Purpose of appraisal port?

[Jordan Scott]

Can anyone tell me why appraisal port is so popular and commonly used? Why don't the lenders just use an AMC or contact the appraisers directly? What is the advantage of them going through appraisal port?

 

[TJSum]

Jordan, there is no advantage to the appraiser, in fact it is a slap in the face. For the clients benefits, they could tell you better, I guess it cuts down on management at their end and of course Appraisal Port can mine our data, that is always a plus.m2:

 

[Greg Bell]

6 Dollars a pop for each report..

 

[Couch Potato]

The biggest advantage for the client is a single method for communicating with all appraisers that easily documents each step of the process and communicates clearly. AMCs are expensive compared to dealing directly with appraisers as they do with appraisal port. Contacting appraisers though phone or fax is very difficult to track. Appraisal Port is generally a good thing, IMHO.

AI Ready format, which can be sent through Appraisal Port instead of a PDF, is not a good thing, IMHO. It distorts the report. I don't mind sending a data file with the report that allows easier entry of the data in the report, but I only do reports as PDF files.

Greg, I never worry about the $6 a pop for delivery, I charge $12 a pop more for Appraisal Port orders.

 

[Lobo Fan]

They data mine your reports and sell them back to you for $125.00 per month. Check out Collateral Data at the FNC website. Totally worthless at my location. I looked up one address, it gave me four different legals and four different owners, all of which were wrong. What a waste.

 

[TJSum]

Same here CP, I only send them PDF's. I hope that cuts back on the data mining, but not sure. If I remember correctly, you use Clickforms which I also use. At first I tried the AI ready format, but many exhibit pages would not convert, so I refused to use it.

 

[Riick]

They don't seem to mind the PDFs
CP... any static from FNC on the "locked" appraisals??

 

[Couch Potato]

They don't seem to mind the PDFs
CP... any static from FNC on the "locked" appraisals??

I've never had a complaint about them. :new_smile-l:

 

[Lobo Fan]

They can crack a locked PDF like a peanut. Data mining is one of their big sales pitches to the lenders to use them. They just got through putting together a data base for Landsafe. Supposedly L/S is moving from data mining Lighthouse to AI ready Appraisal Port which is totally dedicated to data mining.

These people are not your friends.

 

[Jordan Scott]

Our own appraisal port?

Has anyone thought of creating our own "appraisal port"? One that would compete with the FNC appraisal port to prevent these type of problems.