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ACI 3.6UAD

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bluechip

Junior Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2007
Professional Status
Licensed Appraiser
State
Georgia
Just finished reading ACI’s Navigating the UAD and Form Redesign guide. If anyone’s wondering how bad this is going to get, buckle up.

ACI is killing off all desktop software and forcing everyone onto their new cloud only Workbench platform. Once UAD 3.6 goes live in November 2026 and legacy forms die in May 2027, everything you do will run through their servers. No more local control, no real ownership of your data, and no ability to work offline.

The new URAR isn’t a form at all. It’s a dynamic data driven interface built to feed Fannie and Freddie’s systems. Every field is standardized, every comment is constrained, and the free form narrative that actually explains a property is being phased out in the name of reducing bias. In reality it’s just making appraisers more replaceable and their data more machine readable.

Real time compliance checks will run as you type. If the system doesn’t like your entry, it flags or blocks it. The result isn’t a report. It’s a structured dataset built for automation.

The timeline is already locked. Beta in April 2025. Limited rollout in September 2025. Full production in January 2026. Mandatory in November 2026. Desktop retirement in May 2027. After that everything runs through the cloud.

This is the biggest structural change since HVCC. Independence, narrative context, and human analysis are being replaced by standardized data capture. The GSEs get the data. ACI gets the subscriptions. Appraisers lose control.

If you’re still in the field, start planning now. Learn the new system, back up everything locally, and build your private and non-lender client base before they flip the switch.

Exactly what I warned about in my book Mein Comp: The Last Appraiser. This isn’t modernization. It’s the slow dismantling of independent judgment disguised as innovation. Every chapter I wrote is unfolding right in front of us.
 

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*SNIP*

If you’re still in the field, start planning now. Learn the new system, back up everything locally, and build your private and non-lender client base before they flip the switch.

Exactly what I warned about in my book Mein Comp: The Last Appraiser. This isn’t modernization. It’s the slow dismantling of independent judgment disguised as innovation. Every chapter I wrote is unfolding right in front of us.

Yup yup. I went to ACI's Act Conference presentation in San Antonio. Worse than useless. Couldn't read anything on the screens, and it was just more Agitprop with no substance yet. Man she was shillin' overtime trying to sell it - and I can't blame her. It's her job. Likeable girl. Good luck to her. But I can't see too many folks staying with ACI (its the only software I ever used - 24 years and running).

Then I went to the all-day Fannie presentation. Same deal. Useless. Without a laptop to practice on, it was just another boring, unreadable slide show. (Reminded me of similar experiences watching DoD civilian bureaucrats do presentations while those of us in uniform who actually worked for a living rolled our eyes - a scene from an earlier life). :sneaky:

Fortunately, we have done well enough and saved and invested and are at the right place life-wise that we will happily retire when the 1004 Regime is retired. We built a family business and a system that worked incredibly well for us. The way I see it, the "New Order in Appraising" will mean that the (now incredibly onerous and mind-numbing UAD 3.6) job will wind up being parceled out to a bunch of "Organ Grinder Monkeys" all working a part of the job for peanuts.

No one will ever be able again to have the kind of business success and independence that we have had - even if they are a software whizz. Another Small Business model - part of the Backbone of America since its inception - is going to bite the dust. In 100 years, this place will resemble the latter Roman Empire - "Bread and Circuses" (read: Video Games and Tik Tok insanity) to distract the dispossessed poverty-ridden masses from their aimless lives that offer them no ability to better their condition.

It is what it is. The way of all Empires. Only the names and places change. The cycle of civilization is not repealed by "Technology", only sped up by it. :(
 
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Just finished reading ACI’s Navigating the UAD and Form Redesign guide. If anyone’s wondering how bad this is going to get, buckle up.

ACI is killing off all desktop software and forcing everyone onto their new cloud only Workbench platform. Once UAD 3.6 goes live in November 2026 and legacy forms die in May 2027, everything you do will run through their servers. No more local control, no real ownership of your data, and no ability to work offline.

The new URAR isn’t a form at all. It’s a dynamic data driven interface built to feed Fannie and Freddie’s systems. Every field is standardized, every comment is constrained, and the free form narrative that actually explains a property is being phased out in the name of reducing bias. In reality it’s just making appraisers more replaceable and their data more machine readable.

Real time compliance checks will run as you type. If the system doesn’t like your entry, it flags or blocks it. The result isn’t a report. It’s a structured dataset built for automation.

The timeline is already locked. Beta in April 2025. Limited rollout in September 2025. Full production in January 2026. Mandatory in November 2026. Desktop retirement in May 2027. After that everything runs through the cloud.

This is the biggest structural change since HVCC. Independence, narrative context, and human analysis are being replaced by standardized data capture. The GSEs get the data. ACI gets the subscriptions. Appraisers lose control.

If you’re still in the field, start planning now. Learn the new system, back up everything locally, and build your private and non-lender client base before they flip the switch.

Exactly what I warned about in my book Mein Comp: The Last Appraiser. This isn’t modernization. It’s the slow dismantling of independent judgment disguised as innovation. Every chapter I wrote is unfolding right in front of us.
It's a transition to data collectors for mortgage work.
 
The only reason I'd stay with ACI after this kicks in is the GPAR...so they'll be losing a 20+ year client if they discontinue it, and I'll just do it myself on Excel..or some other application. It really kind of sucks that this industry self regulated itself to death and gave away all of the data to the overlords..we really should have grown a pair about 15 years ago.. So it goes..
 
Just finished reading ACI’s Navigating the UAD and Form Redesign guide. If anyone’s wondering how bad this is going to get, buckle up.

ACI is killing off all desktop software and forcing everyone onto their new cloud only Workbench platform. Once UAD 3.6 goes live in November 2026 and legacy forms die in May 2027, everything you do will run through their servers. No more local control, no real ownership of your data, and no ability to work offline.

The new URAR isn’t a form at all. It’s a dynamic data driven interface built to feed Fannie and Freddie’s systems. Every field is standardized, every comment is constrained, and the free form narrative that actually explains a property is being phased out in the name of reducing bias. In reality it’s just making appraisers more replaceable and their data more machine readable.

Real time compliance checks will run as you type. If the system doesn’t like your entry, it flags or blocks it. The result isn’t a report. It’s a structured dataset built for automation.

The timeline is already locked. Beta in April 2025. Limited rollout in September 2025. Full production in January 2026. Mandatory in November 2026. Desktop retirement in May 2027. After that everything runs through the cloud.

This is the biggest structural change since HVCC. Independence, narrative context, and human analysis are being replaced by standardized data capture. The GSEs get the data. ACI gets the subscriptions. Appraisers lose control.

If you’re still in the field, start planning now. Learn the new system, back up everything locally, and build your private and non-lender client base before they flip the switch.

Exactly what I warned about in my book Mein Comp: The Last Appraiser. This isn’t modernization. It’s the slow dismantling of independent judgment disguised as innovation. Every chapter I wrote is unfolding right in front of us.
Simple solutions are availaible. SFREP, Bradford, etc
 
Yup yup. I went to ACI's Act Conference presentation in San Antonio. Worse than useless. Couldn't read anything on the screens, and it was just more Agitprop with no substance yet. Man she was shillin' overtime trying to sell it - and I can't blame her. It's her job. Likeable girl. Good luck to her. But I can't see too many folks staying with ACI (its the only software I ever used - 24 years and running).

Then I went to the all-day Fannie presentation. Same deal. Useless. Without a laptop to practice on, it was just another boring, unreadable slide show. (Reminded me of similar experiences watching DoD civilian bureaucrats do presentations while those of us in uniform who actually worked for a living rolled our eyes - a scene from an earlier life). :sneaky:

Fortunately, we have done well enough and saved and invested and are at the right place life-wise that we will happily retire when the 1004 Regime is retired. We built a family business and a system that worked incredibly well for us. The way I see it, the "New Order in Appraising" will mean that the (now incredibly onerous and mind-numbing UAD 3.6) job will wind up being parceled out to a bunch of "Organ Grinder Monkeys" all working a part of the job for peanuts.

No one will ever be able again to have the kind of business success and independence that we have had - even if they are a software whizz. Another Small Business model - part of the Backbone of America since its inception - is going to bite the dust. In 100 years, this place will resemble the latter Roman Empire - "Bread and Circuses" (read: Video Games and Tik Tok insanity) to distract the dispossessed poverty-ridden masses from their aimless lives that offer them no ability to better their condition.

It is what it is. The way of all Empires. Only the names and places change. The cycle of civilization is not repealed by "Technology", only sped up by it. :(

It was a nice run.

In the very beginning just out of college being paid a lot in mid 80s for filling out a form... I thought "this can't last".

A work-life later having packed away F U money, raised kids ... The day is here. I wonder what I would pick as a young person with my strengths and weaknesses would pick to do for a career today. I Don't naturally fit in corporate or government since I naturally bristle at stuff like 44 gender ideology or race based hiring and would not get a promotion. Plus the atmosphere would shorten my lifespan. I think I would try commercial brokerage since it has for the most part normal business hours and still has schmoozing and martini lunch aspects. Additionally I would definitely minimalize to the max and accumulate rental properties in red state flagship college areas (think Texas Tech in Lubbock... A bunch of engineering majors in a low extraneous aggravation concentration area).
 
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