To complement your Quality Control (QC) offering, the system offers a complete Manual Review process that you can put in place for your lending company. The Manual Review process is panel-based, meaning that lender Administrators can setup a handful of Reviewers that can be assigned to multiple divisions. You can even have multiple review panels to have Reviewers double check each others' work.


As an Administrator, you can customize your Reviewer process - including products, Reviewer panels, and Manual Review settings. For multi-division lenders, you can enable or disable on a per-division basis.


How Manual Review Fits into the QC Offering in Appraisal Firewall

Appraisal Firewall has a robust Quality Control (QC) offering that assists lenders in reviewing and verifying appraisal data prior to delivery of the completed appraisal to the user that ordered it and any other users on the order. Manual appraisal reviews are a piece of the entire QC process. You may also be using one or several of the other QC options, including: Completeness Check, Appraisal Report Comparison, the Appraisal Scorecard, and/or UAD Check. These other pieces in conjunction with the Manual Review process create the entire QC offering.


If you have a number of these other pieces enabled, here is the workflow that the system runs when an appraiser uploads an appraisal:


  • Completeness Check
  • UAD Check
  • Manual Review
  • Appraisal Scorecard


Once the manual appraisal review is completed, the file can be submitted to UCDP/EAD or delivered to the user that placed the order. Note that Reviewers can be given the option to send the file to UCDP/EAD as well, to help save you time and to help with their review process. This is explained later in this guide.


After each QC process runs, it is determined whether the appraisal passed that level of QC. If so, it moves on to the next QC level, with the final level being the delivery of the completed appraisal to the originating lender. If the appraisal does not pass, it is sent back to the appraiser to correct the problems.


If the appraisal passes the Completeness Check but fails the UAD check, it is sent back to the appraiser. When the appraiser corrects the problems and re-uploads the appraisal, it will be sent back through the UAD check again since the appraisal is a new file.


How the Manual Review Process Works

When the Manual Review QC feature is enabled, the appraisal delivery process will be impacted so that the Manual Reviewer can perform QC work. Here is a brief overview of the Manual Review lifecycle. This flow chart represents a single Manual Review panel (if you have more than one manual review panel, see the Divisions with Multiple Manual Review Panels section below).


When an appraisal is delivered to the system by an appraiser, it is set to a status of Manual Review and assigned to a Reviewer on the division's Reviewer panel. The order will be automatically assigned to a Reviewer as long as the Auto-Assign Reviewer options is enabled. If not, the Reviewer must be manually assigned the order by an Administrator or Admin Reviewer.


The Manual Reviewer will receive an email with a link to the order. They can click the link to go straight to the order.

Once in the order, they can access the appraisal and perform their review work. Reviewers can choose a rating for the appraisal (1-5, 1 being bad, and 5 being outstanding), a disposition (why they rated the appraisal the way they did), add notes, upload attachments, and choose to approve or reject the appraisal. Note that upon rejection, ratings are not applicable.


The appraisal ratings that can be selected by a reviewer are:


5. Outstanding

4. Exceeds Standards

3. Meets Standards

2. Needs Improvement

1. Unacceptable


If the Reviewer approves the appraisal, it will be made available to the user that placed the order, and it will be sent to UCDP/EAD (if Auto Send to UCDP/EAD is enabled). The review information will also be made available to user that placed the order as well as the lender administrator.


Please note that the lender Administrator will have access to the appraisal even when the Manual Review has not been completed. The managed user that placed the order will not have access to the appraisal until the Manual Review is completed.


If the Manual Reviewer rejects the appraisal, it will be sent back to the appraiser with the Reviewer's notes. The appraiser will need to make corrections to the appraisal, then re-upload the file. The Reviewer will be able to review the appraisal again to ensure that the issues were corrected prior to making the appraisal available to the lender.


Divisions with Multiple Reviewer Panels

Appraisal Firewall offers the flexibility and customization options you expect: divisions can have more than one review panel, if one panel is made up of Reviewers, and another panel is made up of Underwriters.


If the division has more than one review panel, the flow of the appraisal after delivery looks like this:

Much like the flow of the single Reviewer panel process, when an appraisal is delivered to the system by an appraiser, it is set to a status of Manual Review, and it will be assigned to a Manual Reviewer in the division's Reviewer panel. The order will be automatically assigned to a Reviewer if the Auto-Assign Reviewer option is enabled. If this feature is disabled, the Reviewer must be manually assigned to the order.


The Manual Reviewer will receive an email with a link to the order and perform their review work. Reviewers can choose a rating for the appraisal (1-5, 1 being bad, and 5 being outstanding), a disposition (why they rated the appraisal the way they did), add notes, upload attachments, and choose to approve or reject the appraisal.


If the Reviewer approves the appraisal, the Reviewer has the option to either send the completed file to the lender, or to send it on to the next review panel. If the second Reviewer approves the appraisal, it will be made available to the user that placed the order. The Review information will also be made available to the user that placed the order as well as the lender administrator. Note that the lender administrator will have access to the appraisal even when the manual review has not been completed. The managed user that placed the order will not have access to the appraisal until the manual review is completed by both reviewers.


If the Manual Reviewer rejects an appraisal, the Reviewer has the option to either send the appraisal back to the appraiser for corrections, or they can send it on to the next review panel. If the second Reviewer also rejects the order, it will be sent back to the appraiser with the review notes. The appraiser will need to make corrections to the appraisal, then re-upload the file. Both the Reviewer on the first panel and the Reviewer on the second panel will then be able to review the appraisal again to ensure that the issues were corrected prior to making the appraisal available to the lender. Once approved, the appraisal will be delivered to the user that placed the order and any other users on the order.


Enabling Manual Review

Before you set up your review panel, you will need to enable the Manual Review feature on a per division basis.


1. Login and click the Relationships icon along the left-hand side of your account.


2. Locate the division you want to enable, click the down arrow to expand the detail, then click the Edit Settings button.



3. Maximize the Billing/Services section and scroll to find the Manual Appraisal Review section and click Manual Appraisal Review to enable the manual review feature and get access to additional features.



  • Allow reviewers to send to UCDP and EAD – Enable Manual Reviewers who operate under this division’s review panel to have access to the Send to UCDP/EAD buttons. Manual Reviewers can benefit from having access to UCDP/EAD SSR results to help with their review process.


  • Auto assign reviewer – When an appraiser uploads a report causing the order to go to a Manual Review status, this feature enables the order to be automatically assigned to a Manual Reviewer on the review panel. If not enabled, an administrator or Administrator Reviewer will need to manually assign a Reviewer to the order.


  • Do not require appraisal rating – By default, Manual Reviewers are required to rate the appraisal, on a scale of 1 to 5, prior to approving it. Enable this feature if you do not want to require an appraisal rating on every order. The rating will still be available for Reviewers to use optionally.


  • Paid By/Amount – This section displays the amount charged by your account manager per order for using the Manual Review feature and who is responsible to pay it.


  • Show available products and pricing – Your account manager may set customized review prices per appraisal product which you can view with this feature.


4. When you have selected the features you want, click Save to enable them.