Collecting past due appraisal fees & comp checks.
"I have over $20,000 in accounts receivable which is beginning to upset me." I'm currently owed nearly $5,000 from a client I'd once considered a friend. My patience is wearing extremely thin--I'm going to have to pull my pistols in the coming weeks, cause whistling Dixie isn't gettin me my money! I'm out of the appraisal business when it comes to mortgage lending appraising. Request for Free Comp Searches, and not getting paid if I don't "Make Value," are two reasons I say, 'Morgage Lending Appraising Is A Deflationary Business!'-Mike
I had $6000+ past due from last year. I collected all of it except a fee for one cancelled order which I was charging the mtg broker for. I didn't really expect to collect it.
I collected all of this by going back through every unpaid order, making new invoices with late fees, sending them out, calling, faxing, emailing, calling and faxing, emailing, 4 times. This took 1 day every week to do.
The 4th notice had a message that the past due invoice would be turned over to the banking commission or the VA if it wasn't paid in 7 days. Anyone that hadn't responded by then, really woke up. Several overnighted the payments.
I only had one bank that didn't pay the late fee. The response was I should have invoiced them when it wasn't paid in the first month. We have a set percentage that we can charge as a late fee in NC. 1.5% per month.
What I found out through this process was that sometimes the attys had the check, or had given the appraisal fees back to the lender and the lender didn't send it to my office. I have also had checks sent to the wrong appraiser's office and the lender had to send me a new check.
Also, I found out, there are specific departments that have to get the invoices for appraisers to get paid. So now I keep a folder of the department emails for specific clients to send the invoices to when their appraisals are sent out.
AND as of Jan 1, 2009 I send out reminders. One when the NOV is issued by the VA. To regular lenders, one when the appraisal goes out, separate from the appraisal, one when the invoice is approaching 30 days with a note that late fees will apply if not paid immediately, and third when the invoice is over 30 days with the late fee. Thats their third notice of payment due.
My new policy is to send out past due bills with accumulated late fees every month for the 90 days required by the banking commission, then turn it over to them and file in small claims court. So far, I have only had one lender say they were waiting until closing to pay me. I told them they had to pay me in 30 days of delivery of the report, not when the loan closes. That is the NC Banking law.......
I always tell the FREE COMP CHECK" guys that I have to pay for the services that provides that informantion (AKA MLS) and I have desk time involved in the research, and I don't work for free. I charge $50 to be paid up front by paypal. If they "order" the market research, it gets logged as an "order". When I receive the payment, (confirmed and transferred to my bank), I send them a spread sheet of 12 month sales. I call it market research data. It is the same 12 month sales research that I would do if they send me the order so I get $50 up front first, then credit that payment to the order if they actually order an appraisal.
The last time I was asked to do one the mtg broker said the borrower would pay for the research and the order would come to me after the research was completed. So... I did it, sent a copy to the borrower with my bill. The borrower decided not to go through with the refinance, but he did send me a check for my research.