Once an order is placed, whenever you open the order, you will be taken into the Communications tab. The Communications tab is your starting place for working in an order - from here you can work in and process appraisals in the system using all the system features. It is shown as a callout icon at the far left of the action tabs.
The Basics
On an open order, you can get at the details of the order at a glance. See the areas in red highlighted below.
- The Orders section shows the unique system reference number, and the last name of the Borrower.
- Click the Refresh button to show the most current data on the order.
- To the right of the Refresh button, you can see the Reference Number, Loan Number, type of loan, status, borrower name, address of the property being appraised, appraisal valuation amount, and the required date.
- At the right, you can see the current Status of the order, and the current Price of the order.
These quick pieces of information are here to provide you with the basics about the order and to get you oriented at a glance.
The Communications Tab
The Communications tab is a key compliance feature that helps track all the activity that occurs on an appraisal order in an easy-to-understand format.
On a new order, the Communications tab will not have very many actions to display. As the order moves through the process and nears completion, the actions can become very lengthy.
There are two kinds of action messages in the Communications tab:
1. System-Generated Messages - These are messages automatically added by the system to indicate system activity. These messages are set apart from other messages by a gray outline.
2. Manually-Generated Messages - These are messages that are generated by a person and sent back and forth between users to communicate. For example, when an appraiser sends you a message, or when Customer Service sends a message, these are manually-generated messages. These messages are set apart from other messages by a green outline.
By default, all messages will be displayed here. You can use the green View All checkbox to filter the viewable actions to only the manually-generated messages to see what people are saying about the order.
To send a message quickly, click the green plus sign. You can also utilize the Send Message feature.
The New Message screen will open, where you can work with sending a message to another party on this order: an anonymous message to the appraiser assigned to the order, to Customer Service, or to any other people in your office on the order.
- Mark the Action Required checkbox to indicate to the recipient of the message that they will need to do something with the message (such as upload and send an additional document or change a status).
- Select To whom the message should be sent. Most commonly this will be either the Customer Service manager over your account, or the Appraiser.
- Type the contents of your message into the text box.
- Add Attachments you want to send with this message by either clicking the Add Attachment button or dragging and dropping the attachment into the Drag File(s) Here box.
- When ready, click the green Send Message button to send the message to the recipient. The message will be added to the list of Communications.
The system will keep track of all messages that you send and that are responded to. You can respond to or forward any manually-generated message you receive in-line by using the Reply/Forward button (note that you cannot respond to or forward any system-generated messages, as they are here simply to inform you).
Messages that have attachments will have the attachment available on the Communications Log. Click on the output to view the attachment.
Track When Emails Are Viewed
Any messages, statuses, or general order activities that warrant email notifications will be present with an envelop in the bottom right of the recipient system notification activity. Based on the recipient count, a tracker will state X number of recipients have viewed the email out of the total number of recipients. In the example below, 1 of the 3 recipients have viewed the email.
Hover over the envelop icon to see who received the email notification. Users that have successfully viewed the notification will have a checkmark (ü) adjacent to their email address.
Please note: the email viewed tracker is only visible to Managers and Administrators. This is not a feature Supervisors, Originators, or Appraisers can view on their respective Communications Logs.
Action Menu
The Action Menu at right shows you what you can do on the Communications tab. As the appraisal order progresses through different statuses to completion, additional actions will become available to you.
Here is an example of the Actions menu before the appraiser has accepted it. In this example, you have the option to Send a Message, to place the order on Hold, or to Cancel the order.
Here is an example of the Actions menu after the appraiser has accepted it and a price has been set. In the Appraiser Accepted status, you have additional options available to you. You can Order 2nd Appraisal, Order Reinspection, and Print Communications Log for compliance purposes. Printing the communications log is key to protecting your business from auditors checking up on appraisal independence compliance processes. You can print, download, and save this at any time.
The only other status that will impact the action menu here is when the appraisal is in a Completed status and delivered back to you. At this point, the ability to place the order on Hold is no longer available; neither is the ability to Cancel the order.
You will have the ability to Request Revisions to the appraisal, to Dispute the comps that were used in the appraisal, and to send the appraisal to the GSEs Uniform Collateral Data Portal (UCDP) or Electronic Appraisal Delivery Portal (EAD).
To have access to the entire action menu, click the All plus sign at the bottom of the action menu. This shows you the action menus that are available across the other tabs based on the status of this order.
