Best AMC

[Curious23]

And the fact that an appraiser may be getting direct engagement work from a lender does not mean that lender is not using AMCs for other work. In my experience large lenders use a variety of approaches. Some use all three (direct engagement, AMC, staff)

I'm kind of new and have always been in the dark as to who or how an appraiser goes about getting on a local lender list for direct engagement. Does it involve sending letter requesting such? Always wondered, but never advised how to get local lender direct engagement assignments? Would greatly appreciate some guidance if you are willing to. TY.

 

[Alsie35]

Its largely happenstance. Get on platforms like Mercury or Appraisal Port ... and the clients will - unsolicited - find you when its busy. If they look you up first it probably helps to have been doing appraising longer. When its this busy, they probably only care that you're breathing.

 

[Overimprovement]

Is it an AMC's role to judge quality of reports or the GSEs and clients? We all know the reality that most lenders just care about the value, but only the client can discern if a report is sufficient to their needs.

 

[Overimprovement]

The stuff nightmares are made of.


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Unfortunately, this is such a large list that in a lot of areas it likely represents the majority of available mortgage appraisal work. I work with more than one of these out of necessity. I have them trained pretty well but I still much much much prefer direct lenders.

 

[Mejappz]

I can tell if an appraiser did any due diligence in five minutes. The AMC "rating" system is unprofessional and a joke. Kindergartners are treated with more respect.

 

[Fernando]

No offense, but if quality and fee were not correlated, and you had the metrics on who is doing good work and who isn’t, then doesn’t that say more about the AMC than the appraisers? What are you incentivizing if not quality?

I mean, I would simply pay the good appraisers more and the bad appraisers less. Then that shotgun pattern would flatten out into a nice neat line.

Years ago when I refi, an appraiser from a big bank came to appraise my house.
When I saw the report, I was surprise he appraised my house so high (I'm too humble even for my house value).
Not only that but I found his report more thorough than I would normally do.
Also, I was surprise his appraisal fee was lower than my fee (I'm not humble on my fees).

 

[Alsie35]

I'm kind of new and have always been in the dark as to who or how an appraiser goes about getting on a local lender list for direct engagement. Does it involve sending letter requesting such? Always wondered, but never advised how to get local lender direct engagement assignments? Would greatly appreciate some guidance if you are willing to. TY.

In addition to my earlier post about getting onto platforms like Mercury and Appraisal Port (you have to be invited by a client to join), I would add this: just do the best job you can for your current AMC clients. If you do, you will eventually be surprised at how many LENDERS for whom you did work via an AMC will contact you directly and ask you to join their direct panel. Because they all both use AMCs and have direct panel work.

 

[CGinMN]

I can tell if an appraiser did any due diligence in five minutes. The AMC "rating" system is unprofessional and a joke. Kindergartners are treated with more respect.

I was going to say, grading appraisers based on how long it takes them to respond to a revision is like tracking a third grader’s potty breaks. Just because you can measure it and assign a grade doesn’t mean you should.

Listen to how Alsie speaks of his local AMC and you will quickly understand that personal relationships and treating people with dignity are paramount. AMCs should be thinking of how they can provide a value to appraisers, not just the other way around. He said PEMCO made him a better appraiser. How many appraisers would say that about an AMC?

 

[CGinMN]

To be sure, AMC's measure metrics that fit their needs - turn times, declination rates, OT delivery rates, revision rates, etc. OTOH, those metrics are quantifiable. A lot of other 'quality' metrics aren't...

I’m sure you’re right about this. Performance metrics are easy to quantify, and since AMCs compete on these metrics it would make sense that they want to measure their appraisers on it too.

Do AMCs compete on quality though? If not, why even attempt to quantify it with appraisers? If they do (compete on quality metrics), then how are they graded? Also, is it that the quality metrics not quantifiable, or is it that it’s just not worth the cost to quantify quality relative to the risk?

 

[Curious23]

In addition to my earlier post about getting onto platforms like Mercury and Appraisal Port (you have to be invited by a client to join), I would add this: just do the best job you can for your current AMC clients. If you do, you will eventually be surprised at how many LENDERS for whom you did work via an AMC will contact you directly and ask you to join their direct panel. Because they all both use AMCs and have direct panel work.

TY.