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AMC asking for UAD 3.6 fees, what's everyone thinking?

Phil Snyder said:
I'm going to be in the minority here....

I just completed my first 3.6 report using Aivre last week. I quoted a fee about 45% higher than my standard (cookie cutter house on a 2.6 "legacy" form) fee would have been. For reference, I'm in the Mid Atlantic region and this number started with a "7". I spent less than 2 hours in the form filling process, maybe another 30-40 minutes messing around with the attachments, reviewing and whatnot. I did get a revision request for some minor missing things, boxes not checked off that the software didn't catch, had the Lender and AMC names swapped in the wrong places.... basic stuff that could happen to anyone, particularly with a FIRST time user after ~25 years of Clickforms experience.

The AI portions of Aivre are pretty impressive, you upload the engagement letter (and AOS if a sale) to their portal and the AI extracts all the pertinent information and slaps it into the form for you. I'm oldschool in the sense that I've never paid for an additional service related to MLS/Public Records data input, Spark, etc. I just manually input all my stuff and then save them to a comps database for possible future use. If I end up going with Aivre, 95% of this process will be completed with the click of a mouse, just a matter of checking it all over for accuracy and moving on.

Dunno.... I think I might learn to LIKE the new way and appreciate the higher fees regardless of if the process is the same or possibly even LESS time per per report. I know the software (or use of their systems) is quite a bump in cost compared to Bradford.... but at this point I'm not even sure they're ever going to actually come out with Nighthawk, and aren't making a single peep about fees, except that it will be separate from the "legacy" forms which I'm paying ~$600/year for at the moment. Aivre tech/customer service is something I've not experienced in this business before, they respond in minutes flat and know their stuff.
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Thanks for the review. It definitely looks like Jake is ahead of the pack. Are you using their mobile app to inspect or old school clipboard?

And an FYI for those interested: Aivre is offering a monthly plan. I don't see it on their website but Jake announced it on LinkedIn.
 
Phil Snyder said:
I'm going to be in the minority here....

I just completed my first 3.6 report using Aivre last week. I quoted a fee about 45% higher than my standard (cookie cutter house on a 2.6 "legacy" form) fee would have been. For reference, I'm in the Mid Atlantic region and this number started with a "7". I spent less than 2 hours in the form filling process, maybe another 30-40 minutes messing around with the attachments, reviewing and whatnot. I did get a revision request for some minor missing things, boxes not checked off that the software didn't catch, had the Lender and AMC names swapped in the wrong places.... basic stuff that could happen to anyone, particularly with a FIRST time user after ~25 years of Clickforms experience.

The AI portions of Aivre are pretty impressive, you upload the engagement letter (and AOS if a sale) to their portal and the AI extracts all the pertinent information and slaps it into the form for you. I'm oldschool in the sense that I've never paid for an additional service related to MLS/Public Records data input, Spark, etc. I just manually input all my stuff and then save them to a comps database for possible future use. If I end up going with Aivre, 95% of this process will be completed with the click of a mouse, just a matter of checking it all over for accuracy and moving on.

Dunno.... I think I might learn to LIKE the new way and appreciate the higher fees regardless of if the process is the same or possibly even LESS time per per report. I know the software (or use of their systems) is quite a bump in cost compared to Bradford.... but at this point I'm not even sure they're ever going to actually come out with Nighthawk, and aren't making a single peep about fees, except that it will be separate from the "legacy" forms which I'm paying ~$600/year for at the moment. Aivre tech/customer service is something I've not experienced in this business before, they respond in minutes flat and know their stuff.
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Thanks for the update. I am going to stick with alamode if I continue. I took the class yesterday, and they are finishing the class today. Total of 4 hours of training on the alamode program. So far it has been very informative and helpful. Just a note...it took 2 hours to just get through half of the report. Granted that is with a teacher talking and trying to show how the program works. But can you imagine 4 hours of training on the old form!!! Wouldn't come close to being necessary. Finishing the rest today, and then looking at the mobile app. But it shows the complexity of the new form as well as the programming necessary to fill it out. Right now I can fill out the 1004 with photos, sketching, and data in about 30 to 60 minutes. Just from what I saw yesterday in the training process my guess 50% more time, and the on site inspection time will increase, but hard to know how much. Will depend upon the property. All I can say is there is a lot more spaces to fill things in on the new form.

As to fees......Much of it depends upon how the mobile app will save time. But I can say that trying to go through the form on the complete program is very tedious. I would go stir crazy if I had to do a few reports a day. Thankfully I am retired, so that is probably not going to be the case for me.:)

I think getting 45% more than the standard fee will be a stretch. But hey, ask!!! I don't see that happening as we get into this. I am having a hard time getting decent fees now in the county where I reside. Too many appraisers wanting to work too cheap.

As to timing...I talked with a vendor and they said Fannie Mae will start NOV 2!!! So be ready if you are going to do lender work!
 
DWiley said:
Fannie and Freddie have already started :) Currently, a lender may submit a report in either format, and reports are being submitted every day. Nov. 2 is the date when use of UAD 3.6 is mandatory.

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Fannie of course is ready. They are driving the process. The problem is some vendors are not ready. For example ACI apparently is behind the curve from my discussions with appraiser friends that use it. If I was an ACI user I would definitely be looking at other software. Crunch time is not that far away.

Alamode has more things to add to their program…but at least one can do a 3.6. Of course there are going to be bugs.

Fannie and lenders are going to have to be patient with appraisers as we figure all this out.

I will have to say the 3.6 is an entirely new program for Alamode. They had to have built this from the ground up. I wonder what it is going to cost for the renewal?:)
 
Airstream said:
Fannie of course is ready. They are driving the process. The problem is some vendors are not ready. For example ACI apparently is behind the curve from my discussions with appraiser friends that use it. If I was an ACI user I would definitely be looking at other software. Crunch time is not that far away.

Alamode has more things to add to their program…but at least one can do a 3.6. Of course there are going to be bugs.

Fannie and lenders are going to have to be patient with appraisers as we figure all this out.

I will have to say the 3.6 is an entirely new program for Alamode. They had to have built this from the ground up. I wonder what it is going to cost for the renewal?:)
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Seems to me if software vendors don't make a user-friendly product for appraisers, appraisers will switch at the least, or quit at the worst. Both would probably shrink their customer base and put them out of business.
 
Sandra Koutsopoulos said:
Seems to me if software vendors don't make a user-friendly product for appraisers, appraisers will switch at the least, or quit at the worst. Both would probably shrink their customer base and put them out of business.
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I have talked to 2 appraisers from the area where I moved. They have quite a bit of private work and are seriously considering not doing any lender work. When I lived in that area I did a lot of private work. But those 2 are ACI users and are thinking about switching to Alamode. I wonder how many are kind of on the fence like my two friends?
 
Airstream said:
I will have to say the 3.6 is an entirely new program for Alamode. They had to have built this from the ground up. I wonder what it is going to cost for the renewal?:)
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I think that is true for most providers. Even if its the same software provider, it will most likely feel like you have switched software. Of those I have tried, only one really works the same basic way as the legacy version. That is why I recommend testing alternatives now, even if your legacy software of choice has not yet released a 3.6 version.
 
Alamode has all that corelogic money. They have had the largest number of subscribers of any software for a long time. With many appraisers in a group, it is easy to share data. Their owner used to post on here before he sold out to Corelogic.
 
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