Appraisal departments: absolutely swamped, understaffed, not enough people on my team, overwhelmed, don’t have the time, doing a job that’s meant for two people, working the weekends…in a word, buried.
Many new appraisal managers recently left the fee world and are trying to figure out their position. That’s a difficult transition from creating appraisals to managing the entire appraisal process in a bank. Lots to learn. Even if someone leaves your staff, getting upper management approval to replace that person can be a challenge.
Reporting is the answer
As an appraisal manager or chief appraiser, do you know exactly how long it takes to get an appraisal ordered once notified by the loan officer (LO)or relationship manager (RM)? Don’t know? You should since upper management would appreciate the improved client experience. Also, it would significantly decrease stress in your appraisal department.
One challenge is to determine a lender ROI for an appraisal workflow like YouConnect. The following reflect real stories from appraisal managers and chief appraisers, anonymized.
5 Lender ROI from the Appraisal Dept.
- “Time is money. It should increase their productivity by getting their appraisals out to bid quicker, engaged faster and returned easier. And I might add at a minimal fee of $80 for a $2,000 report.”
- “We are all fee sensitive, but you need to manage the process effectively and efficiently. It’s easy to screw up or to lose a deal if you don’t have a system. That lost or messed up deal can cost you more money. When I was at another bank, we didn’t have a system. I quoted a fee from a vendor to a loan officer but forgot to order it. I figured it out a couple weeks later, but the fee was higher and they had to wait longer than the delivery date I originally quoted. No one was happy.”
- “The lenders have full transparency and they don’t need to pick up the phone every time they want to know the status of an appraisal… All that information is there in a dashboard view for them.”
- “The lender can see where a request is within the process whenever they want. All they do is login and they can give themselves an update every morning or every hour. Our lenders really like that.”
- “The portal creates a direct contact to the appraisal team, you can communicate or ask questions directly to us within the request. That means they don’t have to sift through their inbox or past emails to remember items already discussed and for the lending staff that in our bank deals with many requests. Each request has its own email archive. You can go into the request and look over past discussions or start another one. It really helps them keep all of their files cleaner.”
What gets measured gets done
Get a system like YouConnect built by valuation experts. We understand the importance of reporting especially to the LO or RMs. The following is suggested appraisal department reporting you should be getting from your appraisal workflow platform. Hitting your SLAs within your department will reduce a lot of stress with the lending side, provide transparency and job satisfaction.
Download Credit Department Report Template
