Appraisal Firewall Release Information for
Thursday, April 5th, 2018
Release Information for Managers
 
Starting Thursday, April 5th, we will release an enhanced version of Appraisal Firewall.  With this release, we will be adding multiple enhancements to the commercial order process and creating lender level manual reviewers. Read below for complete detail.

You can notify your lender clients of the upcoming changes by using this private label friendly lender bulletin.  You can notify appraisers of the changes that impact them using this bulletin.


Increased Demand for Commercial Appraisals Prompts System Expansion
As commercial lending increases in 2018, our newly expanded system gives your clients more control over their commercial appraisal process.  Appraisal Firewall allows your clients to customize their commercial workflow to best suit the needs of their company.  We’ve enhanced the commercial ordering process, from order bidding to easier communication with users and appraisers. Whether your clients are looking for a commercial ordering solution, or if they want to improve their existing process, here are just some of the enhancements.
  • Additional Commercial Appraisal Products and More Detailed Ordering Screens
    We’ve enhanced the commercial appraisal order screen to include a new product called Appraisal Report, which is a standard product that’s accepted by USPAP.  We have also added an additional data entry field for Property Interest which helps transmit more information to commercial appraisers up front.

    How to Use this Feature
    Both the Appraisal Report product and the Property Interest field are available by default on the new commercial appraisal order screen with this release.  There is nothing you need to do to provide this to your clients.
  • New Commercial Settings Allows Clients to Customize their Process
    We understand that commercial appraisal orders are never standard from lender to lender, which is why we have created a new Commercial Settings feature.  Within the settings of a division, the new Commercial section allows users to enable features to help improve their commercial workflow.  Click here to review the enhanced Commercial Appraisal training guide for lenders.
     
    • Auto-Request Bids – Forget manually selecting appraisers to request bids from!  Now your clients can automatically send a bid request email to all qualified appraisers on their panel right when they place the order. 
       
    • Allow Managed Users to Review Bids – Managed users can now review and accept bids from appraisers!  Previously, this feature was only available to administrator users.
       
    • Allow Conditional Acceptance – Your clients can allow appraisers to conditionally accept commercial orders due to a change of price or turn time that may have occurred since the time the bid was originally submitted. 
       
    • Set Bid By Date Out _ Business Days – Set an automatic due date for the appraisers’ bids to be submitted by on commercial orders.
       
    • Use Standard Engagement Terms – Your clients can supply a default engagement letter that applies only to their commercial orders. 
  • Commercial-Specific Coverage Areas for Appraisers
    With the addition of several new features for lenders, we didn’t want to leave out appraisers.  We have enhanced appraiser accounts to be able to designate their commercial coverage in addition to the already available residential coverage.  Now whenever an appraiser marks that they perform commercial appraisals, a new Commercial Coverage section will appear within their account settings.  Commercial appraisers can enter the areas they perform commercial appraisals in and keep it separate from their Residential Coverage.  With this release, if an appraiser has marked that they perform commercial appraisals, their Residential coverage will automatically be copied over to the new Commercial Coverage section which they can modify at any time. 
Other Enhancements with this Release...
  • New HUD Compliance Inspection Report Product Type
    The new 92051 HUD Compliance Inspection Report will be available with this release. The form is required for FHA construction reinspections and is different from a normal FHA 1004D. Now users across the board will be able to order the new product.

    How to use this feature:
    The new 92051 HUD Compliance Inspection Report will be automatically available to all lender users placing orders in Appraisal Firewall.  Your clients that limit product lists will need to adjust their products if they do not want their users placing orders for the new 92051 form as it will be automatically available to everyone.  In addition, clients that use fixed pricing may want to enter a cost for the new product.  FHA appraisers can also enter their general pricing for the new product within their account settings.
  • New UCDP/EAD Override Available: 1004D
    While we have offered the ability to select manual overrides for UCDP/EAD eligible reports for some time, we are expanding this feature to include 1004Ds. Now that the portals accept 1004D XML submissions, the manual overrides will now be available for you and your clients to select when overriding a UCDP/EAD hard stop.

    How to use this feature:
    Override selections for 1004Ds will automatically be available on the Send to UCDP screen just like they already are on other UCDP/EAD eligible form types. If a portal returns an overrideable error, you or your clients can access the Send to UCDP screen, select the override reason from the drop down, then submit the report again.
  • Update to Average Price per Product Management Report
    We are enhancing the current management report called All Appraisers Average Price Per Product to include a new column for FHA appraisals.  Now you can easily see the average cost of both conventional and FHA orders anywhere across the country.  You can use this feature to gauge the appropriate fixed pricing for a given area.

    How to use this feature:
    You can access the All Appraisers Average Price Per Product report via the Reporting section. You can optionally select a state and county then click Run Report. The report will automatically display a new column labeled ‘Average Amount FHA’ so you can see the average pricing for an FHA product from appraisers throughout the system.
  • Enhancement to Manual Review Allows for Global Reviewers
    We have enhanced the manual review process to allow a lender level reviewer.  Now, instead of adding a manual reviewer at the division level, you and your clients can optionally add a manual review panel at the lender level that can perform reviews across multiple divisions.  In addition, system users who are acting as reviewers will have a new reviewer user indicator within a user list so you can easily identify which users are reviewers.

    How to use this feature:
    Access a lender’s account settings in your Relationships screen by maximizing a lender and clicking Edit Lender Settings.  In the Manual Review Settings section, find the new Review Panel section.  Click Create Panel to create a panel and add a reviewer(s) user at the lender level.  You can keep adding reviewers just like you and your lenders already do at the division level.  Next, click Push To Divisions and select the appropriate divisions.  When you click Save Changes, you can confirm the change to have the lender level review panel copied to all selected divisions.  Please note: Pushing a lender level manual review panel overrides the review panel of ALL the selected divisions.  After creating a lender level manual review panel you and your clients can customize the review panel on a per division basis.