage platform that promises quick loan decisions with personalized assistance.

The platform will allow home buyers to easily upload documents and track the progress of their loan application online, leading to rapid purchase closings, the bank said.

RapidTRAC Mortgage is available nationwide and designed to meet the changing needs of customers who prefer to transact in the convenience of their home, on their phone, and outside of normal business hours, the bank said. Recent studies have shown that over 61% of consumers used an online application for their mortgage application, as well as electronically signing and notarizing documents. RapidTRAC Mortgage aims to cater to this growing trend of online transactions, allowing customers to make the best decision in less time while giving them certainty that their home financing goals can be achieved, the bank said.

“We’re happy to provide a solution to meet the changing needs of how customers interact in this new environment,” said Jack Pyle, senior vice president and director of mortgage lending.

Array Announces Launch Of Debt Manager App

Array, a financial innovation platform, said Monday it has launched Debt Manager, an embeddable solution that provides real-time information on a consumer’s debt.

The new app was launched during the CreditCon conference in New Orleans. It allows financial institutions, fintechs, and digital brands to speed up information sharing during the lead qualification or debt management process, mitigate borrower risk, and improve loan marketing by improving access to a customer’s most up-to-date credit account information, the company said.

With Debt Manager, financial services providers and their customers can quickly access account data in real-time to help identify risk and make faster decisions while remaining SOC2- and Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)compliant.

In a fast-paced environment where having current data is critical to success, getting access to a consumer’s credit card, personal loan, student loan, auto loan, and mortgage can be an expensive and cumbersome process, Array said. Asking customers to provide individual statements for each account is inefficient and delays the process of paying down debt, finding loan prospects, or assessing financial health. In addition, using potentially outdated information increases borrower risk and can lead to suboptimal decision-making, it said.

“Debt Manager solves two key challenges for companies in the financial services market,” said Deepak Sharma, vice president and general manager of Digital Financial Management Products at Array. “First, because the process today is cumbersome for the applicant, they are losing business due to a subpar customer experience. Second, without visibility to a customer’s current financial information, these companies are making suboptimal decisions and blindly assuming significant risk.”

Moon Mortgage Launches Digital Mortgage, Borrowing Products

Moon Mortgage, a Miami-based cryptocurrency lending platform, has launched two products that allow crypto investors to materialize their digital wealth.

The first product, Trade & Borrow, is the world’s first crypto loan margin account that allows investors to borrow against the value of their cryptocurrency while still maintaining some control over it, the company said. Investors can still trade their digital assets after they have taken out a cash loan, meaning they don’t have to lose their potential upside, it said. Moon Mortgage added it is working with a fully chartered U.S. digital asset bank to ensure borrowers’ cryptocurrency is secure, and all digital assets are stored by Moon Mortgage with the bank on a like-for-like basis.

Investors can take out a loan using Trade & Borrow on one-, three-, or sixmonth terms, and borrowers have the option to renew their loans. There are no prepayment penalties or origination fees, and investors can easily exit their position when they feel the time is right, the company said.

Moon Mortgage said it has focused on keeping the process as simple as possible, with investors able to receive their loans in as few as three steps.

The second product is Moon Mortgage’s core mortgage product, which allows crypto investors to use their assets to secure funding for purchases of real estate. The product has been designed to work like a traditional mortgage, with the difference being that digital assets serve as additional collateral. Investors can receive financing for real estate purchases in as few as six steps, with the expected average close time in as little as 14 days. the company said.

First American Title’s Agency Division Adds Secure Document Portal

First American Title Insurance Company, a provider of title insurance and settlement services, announced the addition of a secure document portal to its PRISM digital platform, an enhancement that is designed to help First American policy-issuing title agents reduce wire fraud risk and simplify communication with customers.

This new security feature allows title agents to provide their customers with secure access to wire instructions and transaction documents under the protection of multi-factor authentication. Also, it automates notifications for document and transaction updates.

“We’re committed to helping our title agents and their customers prevent wire fraud, while also simplifying the real estate transaction experience,” said Stephen Vincini, president of First American Title’s Agency Division.”

Launched in 2022, the PRISM platform provides First American policy-issuing title agents with a variety of automation and marketing tools to help their businesses grow and to better serve their customers. The PRISM platform also features integrations with third-party services to enhance the efficiency and convenience of the settlement process for title agents, lenders, real estate agents, and the buyers and sellers they serve. The PRISM platform also connects title agents to the following services available only from First American Title:

Customizable marketing through Agent Print Pro

Materials

Property data, including transaction history and current owner information

Automated settlement/closing fee quotes that include local recording fees, transfer taxes, along with title insurance policy and endorsement rates through First American’s Comprehensive Calculator.

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A look at the most talented, ambitious and legendary individuals. Mortgage Banker Magazine asked readers and mortgage professionals to nominate mortgage professionals deserving of the Legends of Lending award. We set out to find the most talented,ambitious and legendary individuals who are achieving excellenceand making a difference in the mortgage industry. We received many nominations. Each was reviewed carefully by a panel of judges and 19 winners were selected.

Please join us as we salute the 2023 class of Legends of Lending. >>