Appraisal Firewall technology maximizes your relationships with your appraisers and streamlines the entire appraisal process. The technology automates appraiser selection, service areas, qualifications, payment, and then routes orders and messages to your trusted local appraisers. Best of all, you spend less time placing orders and get completed appraisals faster.
Various industry regulations establish enforceable appraisal independence standards for all banks. Appraisal Firewall provides documentation and audit tracking so that you can prove to auditors that every appraisal was developed free from influence.
Basic Usage and Layout
Use the action links along the left-hand side of your account to perform specific actions in Appraisal Firewall: view all your existing Orders list, create a New Order based on the appraisal products you have been setup for, manage your user and appraiser Relationships, view all messages under your account using Messages, work with older orders in Archives, and run Reports pertaining to your company.
The Orders section contains all your appraisal orders. You can use the Pipeline and Post Delivery management tools to filter your search to specific order types. Click on an order within any list to open it and review the order information. When complete, you can access the appraisal PDF report from within an order.
Profile
Accessible by clicking the person icon at the upper left-hand side of your account, you can use the My Profile option to view and edit your company information, including contact numbers, login credentials, and company address.
The Notification Level feature lets you set a default for receiving email notifications.
- Standard (default setting) – This setting allows you to receive email notifications for messages directed to administrators on any orders under your scope regardless of whether or not you are assigned to the order (i.e. price change requests, messages from other users in your office, appraiser disclosures).
- None – This notification level prevents you from receiving emails on any order you are not directly connected to. You will still be sent communications on orders that you placed or that you are assigned to.
- All – Use this setting if you want to be copied on all communications for orders in your scope whether you are affiliated with the order or not (i.e. messages between your users and appraisers, messages for other administrators).
Relationships Window
The Relationships window is your guide into all your users’ and appraisers’ accounts. The Relationships window is composed of a Divisions, Users, and Lender Appraisers tab. The Divisions tab gives you an overview of the division(s) under your company and allows you to modify your appraiser panel and account settings on each division.
The Users tab gives you an overview of the users under your company, allows you to edit their user status, and view and work within orders on a per-user basis. The Lender Appraisers tab gives you quick and easy access to all the appraisers under your account and allows you to remove or deactivate them across your whole account.
Divisions
If your company operates with a single division or branch, the Divisions tab is where you can access your account settings and manage your appraisal panel, and any reviewers associated with your account. For companies that operate with multiple divisions, Appraisal Firewall provides the ability to set up multi-divisional appraisal management.
To add a new division to your account, click Create Division. Each division has its own panel of appraisers, settings, reviewers, and AMCs that an administrative user can view and edit.