5 Answers to your most burning appraisal scoring questions

 

Have you taken a good, hard look at your appraiser scorecards recently? With the daily hustle, chances are this task might be low on your to-do list — we get it. Finding time to evaluate your local and nationwide appraisers’ scorecards can be challenging. However, trust us when we say it’s time well-spent. Whether you’re looking at scorecards once per month or once per quarter, you’ll find valuable information in the scoring system. Without question, it will help you analyze your appraisers and your appraisal system, but where do you start? Today we’re sharing the answers.

WHY SHOULD WE SCORE OUR APPRAISERS?

First and foremost, you can use scoring for panel management. As you delve into scoring one scorecard at a time, you’ll be able to better understand the appraisers that are in your system. Based on those findings, you can add or remove appraisers due to deficiencies or shortcomings. For example, you might find that you need more commercial appraisers in general, or maybe you need fewer residential appraisers in a particular geographical location. Scoring your appraisers (and actually looking at the scorecards) is a great first step in panel management.

HOW DO I SCORE APPRAISALS?

While we can’t tell you how to score your own appraisals, we can give you an idea of what we do as a top appraisal management company with MAI designated appraisers. Historically at MountainSeed, we’ve used a 0-100 score that’s composed of quality, communication, and timeliness. The quality score is completed by the appraiser doing the review. The communication score is based on how well an appraiser communicates on an assignment. Both of those characteristics are related to timeliness which is how that score is calculated. Essentially, an appraisal might be well executed, but a month overdue. In that case, the loan won’t close and there is no longer a use for that appraisal.

HOW CAN APPRAISER SCORING BE UTILIZED?

At MountainSeed, we’ve found that one of the best yet least used benefits to appraiser scoring is procurement of an appraisal assignment. If you can have feedback loop from the appraisal review score to the front end of the appraisal order process, you can actually bid appraisals based on the right appraisers for each project. You might have an appraiser that’s a great fit for single tenant occupied, non-complex properties, but they might not be best at grocery-anchored retail. With a good scoring system, you can appropriately bid the correct assignment to the correct appraiser within each vertical. Think about it like this: not all retail appraisers are the same, and likewise, not all industrial appraisers are the same. If you’re treating every appraisal and appraiser as its own entity, you’re able to make the best matches possible.

WHEN DO WE KNOW IF AN APPRAISER IS NO LONGER A GOOD FIT?

Like we mentioned above, using a scorecard can help you determine whether an appraiser is still a good fit for your appraisal needs. After evaluating your scoring report, you might find that you have too few commercial appraisers in one city, or too many residential appraisers in another. Additionally, you might determine that an appraisers scores aren’t up to par with your standards. In the past, we’ve explained what to do to smooth-out a rocky relationship with an appraiser and how to remove an appraiser from your panel. Bookmark these resources and refer back to them as needed.

HOW DOES SCORING APPRAISERS IMPROVE CUSTOMER SERVICE?

Once you have created a cycle of scoring and getting the right appraiser to bid on the right assignment, and you’ve adjusted your appraisal needs, then the likelihood of revisions in the review process will inevitably be much lower. Consequently, the quality of the report will be much higher. When you have an appraiser that’s highly qualified for each individual assignment, and your process is refined over years of consistently above-average scores, the report is not just simply a passing report that you can count-on but also one that’s of the highest caliber.

When everyone feels confident in an appraisal, it can help lenders drive decisions from a loan to value standpoint.

If you have a report that’s efficient, reasonable, and well-supported, but the report quality is less than desirable, it might influence how a bank lends on a given loan and how it influences additional collateral. However on a good report, the lender might feel more confident to stretch the loan where they might otherwise reserve more against it.

Don’t just take our word for it. Take a look at your Appraisal Scoring Report. In this down and dirty video, we walk you through how to locate your scorecards and show you how to unlock valuable appraiser information.