No one likes to waste time doing work for which they are never paid. Appraisers are no exception. Prequalifying your borrower’s property collateral will reduce your cancellation rate. In addition, your appraisers will not need to run time-consuming comp checks. Lenders who do not request comp checks regularly earn the respect of the appraiser and shoot to the top of the priority list.

Other common issues for appraisers are delayed payments and lenders who fail to pay their appraisers. There are now more than 20 different Web sites dedicated to keeping track of lenders who do not pay their appraisers. Be sure to disclose your payout schedule to the appraiser during engagement. Then stick to it.

Volume rule

The more orders you place with an appraisal firm, the higher you are on its priority list. Distributing more orders to a smaller base of appraisers will allow you to gain priority through repeat volume. There truly is strength in numbers.

Another way to receive priority through volume is by placing your appraisal orders through a community of lenders. When you use a shared Web-based ordering platform, your appraisal is treated as an order from the larger community. This gives you priority, regardless of your individual volume in a given market.

These simple actions can result in a 10-percent to 15-percent increase in closed loans. The next step is to ensure that each of these steps is performed consistently.

Brian Blanchard is the chief operations officer of PROvalUSA.com, the source for residential appraisals nationwide. The St. Peters,Mo.-based company specializes in connecting mortgage lenders to local residential appraisers in an online environment that facilitates communication and streamlines the appraisal process. Since its creation in 2000, PROvalUSA.com has grown by 600 percent and continues to attract lenders to its unique, open approach to appraisal management. For more information about PROval USA.com, visit www.provalusa.com/scotsman or call (866) 243-7723, ext. 201.

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