30 Day Backup and Counting

[Charlotte Dixon]

It's not even funny here anymore. A recent poll of appraisers in this state shows that most of us are quoting a 4-week turnaround.......no joke. And that quote is for our regular clients. Forget those guaranteed phone calls from other findmealoan.com entities all over the country wanting an appraisal in 10 days. It can't be done here. Yeah, the checks are great, but with little sleep and eating on the run, we've all got colds and are miserable in this office. PMI release and estate appraisals are on a waiting list. We just tell them we're sorry and we'll get back to them in a month. We even advise them to get on every appraiser's waiting list in the yellow pages. I've never seen such a mess! How is it where you are?

 

[Leon Stewart]

You will generally find that condition in most areas where the lenders are using a few select appraisers or there are just a few appraisers in a given community. For the most part Lenders create their own problems when they don't incorporate the largest possible number of appraisers in the process. Then again, most lenders go where they will get the type of reports that they need to close their loans disreguardless of them losing more money by creating a longer turnaround time.

leon

 

[Charlotte Dixon]

You will generally find that condition in most areas where the lenders are using a few select appraisers or there are just a few appraisers in a given community. For the most part Lenders create their own problems when they don't incorporate the largest possible number of appraisers in the process. Then again, most lenders go where they will get the type of reports that they need to close their loans disreguardless of them losing more money by creating a longer turnaround time.

leon

I don't believe either is true in this case, Leon. The processors don't even call for status of appraisals anymore around here. When I e-mail them telling them the "Smith" appraisal will be e-mailed, say, in two days.....He/she says.."Whatever you can do is fine"......They tell me that they, also, are so backed up they can't keep track of what they have. I'm not speaking of just our appraisal shop, but all the appraisers I know, locally are just swamped. Tomorrow, a large group of appraisers is taking a 2 hour vacation and going to lunch together to compare notes. We'll be the bunch with bags under our eyes and rumpled clothing.

 

[Frederick R. Ruffell]

swamped and turning away work.

 

[Karl]

OKAY Then my question is Y are so many up & arms over AVM's, seems A LOT of Appraiser's are saying they have too much work. Now second question when U tell the homeowner it is COD do they want a postponment until they can get the money? Third question how many of these are for 100% + Refinancing, How many are foreclosures, How many are Sales with seller doing 100% Closing Cost. How many are Relocations, & Last question U being in Wyoming & comps probablly are a great distance apart How many is a LOT of Appraisals. Remember on East Coast there are those that CLAIM they can do 5 per day.

 

[Mountain Man]

swamped and turning away work.

Me too. Still give my best "A" guys the usuall turn time, but that leaves no time for other unknown, or demanding AMC's.

 

[John Hassler]

Until this week my message machine said "I'm not accepting any new orders this week ....". And I had that same message run for five weeks. Got rid of all the one-shot-wonder deals. Now I'm just quoting 4-5 weeks. I'm still trying to educate the agents that financing contingencies of 15 days aren't even close to realistic.

BUT, next year we'll be fighting the LOs and agents for the best tee times.


John Hassler


BTW Most refi's seem to be rate & term, not that much "max-refi". Sales too, have been mostly 20% or better down. And prices at the low end are still going up and typically receiving 98% to 102% of ask.

 

[Charlotte Dixon]

OKAY Then my question is Y are so many up & arms over AVM's, seems A LOT of Appraiser's are saying they have too much work. Now second question when U tell the homeowner it is COD do they want a postponment until they can get the money? Third question how many of these are for 100% + Refinancing, How many are foreclosures, How many are Sales with seller doing 100% Closing Cost. How many are Relocations, & Last question U being in Wyoming & comps probablly are a great distance apart How many is a LOT of Appraisals. Remember on East Coast there are those that CLAIM they can do 5 per day.

1) Not up and arms over AVM's or anything
2)Don't do COD's when this busy. Only work for our "A" clients, the heavy hitters
3)Approximate Breakdown: A little over 1/2 are Sales, few closing costs paid.... Not quite 1/2 are Refinances....Only about 2/month foreclosures....Have cut Relocations off, but was doing about 4/month. Wyoming, Delaware adjoins the State Capital, Dover, Delaware. COMPS A GREAT DISTANCE A PART? Comps are lying around our doorstep and are plentiful. Dover Air Force Base is 2 miles from us, so real estate activity is swift because of the transient nature of the area. Delaware is about 94 miles long and is 46 miles wide at the widest point. We do the whole state, as do most here. Most of our business is within a 30 mile radius. We call a LOT of appraisals when I keep about 25 on my dry erase board and can't widdle that down because the fax machine won't stop. I can get about 3 out a day if I push it and if those properties have locations in subdivisions in the City (within a couple miles of me). Of course more complicated jobs cut that down to 1 or 2 aday. Last week I spent 2 days on a small chicken farm report while the fax machine kept going. The three others here each have about 10 on their boards. Two of those appraisers are part-time. I do V.A.'s and none of us do F.H.A.'s. A little less than 1/4 of my work is V.A. Got to get to work!

 

[Tim Hicks (Texas)]

This turn around time is entirely unacceptable. You guys need to get to work and improve your productivity. Oh, and quit hogging all the work! :lol:

 

[Leon Stewart]

You will generally find that condition in most areas where the lenders are using a few select appraisers or there are just a few appraisers in a given community. For the most part Lenders create their own problems when they don't incorporate the largest possible number of appraisers in the process. Then again, most lenders go where they will get the type of reports that they need to close their loans disreguardless of them losing more money by creating a longer turnaround time.

leon

I don't believe either is true in this case, Leon. The processors don't even call for status of appraisals anymore around here. When I e-mail them telling them the "Smith" appraisal will be e-mailed, say, in two days.....He/she says.."Whatever you can do is fine"......They tell me that they, also, are so backed up they can't keep track of what they have. I'm not speaking of just our appraisal shop, but all the appraisers I know, locally are just swamped. Tomorrow, a large group of appraisers is taking a 2 hour vacation and going to lunch together to compare notes. We'll be the bunch with bags under our eyes and rumpled clothing.

Charlotte:

If you know most of the Appraisers in your community that you can group together for lunch you are evidently in a community with few appraisers, so when things increase the system will be overloaded from top to bottom. In many larger communities I've observed that the supply of Appraisers are poorly utilized, and you will find that 10% of the Appraisers are doing 90% of the work. This is the results of many factors, e.g., Popularity of the Appraiser, Number Hitters, Friends and Relatives inside the Lending Institution, and in some cases Kickback to Loan Officers.

So when the work load increase, experienced Appraisers will not be in the "Pipeline", so the work backs up. I expect the Lenders will use this back-up to expand the use of AVM's in the future. If there is a 4 to 5 week backup, why not use an Automated System to relieve this backlog? It's a no brainer. Whether this problem is planned by the Lenders I don't know, but the groundwork has been laid.

leon