I think since ACI's bankruptcy filing last year most AMC's were proactive in accepting other forms of EDI. Lighthouse was easy for the AMC to use because it allowed computer servers to run client specific rule sets. This allows players like LSI to QC thousands of reports a day, most without a human eye reviewing them.
Since the parent company is in question, most now accept Adobe PDF's. I've heard that the only concern here is that the file security is not as tight as IT managers would like it to be.
The only data farmer program out there that I know of is Day One's AI ready Nova program. (Talking about sticking to your users, way to go D1.)
I've tried to stay away from programs that allow data mining but it's really useless Jeff. Ever notice the bottom of the third page of a 2055? It has the most salient features of the subject property itemized. Loan closes, the appraisal data gets harvested into Fannie/Frieddie's data bank and after a while a metropolitan area has anough data for a reliable model to be developed.
I've been told by a lender that they enter the estimate of value and if it falls within FNMA's predominant value the appraisal is waived. If it's slightly outside the range a driveby will be done. If the area has little or no data, a traditional appraisal will be done. (of course the prerequisite is a strong credit score and income to repay the loan). As an appraiser in New Hampshire I've seen little from this lender in the cities and am getting more and more out in the lower population density areas. I'll always make a living but it was the city appraisals that had the best margins for me because they were easy.
My peers say I'm an evil pessimist for thinking this but to me it's the only way to change the tide. We need another repeat of the early 90's to jerk snap lenders bank into prudent lending. Once they start taking losses on these AVM's either by policy change or congressional hearings they will require better quality value services by an unbaised professional.