Per use fee for Nighthawk

[Surf Cat]

Here's another problem I see due to appraising being such a unique vocation.

If you were say, an auto mechanic and your customer needed a CV axle. You as the auto mechanic buy wholesale and make money on a markup of the CV axle part.....plus the labor to install.

The appraiser here is the "end user" of the 3.6 per use model. Nighthawk is charging appraisers for their R&D of the dynamic form. The appraiser doesn't get to make their "markup" for the cost of the 3.6. The appraiser doesn't make a "markup" for taking a class/cost of the class and learning how to fill out the 3.6.

The way I see it, the appraiser once again doesn't get paid for their time....

 

[Surf Cat]

Behind the scenes, where independent fee appraisers are not allowed, I am sure there will be "volume" pricing deals where an AMC or large "appraisal" firm can pay a licensing fee to the software provider that allows all of their "appraiser" employees use at a price per report far below that offered to appraisers.

The software providers are racing to become partners/have contracts with the AMCs or large appraisal firms. That's where their bread is going to be buttered. Not with the old school, independent appraiser.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

every single provider of software is going to go to a per use fee, in addition to an annual fee, route,

Ahh, the advantage of creating your own templates from a simple word processor...

WordPerfect Office Standard: Around $249.99. (cheaper on sale or the student version)

Yes, you won't be doing FNMA anymore, yes, it takes time to create and refine your templates, but it is doable. And I have spent 20 years preaching to get your CG, do commercial work, estate work, litigation, and/or non-conforming residential loan work. You can do it.

 

[Alsie35]

Ahh, the advantage of creating your own templates from a simple word processor...

WordPerfect Office Standard: Around $249.99. (cheaper on sale or the student version)

Yes, you won't be doing FNMA anymore, yes, it takes time to create and refine your templates, but it is doable. And I have spent 20 years preaching to get your CG, do commercial work, estate work, litigation, and/or non-conforming residential loan work. You can do it.

Not. On. Your. LIFE. Retirement.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Not. On. Your. LIFE.

For those under 50, you are doomed to a life of poverty to remain in a business which pays little more than it did in 1999, if you don't go commercial and get out of the AMC lender business. Every small increase in fees is accompanied by an increase in expenses and demands more detailed reports that add nothing to the actual valuation of the property, only more to your workload. Wake up. Leave the AMC plantation. Get a second job that will pay the bills and dismiss the assignments that are inadequate.

 

[chad hampton]

It’s a side gig. Don’t blame me, it wasn’t me that turned it into one. There’s a few guys that can take credit for it. One or 2 of which that post on here from time to time. And then a few more of their mouthpieces.

There sure is a lot of hands in the cookie jar trying break off a piece of a ****ty AMC fee that rarely gets out of the 300’s. I don’t know how you can slice a 300 fee and not have everyone involved go broke.

Glad this is just part time for me. The rest of you can keep pretending this is a serious profession.

 

[shrubberyvaluation]

Just as ironically, software providers presume to know the value of the time of every one of their prospective customers to each of those customers (as if they were all identical to one another as dictated by said software provider). It seems that when what they are selling can't stand on its own merits, all other possibilities and options must be denigrated and falsely maligned to overcome their product's inherent lack of value.

Ands its not like we are told constantly how these "new" products can be completed in 30 minutes.

 

[shrubberyvaluation]

The problem that I see with this model is that the appraiser is not going to be able to pass on the "per use" cost of the 3.6 to the AMC's. Many appraisers will try to raise their fees but the AMCs won't budge or will only offer another 25 bucks.....putting the appraiser further in the hole.

Couple this with appraisers being spineless and collectively not taking a stand....just further continues the race to the bottom....

Can you imagine winning an assignment, paying for a 3.6 report, pre-filling it out the night before and the next morning on the way to the subject, having the rug pulled out from under your feet because the AMC found a cheaper appraiser? It's going to be worse than it already is.

I can't, or if I did I wouldn't work for that company again.

 

[Non Sequitur]

There sure is a lot of hands in the cookie jar trying break off a piece of a ****ty AMC fee that rarely gets out of the 300’s. I don’t know how you can slice a 300 fee and not have everyone involved go broke.

Yep.

Back to the OP. Hopefully the rumors of $50-75 per use aren't true. I currently pay a la mode $795.34 per year with tax for silver membership and connect pro (they collect LA tax, I'm not sure about other states). Let's speculate Nighthawk and others feel pity on appraisers and set the price per at $20, which is in line with some portal fees (IMO that's low but we can hope). I averaged 20 reports per month in 2025. That would bring my software costs to $5,280 per year with tax, not including what it would cost to keep the legacy software in place. That's the reality we are facing.

 

[chad hampton]

I don’t see how software wouldn’t be per year like it is now. Paying per report will never fly. If the software companies weren’t able to make their yearly subscription prices feasible for the profession, they should have taken it back to the GSE and explained to them the situation.

Looks like they created a system that will do nothing but cost more. Borrowers have only seen their appraisal fees double/triple over the last decade and they have no idea who it’s going to. Public trust be damned. A complete failure of leadership.