Every commercial order requires an engagement letter to be included for the appraiser to review. If your organization has a standard engagement letter used for commercial orders, you can upload an engagement letter at the division level or you can utilize the commercial engagement letter template (included below), which will auto-populate the defined fields from the commercial order into the engagement letter that is sent to the appraiser. Please note: should your organization opt to use the commercial engagement letter template, this document must be uploaded to the Use Standard Engagement Terms section in a PDF format, otherwise the fields will not map appropriately to your engagement letter presented to the appraiser. When you have the Use Standard Engagement Terms setting enabled, every commercial order will automatically include the division set engagement letter upon placement. Follow these steps to enable this feature:
1. Go to your division and select Edit Settings. Expand Commercial. Enable Use Standard Engagement Letter.
2. Click on +Add Attachment to upload your engagement letter, or you can drag/drop your file. Once you upload your commercial engagement letter, you will see the file listed below. You can always remove the engagement letter by selecting the red 'X' to the left of the document name. Once the engagement terms letter has been added, be sure to SAVE.
Using Appraisal Firewall's Commercial Engagement Letter Template
If your organization would like to use Appraisal Firewall's commercial engagement letter template to auto-generate, order specific information within the engagement letter, please download the Lender Commercial Engagement Letter Template.DOCX HERE or at the bottom of this article. Your organization will need to customize the template with any copy/verbiage/logos your organization deems appropriate. IMPORTANT: Do not alter ANY of the fields within brackets [ ] as this will prevent those fields from auto-populating within the engagement letter presented to the appraiser that has won the bid. Additionally, the template has highlighted portions where your organization will need to include specifics OR remove the highlighted section entirely to prevent it appearing on the final version sent to the appraiser. After your organization has customized the commercial engagement letter, you MUST save those changes AND convert the document to a PDF. NOTE: Only a PDF file type will permit the auto-population of the order form data to generate in the final version of the engagement letter sent to the appraiser awarded the bid. If the uploaded Standard Engagement Terms letter is not a PDF, no data mapping will occur, and the engagement letter to the appraiser will not generate.
3. When selecting the winning bid, you can view your standard engagement letter prior to sending the acceptance notification to your appraiser. NOTE: if your organization utilizes the Appraisal Firewall commercial engagement letter template, the template itself will be available via the link, and WILL NOT auto-generate the mapped order fields within the engagement letter. The template will be updated to reflect the appropriate order details at the time you as the lender select Accept on the Assign Appraiser screen, which will be accessible on the Communications Log. When the appraiser accesses the order, they will be presented with the auto-populated engagement letter when officially accepting the order. You can also remove and upload a different commercial engagement letter at this time.
The winning appraiser/bidder will receive an email notification informing them that you have accepted their bid. The winning appraiser needs to accept the order. Then, the appraiser will proceed with work on the order and you, and any managed users associated with the order, can communicate with them via the Send Message feature. The user who placed the order will receive an email notification once the appraiser uploads the completed commercial report.