Faxed/Poor copies of Appraisals to Review

[Amy Perkins]

I wanted to get an idea of how many people who do reviews on a regular basis get poor or faxed copies of "so called" fraudulent reports. Are they black and white? Do they appear to have been modified? Do they always have "boilerplate" language with no specific comments?

 

[Michael Tipton]

I typically advise the client that until they send me a complete, legible copy of the appraisal report, I cannot proceed with the review. Place the burden where it should be, on the client requesting the review.

If I cannot read the report, I will not attempt to complete a review. I'd expect the same from all professional appraisers.

 

[Carnivore]

One of my pet peeves is when I hear the lending community, appraisers employed by the lending community and Publishers of Appraisal Rags claim that appraisers are slow to embrace new ideas and technology.

Yet, when we receive a review assignment the appraisal under review is not legible, been faxed over an over a gazillion times, pages missing, etc etc.

So who is really slow to embrace new technology?

This is why I think it is appropriate for lenders to call the original appraiser and have that person send a copy directly to me.

Any comments? Problem?

 

[Pat Butler]

The vast majority of appraisals are delivered to lenders via PDF. It's therefore amazing that lenders can degrade the graphic quality of an appraisal by faxing it.

 

[Bearslide]

It has long been a pet peeve of mine that lenders do not seem able or willing to deliver a complete, as delivered, full color pdf for review. I agree with Carnivore - who is lacking technologically here?

I refuse to review appraisals that are incomplete or illegible - and I refuse to do double work for typical, big box AMC sweat shop fees. Want quality? Give it - and get it.

 

[Mike Kennedy]

No COMPLETE appraisal report in PDF - NO Review. End of Story.

 

[Sid Pachter]

The majority of the reports I review are sent via PDF.

 

[Carnivore]

The majority of the reports I review are sent via PDF.

Did you mean you recive them that way?


My experience in the filed is just what this thread is about. Poor quality reproductions of the original appraisal.

It may seem anecdotal, but with me it is a pattern. So I dont have imperical evidence that this is industry wide, I have seen and learned of this problem being more wide spread then actually known. I think it shows you how little they really want to know about the original appraisal.

 

[Rufus]

My experience has been that recently completed appraisals always come over in PDF, but those from a year or more ago are faxed. I'm guessing that once a loan has closed the original PDF (if there was one) gets lost in the system and all the lender can access is their printed copy.

When I request a better copy I'm told "that's all we have" and "do the best you can." Many of my statements begin with: "The faxed copy of the original appraisal appears to read..." If it is a significant item, I state that it may affect the conclusion of this report if found to be different.

I've actually learned to read faxsquiggle pretty well and use cross checking within the report to help out. For instance, I may not be able to read square footage on page one, but from page two or the sketch I can. Also, since I have printed all the original comp's listing sheets, I can use that information to know what I should be seeing in the grid.

Edit: And I always list exactly what pages I did receive.

 

[CindyR]

I agree with whoever said current appraisals are nice clear pdf's and old appraisals are faxes and difficult to read. I have found that it makes a big difference if you print the old, ugly ones on a color (i use inkjet) printer rather than a black and white only printer like my B&W laser printer. The fax document is an image rather than a typeface so it is much more legible when the printer can evaluate the shades of grey...