Virgina REAB and Portal Petition

[robert higgins]

Wonder how they (FNC and others) can answer this question, if a client, a national lender (BOA, Wamu, etc) orders appraisal through one of these 3rd party conduits (AMC) the order comes with naming national lender (client) as intended user only and not naming the AMC in the report. How can they, a 3rd party, have authorization to change the appraisal report (reformatting, or converting the report) before it gets delivered to the client with out the authorization of the appraiser who wrote the appraisal if the AMC is not named as a client?

If I convert the report to lighthouse, AI, or PDF, I am responsible for the delivery (format) of the report, no one else. Once I deliver the report to my client, what happens after that, I am not responsible if my client converts the report. But how can I be responsible for a report that neither my client nor I converted, but has been changed by a 3rd party before it gets delivered to the client. It is the 3rd party conduits (AMC) that are fraudulently changing the reports and not sending the original report that was sent by the appraiser.

I believe this complaint should have been brought before the State's Attorney General for mortgage fraud, identity theft, RICO violations and a few others and not the Appraisal Board.

Plus, why is it that some vendors/clients what you to buy a (special) appraisal software program to write an appraisal on, when most, if not all appraisers send their reports in a PDF format. What difference does it make what software program I use to write my reports if it is not delivered in raw format.

 

[McPheeters]

Wonder how they (FNC and others) can answer this question, if a client, a national lender (BOA, Wamu, etc) orders appraisal through one of these 3rd party conduits (AMC) the order comes with naming national lender (client) as intended user only and not naming the AMC in the report. How can they, a 3rd party, have authorization to change the appraisal report (reformatting, or converting the report) before it gets delivered to the client with out the authorization of the appraiser who wrote the appraisal if the AMC is not named as a client?

If I convert the report to lighthouse, AI, or PDF, I am responsible for the delivery (format) of the report, no one else. Once I deliver the report to my client, what happens after that, I am not responsible if my client converts the report. But how can I be responsible for a report that neither my client nor I converted, but has been changed by a 3rd party before it gets delivered to the client. It is the 3rd party conduits (AMC) that are fraudulently changing the reports and not sending the original report that was sent by the appraiser.

I believe this complaint should have been brought before the State's Attorney General for mortgage fraud, identity theft, RICO violations and a few others and not the Appraisal Board.

Plus, why is it that some vendors/clients what you to buy a (special) appraisal software program to write an appraisal on, when most, if not all appraisers send their reports in a PDF format. What difference does it make what software program I use to write my reports if it is not delivered in raw format.

"They" dont need authorization, you are agreeing to it (alterations, sig removal, ect.) by participation in the delivery process.
When L/Safe tells you that all appraisals will be delivered through Appraisalport form this point on, you either agree (authorizing Appraisalport's conversion methods in the process) and keep receiving assignments or not (no more work from L/safe.) This drops the responsibility in your lap.

 

[Pamela Crowley (Florida)]

"They" dont need authorization, you are agreeing to it (alterations, sig removal, ect.) by participation in the delivery process.
When L/Safe tells you that all appraisals will be delivered through Appraisalport form this point on, you either agree (authorizing Appraisalport's conversion methods in the process) and keep receiving assignments or not (no more work from L/safe.) This drops the responsibility in your lap.

Pay attention here!!!!! These lenders, AMCs and AppraisalPort are all setting you up to take the blame for anything/everything they do to YOUR appraisal report.

 

[Oregon Doug]

... we sure as heck better have control of the signature and content at the point of/during delivery.

I learned something very interesting the other day - I have not yet been able to verify. That is; when you agree to use one ofr these portals to transmit your report, that activates some part of your own appraisal software to convert the report into a specific format for transmission (remember AIReady that was being pushed a few years back?) The net result is that the appraiser actually makes the changes to the report that so many are clammering about - not the delivery portals (making it easier for them to mine the data.) It's one of those little technicalities that will come to the forefront if push comes to shove.

There is supposed to be software available that allowes the appraiser to see the report "as sent" - but I've not yet seen it.

Interesting that you should note "...at the point of/during delivery."

Oregon Doug

 

[Diego Lopez]

We can not control what the client does with our reports after the fact (cert 21), but we sure as heck better have control of the signature and content at the point of/during delivery. As far as cert 24 in concerned, I do not see the connection to portals forcing me to give up control of my signature and content prior to transmittal of the report.

I agree with you, you upload it signed and in a specific manner, what they do with it after the fact you have no control over.

 

[TJSum]

I use Clickforms software. I tried both AI ready and Lighthouse through Clickforms. With AI ready one has to pay extra for the conversion program, with Lighthouse, not only do you have to pay extra, but you also have to purchase software from ACI in order for it to work. If I remember correctly the fee to ACI totals $375 on top of the Clickform fee.

One types up the report on the Clickforms software as usual. When complete, instead of PDFing it and sending it along its way, you click on the conversion program (AI ready or Lighthouse). The first thing that happens is a pop up window will appear telling you all the pages that will not convert. Many of the exhibit pages will not convert as well as the Table of Content page which I consider very important so that the reader knows that actually have all pages of the actual report. So the appraiser then has to go back and try to figure out what pages or formats he can attach his exhibits to so that they will actually convert.

After you spend an hour or so playing with that, hoping to find a way for the full report to convert, then yes, the converted report does show up on the screen. With Lighthouse, it does remove ones signature. ACI has a separate signature program where you need to reapply it once again after the conversion.

When seeing my converted report on the screen, I refused to send it, because the changes it made to my report that I easily noticed had me way too uncomfortable of what could have been changed that I maybe did not notice. Who wants to spend a couple hours reviewing ones own report inspecting every word to check for changes, no thanks.

Some of the changes noted, the conversion programs would not allow any dates written out, such as May 30, 2008, everything had to be in 05/30/08 format, wherever and whenever a date was entered on the report. I figure this makes for easier data mining. Also, I like to put as much on page 1-3 of the report as possible, knowing many readers rarely find things in the Addendum if they read it at all, but when the report converted, it actually moved my comments off of pages 1-3 and created a new addendum for the comments.

I called my client and told them I could not use AI Ready through Appraisal Port, because the report that would get sent out was not the report I originally wrote and I was not confident enough I would catch every "change" during the conversion process and that I needed to only send PDFs. The client agreed with me and said no problem. So I have always sent PDFs. When signing up with Appraisal Port one of their promoted advantages was all the other work I would be receiving from other lenders, but I have never heard a peep from any others, probably because I do send PDFs instead of AI Ready Reports.

I am not sure what happens to the reports once they are sent via Lighthouse or AI Ready, but the individual appraiser can see what they have converted and sent, at least through Clickforms.

 

[Marcia Langley]

TJ,

Out of curiosity, when you were looking at the uploaded report would you have been able to save that converted report to your PC and/or print a paper copy of it as your true copy for your workfile?

 

[Smokey Bear]

The first thing that happens is a pop up window will appear telling you all the pages that will not convert. Many of the exhibit pages will not convert as well as the Table of Content page

Sounds like a defective program to me. Or is it intentional?

 

[Smokey Bear]

TJ,

Out of curiosity, when you were looking at the uploaded report would you have been able to save that converted report to your PC and/or print a paper copy of it as your true copy for your workfile?

Great question!

 

[TJSum]

Yes, they would print and save to the computer. I am tech challenged, but the part I did not like is that the actual process of sending the report was not saved (to my knowledge).

When I send a PDF to any client, not only is the PDF file saved to my computer, but the act of sending it is also saved via a "sent email" for historical record. I keep all of my sent reports emails in a separate folder in case there is any question on what I actually sent the client and it has the time and date stamp and all that good stuff. As far as I know, when downloading to AP or Lighthouse, this sent record does not exist, but i could be wrong, others can correct this notion if wrong.

The conversion problem is not a glitch or bug, it is real, only certain pages convert, period. I am sure once you did many of these, one would know before hand which pages to attempt using or not, but I lost interest rather quickly in using the program so I never got experienced enough with it. The Table of Contents non conversion is too convenient for my taste, I insist on including one of those so the reader knows when they have all pages to the report. Without a Table of Contents who is to stop the middleman (AMC or broker) from throwing away some of the pages.

Clickforms has a great function called the Free Form Text, which allows one to put writing anywhere on the report, not just the form cells. Not sure how many other software programs have this. Anyway, I use this FFT to ID my reports, I put my value opinion in mouse print using the FFT several places on my reports, each and every time. It is my "stamp" that I actually wrote the report and it also confirms my value opinion. People never see it, unless they know it is there and are looking for it. Surprise, when the report is converted into Lighthouse or AI Ready, my ID disappears and does not convert either as the FFT function does not convert.