SPECIAL SECTION: THE STATE OF APPRAISALS & VALUATION
How Perpetual Change Has Driven Innovations In Valuation Technology Alternatives to full appraisals have gained increasing attention and support BY VLADIMIR BIEN-AIME | SPECIAL TO NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL
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t is abundantly clear in these uncertain times that the need for impartial and bankable valuations are indispensable. The factors that contribute to the volatility of the market and the risk to the lending institutions are numerous and momentous. Lenders must operate in an environment beset with natural disasters, unforeseen unemployment, fraud, cyber-attacks and even pandemics. Faced with these dynamics, it’s imperative that lenders have the necessary real estate collateral to make themselves whole to ensure the longevity of their institutions.
Companies that are quickly able to adapt to the sudden changes will not only survive these precarious times but will thrive. This pandemic has ushered in the age of social distancing and has significantly impeded the mortgage process. Appraisers are now required to produce creditable valuations without access to the interior of the subject property. This turn of events has not only disrupted the mortgage process but introduced additional risk to the lender. These unprecedented tribulations have produced some major innovations to accommodate the interference. The top tier
“Efficient lenders that embrace technology and combine it with industry best practices can realize significant growth with minimal risk.” Fortunately, technology has kept up. New valuation platforms have emerged to provide the means for an efficient and secure method for managing the entire process. These next-generation platforms can automate the entire process, while providing complete control, transparency and compliance. The market leaders provide seamless integration with loan origination systems (LOS), automated review and configurable risk and performancebased vendor allocation. The elite solution providers offer rolebased dashboards with service level agreements (SLAs), build your own review forms, one-day implementation and a compliance guarantee.
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providers were able to quickly deliver a secure mobile inspection app that allows borrowers to procure highquality photos of both the interior and exterior of a subject property. This alleviates the appraiser from this burdensome task, while adhering to the current social distancing guidelines and the temporary GSEs appraisal policy. The state-of-theart solutions seamlessly integrates the borrower-self inspection process into the current workflow, remain highly configurable, and leverages geocoded image tracking and fraud prevention technology to ensure integrity. Although this technology was developed in direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we expect
| NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE
Vladimir Bien-Aime is president and CEO of GlobalDMS.
this technology to provide value for years to come.
MARKET INNOVATIONS Not all innovation is driven by catastrophe, sometime good customer service and good old fashion competition produce some amazing results. Recently, historically low interest rates and rising home prices have increased borrower equity nationwide and have created a healthy home equity loan and HELOC market. Efficient lenders that embrace technology and combine it with industry best practices can realize significant growth with minimal risk. As a result, lenders are aggressively courting potential borrowers and their ability to keep costs down and provide customers a fast and hassle-free mortgage experience crucial to their overall success. The Global DMS Appraisal Price Index (GAPI) tells us the national average for 1004 (URAR) appraisal is $525, but in Los Angeles County, the average is $700, and in New York,
