Appraisal Firewall Enhancements Scheduled for Friday Morning, February 19th, 2021
Release Information for Managers
 
Starting Friday morning, February 19th, 2021, a new version of Appraisal Firewall will be available for you, your clients and your appraisers.  This release allows managers to add custom fees to orders, to counteroffer conditionally accepted orders, expanded appraiser license and certification checks, plus Appraisal Scorecard enhancements and lots more!  Read on for complete information.

Download a private labeled version of the Lender release bulletin.


Manager and Lender Enhancements

Add Custom Fees to Appraisal Orders
You can have the flexibility and tracking you need to bill custom fees on any Appraisal Firewall order. Recovering costs that would otherwise be forfeit due to cancellation fees, LOS fees, etc. can now be accomplished by adding a billable custom fee. Utilizing the Custom Fees to Lender feature can be tailored based on client relationships, for each order’s uniqueness, and more. You can add custom lender fees at any point after the order has been placed, from a requested status to a completed status, including cancelled orders.

How to Use the Feature:
Open an order, and view the Billing Details on any order type. Located at the bottom is a new Add Custom Fee to Lender button. To properly add a custom fee to your clients, enter a Fee Title and Fee Amount.


Click Submit to have the name of the fee and amount displayed along with the other billing line itemizations.



Utilizing the Billing Activity report will also display these custom fees to your clients for accuracy when generating end of month invoicing.
 
Easier Credit Card Billing Reconciliation with Expanded Reporting Data
You can now add the last 4 digits of the credit card that was used to pay for the order to your management reports.  Adding the last 4 CC digits will enable you to cross-reference this data with the invoices you send to clients in cases where billing questions come in from clients.

How to use this feature
Login and click the Reporting menu.  From here, you can either edit an existing Custom Report or create a new report to include this data.  In the Custom Reports section, either click the Create Report button, or find the custom report you want to edit and click the down-arrow on that report.  Once you are viewing the detail screen, find the Order Fields section, and expand it.  The available options are listed alphabetically.  Locate the Last 4 of CC checkbox, then check it, and click the Save Report button at right.  Enabling this option and then running a report that contains this data will create a Last 4 column on the report and the corresponding last 4 digits of the card that was used to pay for the order will display.  A couple items to note:
  • If the card has not yet been charged, the column will also display “Pend” for pending charge.
  • If the card has been used to pay for multiple orders, this column will also display “Mult” to indicate this.
  • In situations where more than one card is used to pay for an order (via the Update Credit Card Info feature), the most recently used card will be shown.
Add More Emphasis to Appraisal Scorecard Reviewer Notes with Font Controls
Appraisal Scorecard now offers added functionality for rich-text editing so reviewers, lenders, and appraisers can communicate more effectively than ever before.  Reviewer can add their notes to the Summation Notes section, then they can bold, italicize, and underline text to make the important statements more evident.

As you likely know, Appraisal Scorecard is still the only real-time, multi-audience appraisal review tool that brings the lender, reviewer, and appraiser together to get QA results faster.  Not offering the Appraisal Scorecard yet to your clients?  Contact Danielle Walker at Danielle.Walker@SharperLending.com to learn more about it.

How to use this feature:
One the Appraisal Scorecard report is delivered, to the right of the Review Summation section, reviewers and lenders can click the pencil icon to create a new note.  When creating a new note, users will see options to Bold, Underline, Italicize, and Strikethrough text.  The font sizes and styles can also be modified by clicking the Normal option here.
 
Counter an Offer When an Order is Conditionally Accepted
Now you can enter a counteroffer on residential orders that are conditionally accepted. This new enhancement to the conditional acceptance feature will permit you to submit alternative pricing and/or date required. Countering conditionally accepted orders will save you time: instead of declining conditions which begins the assignment process anew, the new counteroffer feature keeps the order with the appraiser currently assigned with the option to accept the new conditions.

How to Use this Feature:
View a conditionally accepted order in a Negotiating status. The overlay now includes a Counter section along with Accept, Decline or Cancel.



Choosing Counter displays what terms the appraiser conditionally accepted. Enter a counter price and/or date required along with a comment. Confirm to send the counter terms back to the appraiser for acceptance. Any use of the counteroffer will be documented in the Communication Log.
 
View More Data Quickly: Include Division Info on Your Main Orders Dashboard
We are providing you with the option to view more data quickly by including the lender’s division name in your Orders List view. Adding the division name allows you to see multiple division’ orders at the same time while viewing which order is under which division.

How to use this feature:
Login to Appraisal Firewall, and in the orders list section of the main screen, to the right of the Export All button is a carrot button that allows you to customize your orders list view. Click the carrot button to access the control panel for customizing your view. In the Available Fields section, scroll down until you find the Division entry, then click on it and drag it to the right – into the Current Fields panel.  Once the Division entry is displayed in the Current Fields panel, click Commit.  This will bring this data into your Orders List view so you can see it at a glance.
 
Automatic Reminders for Orders Coming Due
Now you can enable notifications to appraisers that will automatically dispatch a reminder that the order is due within 48 hours. Utilizing this feature prompts a system generated email notification reminder to the appraiser of the upcoming due date. Automating the reminder allocates less manual intervention when orders are closing in on their date required. This can be enabled on a division-by-division basis in the division settings.

How to Use this Feature:
Login under your manager account and click the Relationships menu option.  On the Lenders tab, expand the lender whose division you want to enable, and click Manage Divisions.  On the divisions list screen, expand the division you want to work with, and click Edit Settings.  Within Edit Settings, select General. Under the Processing Orders section, Notify Appraiser of Order Coming Due is now an available setting. Once the setting has been enabled, be sure to SAVE. Orders at the 48 hour until due threshold will trigger the system generated email to the appraiser, while also documenting the activity on the Communication Log.  Note that administrator users under your clients can also access this feature.
 

Appraiser Enhancements

Enhanced Appraiser License/Certification Validations
Appraisal Firewall continues to make compliance with federal and state guidelines simple and easy. As you know, there are guidelines that require the appraisers’ licenses and certifications that work on appraisals to be current (not expired). Appraisal Firewall validates this each time an appraiser logs in and when they accept an order, and we are extending this non-expiration feature to be applied automatically upon appraisal delivery. If at any of these milestones the appraisers’ licenses or certifications are expired, they will not be able to deliver the report until they have rectified the issue.

As you know, appraisals can take weeks between order and completion, and in rare cases, an appraisers’ credentials may become stale during that time. Performing an additional non-expiration check upon appraiser login and upon delivery of the appraisal will help ensure that all licenses and certifications are current.

How to use this feature:
There is nothing you need to do with this feature. It is enabled automatically, and will walk the appraiser through their license and certification updates.