Placing a new VA appraisal order will create an order within the external VA portal. With VA incorporated to our existing loan type options, you can place your VA order by selecting Residential from the New Order slide-out menu. To ensure your order is designated as VA, you can select this option within the Loan section.
Loan Section
Select the appropriate division your VA Lender ID is associated with from the Lender Divisions dropdown menu within the Loan section. Select VA from the available loan types. Once you choose VA, the required sections and fields below are directly based on the order form within the VA portal.
You will see a green checkmark to the right when all required fields have been entered, thus prompting you to move to the Appraisal Type section.
Appraisal Type
Here you will need to designate what type of VA appraisal is being ordered: LAPP or Individual. Select the appropriate radio button. By default, LAPP will be enabled.
The Primary Obligor is where you can enter the borrower information. By default, Borrower will be enabled. You will need to enter the veteran’s social security number, and year of birth.
Once the required fields have been fulfilled, a green checkmark will display to the right, and the next section will auto-expand.
Requester Information
If you entered the Requester Information within the VA Appraisal Settings, this information will automatically populate in the specified fields saving you time from rekeying the same information. This is especially beneficial if your organization uses a single entity for all your VA appraisal ordering. However, if your organization has multiple requesters, you will need to manually enter the pertinent Requester Information within this section. Should your organization have multiple branches, you will need to select the appropriate VA Lender ID from the dropdown. Within this section you will also need to select Yes or No for the Assisted Appraisal Processing Program (AAPP).
Once the required fields have been fulfilled, a green checkmark will display to the right, and the next section will auto-expand.
Property
Like traditional Residential appraisal orders, the property section will require you to enter the subject address, along with several other fields that follow suite if you were placing your VA order directly in the VA portal. Any required fields will be indicated with an asterisk (*).
Categories under Property Details that have a dropdown menu will default to ‘Choose.’ You can make the appropriate selections based on the subject property.
For the Sales or Refinance portion, an attachment button will appear for you to upload the necessary document. Note that the VA has a maximum file size of 15Mb. Additionally, selecting Sale Price will require users to enter the Number of Pages in Sales Contract.
Once the document has been uploaded, you will see an additional dropdown where you can designate the document as the Sales Contract or Other.
Additional fields within the Property section pertain to Property Occupancy Information.
Along the right-hand side of the screen are additional fields for relevant property instructions. Please note the Legal Description of the Property is a required field.
Once the required fields have been fulfilled, a green checkmark will display to the right, and the next section will auto-expand.
Point of Contact Information
The Point of Contact (POC) Information is where users can enter the Buyer and/or Seller Agent contact information can be entered. Since this is not a required section, a green checkmark will already be displayed, automatically expanding the next section.
Leasehold Cases
If the property has a leasehold, you can enter the necessary information in this section. Since this is not a required section, a green checkmark will already be displayed, automatically expanding the next section.
Firm or Person Making Request/Application
Enter the appropriate name and address as determined by your organization making the VA request. For some companies, the Name field should always be the company name and address from their company profile, but for larger organizations who have multiple branches, this may not be the case. Additionally, the Name field could be an individual as opposed to a company name.
Since this is not a required section, a green checkmark will already be displayed, automatically expanding the next section.
Applicable Lender Point of Contact
Your organization’s point of contact information will need to be entered within this section. The Tidewater POC will also need to be entered. Please note that all fields are required. Once the required fields have been fulfilled, a green checkmark will display to the right, and the next section will auto-expand.
Property Facts
Facts about the property can be entered within this section, specifically the Building Status and Builder/Sales Office Information.
If the Building Status is selected as ‘Proposed,’ the Builder ID will be required. Select Builder ID to be directed to the external VA Customized Builder Report if you do not already possess the Builder ID.
Once the required fields have been fulfilled, a green checkmark will display to the right, and the next section will auto-expand.
Warranty/Warrantor Information
If the property has any relevant warranty information, you can fill out this section. Since this is not a required section, a green checkmark will already be displayed, automatically expanding the next section.
Borrower Information
Whomever the user selected as the Primary Obligor, that borrower’s name will be auto-filled in and grayed out in this section. An address is also required. Additionally, the Veteran/Surviving Spouse information will need to be entered. Once all required fields have been fulfilled, a green checkmark will be displayed, automatically expanding the final section.
Acceptance of Responsibility
You will need to enable the box adjacent to the Acceptance of Responsibility indicating that you are the party requesting an appraisal by the VA appraiser to be assigned. Full disclaimer can be found below the Acceptance of Responsibility button.
Once you have enabled the button, and all other categories have been fulfilled via the green checkmarks, the Order button will be enabled. Selecting Order will submit the request to be placed in the VA appraisal platform (WebLGY - VA Loan Guaranty System). Please note that it can take up to a minute for the order to connect with the VA portal and place successfully.
If you select the Cancel button, this will close the New Order screen altogether and direct you back to your order dashboard.
Once the order has been placed within Appraisal Firewall, you will be directed to the Communications Log, where a VA Update banner will be displayed. This banner will show the sequence of statuses, in real time, that have occurred, i.e. verifying your VA ID.me login credentials, confirming the COE, etc.
You can expand the banner to view all statuses, and/or use the 'X' to close out the banner once you have reviewed its contents.
Appraisal Firewall will automatically reach out to the VA portal to retrieve any updates and documents associated with the VA Case Number. Please note, this process can take up to a minute to establish a retrieval from the VA. A successful retrieval will post the updates to the Communication Log, while the documents will be accessible as outputs i.e., 1805 form, appraisal report, etc. These documents will also be available via the Documents tab.