Appraisal Firewall Enhancements Scheduled for Friday Morning, March 22nd, 2019
Verisite Now Available in Encompass, plus New Profile Pictures,
Enhanced Email Notifications, Appraiser Scheduling Calendar, and Lots More!

 
Starting Friday morning, March 22nd, 2019, a new version of Appraisal Firewall will be available.  This release includes multiple new features and enhancements, including the ability to order Verisite from Encompass, a property inspection scheduling calendar for appraisers you work with to communicate with sellers/Realtors, a more personable environment with the ability to upload Profile Pictures, Verisite and Scorecard enhancements, and a whole lot more.  Read on for detail.


Place Verisite Orders from the Encompass-Appraisal Firewall Integration
 
It’s finally here!  With this release, the Verisite products in Appraisal Firewall can now be accessed from within Encompass.  For those of you that use Verisite in Appraisal Firewall, you can place Verisite requests as well as residential appraisal requests right from within your familiar LOS. 

How does it work?
In Encompass, when you select Appraisal Firewall to place an order, instead of seeing the Appraisal Firewall New Order screen, you will be prompted to select which product you want to order: a Residential appraisal order, or a Verisite order. 



Selecting Residential will take you to the new order screen that you are accustomed to seeing when placing a residential appraisal order.  Selecting Verisite will take you to the Verisite order screen where you can proceed with placing a Verisite order.

What’s so exciting about this?
The addition of Verisite to the Encompass interface expands the types of products you can order beyond just residential appraisals. You can now place property inspection orders as well, and have the reports delivered back into Encompass.

What do I need to do to get started?
There is nothing you need to do within Encompass to get started. If you are using Verisite in Appraisal Firewall, this new order screen selection will automatically be available. Not using Verisite yet? Contact Tiffany Saraceno today to get started: (509)324-3509, or Tiffany@AppraisalFirewall.com

How does Verisite work?
Verisite orders connect Appraisal Firewall with our Verisite app for mobile devices. When you place an order for a Verisite property inspection, you determine which rooms and other aspects of the property you want photos and descriptions of.

The order is then sent to the Verisite mobile app and to the person (or, Photo Agent) you want to provide the data – such as borrowers, appraisers, inspectors, loan assistants, realtors, etc.  The Photo Agent takes interior and exterior property photos and descriptions of the property, compiles photos and descriptions, then sends the data back to Appraisal Firewall.  Appraisal Firewall then generates the Verisite output which is sent back into Encompass.
Appraiser-to-Property Owner Inspection Scheduler Lets You Do More within Appraisal Firewall
Your appraisers can now schedule property inspections right from within the system with the new Inspection Scheduler.  Your appraisers no longer need to send separate emails or phone calls to sellers to schedule inspections: it can all be done right within the system!  Additionally, with the new ability to upload Profile Pictures, the seller (or property access contact) can match a face with the name of the appraiser that will be appraising the property. 

How it works:
  1. Upon acceptance, the appraiser can select a primary and secondary date and time to send to the property access contact (seller, Realtor, etc).
  2. Date and time information will be emailed to the email address that was entered into the Contact to Access Property section of the order along with any notes the appraiser enters.
  3. When the Property Contact person opens the email, they can click the link in the enclosed email to visit the “Review Inspection Date and Time” web page where the property contact can approve the date/time, or propose another.
  4. Once the inspection is approved by the entry contact, the order status will automatically change to Scheduled Inspection.
  5. The entire process is tracked in the Communications Log so you can see what’s happening with the inspection schedule.
Introduce Yourself Visually!  New Ability to Upload a Profile Picture to Your Account
The people you work with in the system know a bit about you professionally, but now you can introduce yourself visually to your professional relationships. To make our software more personable, we have added the ability for you and your appraisers to upload profile pictures. You can view profile pictures of other users under your account, and your appraisers’ profile pictures.

As an extra security measure for peace of mind, we are requiring a profile picture on all new appraiser signups.  Because appraisers have the potential to meet your borrowers in their own homes (especially on Refis), the ability for appraisers to provide transparency and recognition is important.  When a property entry contact receives an inspection time from an appraiser, the ability to view the appraiser’s photo beforehand can provide peace of mind and security.  You can supply a photo of yourself if you choose, but it is not a requirement.
  • How to upload a profile picture:
    Login to your account and in the upper left side of the screen, click the person icon, and select My Profile.  On your profile screen, you will see a new section at left that allows you to upload a profile picture.  Click the Add Image button and select a picture from your computer to upload it into the system.  Once in place, others in your organization will be able to view your picture. 
     
  • How to view others’ profile pictures:
    You will start to see more and more user photos as more people update their profiles.  New appraiser signups will be required to provide a photo when they create their account.  Existing appraisers will be required to upload one when they attempt to edit any profile information. You can view system users’ photos from the Relationships menu. Move to the Users tab to view profile pictures of other people signed up under your company.  Move to the Lender Appraisers tab and expand any appraiser to view their profile picture. 
Property Access Contact Now Auto-Emailed when Inspection Date is Set
To try and reduce some of the smaller tasks involved with the appraisal process, Appraisal Firewall now automatically notifies the property access contact via email when the inspection date and time is set (usually this is the seller, subject property owner, or a Realtor). The email will include the date and time of the scheduled inspection, as well as the name of the appraiser that will be visiting the property. This will automatically help keep everyone on the same page.

How to use this feature:
When an appraiser uses the Send Status feature to notify you that the inspection has been scheduled, whatever email address that was entered into the Contact to Access Property section when the order was placed will receive a notification email.  This will let them know the date and time of the inspection as well as who will be performing the inspection.  If the appraiser has uploaded a profile picture, this will also be included. 
 
Email Links Require Lender Users to Login
To improve email security, we’ve enhanced the links in emails sent to lender users so that they will require users to login prior to viewing order information. This ensures that only a qualified party is viewing order information. If users utilize the ‘Remember Me’ feature on the login screen, emails directed to them will still allow them to link directly to the order.

How to use this feature:
All emails directed to lender users (Administrators, Supervisors, and Originators) will be automatically updated to determine the user accessing the order.  Lender users who use the ‘Remember Me’ feature will not notice any change. 
 
Send Documents to Multiple Email Addresses at Once
Lenders can now communicate on a broader scale when sending documents, such as completed appraisals, out of the system. Any of the documents listed on the Documents tab can now be sent to multiple email addresses at once. This will come in handy when you need to send a completed appraisal to a borrower, co-borrower and Realtor at once, or if you want to send SSR results or the communications log to multiple recipients across departments. All email addresses and delivered documents will be posted onto the Communications Log for activity tracking and compliance purposes.

How to use this feature:
Login and click on an appraisal order to view details. Move to the Documents tab (paper clip icon), check the checkbox or checkboxes that correspond to the document you want to send, then click the Delivery Options checkbox.  In the section that opens, select whether you want to send a Borrower copy, if there are Other recipients, or both, then enter the email addresses (as many as needed) into the corresponding fields, separated by a comma.  When you click Send, the system will attempt to email all addresses that were input, as long as they are entered correctly.
 
Appraisal Scorecard Enhanced to Include Additional Data for Investors
Since many of you use the Scorecard as a routing tool to score appraisals and identify what happens next with it, we are now including whether the appraisal was completed “As-Is” or is “Subject To” additional information. Condition information should help with investor requirements that usually want the appraisal to be “As-Is.”

How to use this feature:
When a Scorecard review completes, the Appraisal Summary information will automatically include the Appraisal Condition information for “As-Is” or “Subject To.”  Note that Scorecard reports that were completed prior to this Appraisal Firewall release update will not contain this information.
 
Expanded Management Report Data Helps Track Appraiser Group Activity
For those of you that utilize appraiser groups as a part of your order routing and fulfillment, you may want to see the name of the appraiser group member that was assigned to an order. For activity tracking and management purposes, we are now making appraiser group member names available within the Reporting section of Appraisal Firewall so you can include this data on your custom management reports. This will be helpful since appraiser group members usually do not work in Appraisal Firewall (only appraiser group Admins work within Appraisal Firewall).

How to use this feature:
Login to your account as an Admin, and click the Reporting menu at left.  In the Custom Reports section, you can either Create a New Report to include this data, or you can add it to an existing report.  Find the Appraiser Fields section, and check the checkbox for Appraiser Member.  This data will then be included when applicable on your custom management reports.
 
Wrong Address?  No Problem!  Verisite Collateral Data Helps Protect Against Input Errors
Sometimes, users will accidentally enter an incorrect property address when they place an order and receive a No-Hit. The Verisite Plus and Collateral Data products will now allow users to correct property details after an order has been placed. Doing this will cause Appraisal Firewall to reorder the Collateral Data report with the proper address and replace the previous order with the proper report.

How to use this feature:
If a Verisite Plus or Collateral Data order is placed with the wrong address, users can simply open the order, and click the Edit Details button at right.  On the Edit Details screen, they can modify the address so that it’s correct, and click Save.  On save, Appraisal Firewall will resubmit the order for a Collateral Data result.  A couple items to note: 
  • If a user clicks on Edit Details within a Verisite Collateral Data order, editing any field within the Property Address and clicking Save will cause the system to resubmit for a Collateral Data result.
  • If a user clicks on Edit Details within a Verisite Plus order that is already in a Done status, editing any field within the Property Address and clicking Save will cause the system to resubmit for a Collateral Data result.
  • If a user clicks on Edit Details within a Verisite Plus order that hasn’t been completed, editing the Property Address and clicking Save will only reflect the address change and not submit for a new report since Collateral Data does not run until the Photo Report is returned.