Appraisal Management Company Surpasses Turnaround Goal
Coester Appraisal Group a nationwide appraisal management company surpassed its goal of averaging less than 4 days total turnaround on appraisals nationally for two consecutive months. The goal which was set by CEO Brian Coester is a milestone to the companies “When Results Matter” focus.
Gaithersburg, MD - January 11, 2010 –The goal was surpassed this January and is an excellent way to bring in the new year. The firm averaged 3 days,19 hours, 48 minutes and 47 seconds on over 2,000 loan files which were included in the tracking according to Real EC technologies which Coester Appraisal Group is fully integrated with thanks to help of partner Global DMS. Coester Appraisal Group’s staff is excited about the news especially due to the new changes facing FHA originators in 2010. Operations Manager Frank Novak said “we are extremely excited about all the hard work and dedication our team put into the goal.
We consider this a stepping stone in the right direction of achieving our ultimate goal of 4 total days turnaround or less for a year and ultimately continually. With FHA’s Appraisal changes right around the corner its a sure bet we will be able to deliver for the lending community”. This turnaround time focused is full supported by its commitment to quality and guarantee on appraisals. The firm will guarantee appraisals accuracy and will pay for a second appraisal if the first appraisal’s quality is questioned with no charge to the client. You can contact Coester Appraisal Group at (888)485-`1999.
About Coester Appraisal Group
Headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, Coester Appraisal group has been providing quality real estate appraisals since 1970. Clients that depend on Coester’s appraisals, BPO’s, AVM’s and property valuation tools include banks, credit unions, mortgage companies, hedge funds, attorneys and government agencies. Their experienced staff provides a quality valuation done in a timely manner with a correct estimation of market value. Each appraisal is manually reviewed by a staff appraiser for quality and compliance with lender’s underwriter guidelines and is certified HVCC and USPAP compliant. For additional information about the company and its services please visit their website at www.coesterappraisals.com.
About Global DMS
Global DMS, LLC, a privately held corporation, headquartered in Lansdale, PA, serves an international clientele with their OASISOne platform. Founded in 1999, they deliver technology that centralizes the management of the appraisal process, ensures compliance, reduces costs, and expedites delivery time to lender clients. Global DMS’ solutions include: the OASISOne.
Contact :
Steve Ucket
Coester Appraisal Group
Gaithersburg, MD
United States
Office: 888-485-1999
Fax: 301-231-8275
E-Mail :sales@coesterappraisals.com
Website: http://www.coesterappraisals.com
Blog: www.appraisalnewscast.com
Many years ago I had an AMC, Nationwide Appraisal Network or something like that, contact me and offer me a Tier 1 subcontractor position for appraisals. In order to achieve this lofty “Tier 1″ goal I had to lower my fees and meet a minimum 5 day turnaround time.
I asked the pleasant young lady if quality was important. “Of course it is,” was her reply. I didn’t achieve the Tier 1 position. Not due to 20 years experience. But due to my fee.
So when I see 3 days,19 hours, 48 minutes and 47 seconds I would have to ask what are the statistics after the report has been submitted.
Such as:
What the number of corrections and re wrights IE: the level of quality in 4 days versus the normal 7 days.
How many total days are there from the order date to the in-house quality control review release. And how would that measure to a 7 day report cycle?
What is the experience level of appraisers? Since quality is at risk due to the fast turn times, I assume you have a minimum experience standard to eliminate unnecessary errors and omissions.
What is the fee level for each appraisal? Since you require each order to be treated as a “Rush” order, I assume you are rewarding your appraisers with higher fees as more work is necessary to insure quality in reporting.
I was unaware that turnaround time was more important than quality. In this current market, rushing appraisers to complete appraisals in set, alotted times is reckless practice. While I understand a well seasoned experienced appraiser can most certainly complete a “cookie cutter” within 72 hours, striving to reach the shortest possible TT flies in the face of logic. I would think striving to get a top quality report (even if it took 5 working days) would be a top priority. What would I know, I don’t work for or subscribe to the “fast and cheap” AMC model of appraising.
I work for a national lender. The need for speed is NO LONGER a priority with respect to appraisal turnaround. The back-office costs of low quality or rushed appraisals FAR outstrips any advantage that once (long ago) existed in getting the appraisal back quickly. The appraisal turnaround time has NOT been the bottleneck in the lending process for a good 18 months, and will likely not be anytime in the near future. We will take high quality over speed any day.
By the way we tried over a dozen of these so-called AMCs and finally fired them all. We went back to an old-school approved appraiser panel and utilitze AppraisalPort to administer the assignments. My underwriters are much happier now.
I question how it is possible to turn out a thoroughly researched report in 72 hours. Quality takes a back seat to speed and price with ALL Appraisal Mgmt Cos. There is often no time to VERIFY the information that is included in these reports when local village/zoning depts., for example, work from 9-4 and some of the smaller ones are only open a 2 days a week.
Requiring the appraiser to turn in an appraisal within 72 hours is another form of appraiser pressure and is reckless. All AMCs claim they want quality over speeed, but just ask any appraiser who turns in a quality report in 5-7 days how quick they are dropped from that list. This article drives home that point. Instead of touting the quality of their product they are showcasing about how fast they are. The goal here is speed, not quality.
Try your own “When Results Matter” campaign. Call your local mechanics and tell them you need brakes but you will only give the job to the guy who can get it done in 1 hour. Call your local roofer and tell them you need a new roof but they have 5 hours to tear off the old one and put on a new one. And if there are any surprises under the old roof - its fixed at their expense - no price adjustments for more complex problems. Do you think they’d be worried about quality? You’d be getting exactly what you asked for.
If a loan takes a month or more to close, and the appraisal is a very important factor in the process, why is it that these appraisals can’t be ordered at the beginning of this process? That would take away the “Need” for a 4 day turnaround time.
Isn’t it important to know the value of the home BEFORE you can determine the loan amount? Shouldn’t these clients order the appraisal first, instead of waiting until the last week and demanding a rushed appraisal?
Seems like the process is so backwards.
I made a conscious decision to NEVER work for an AMC. They will be, if left unchecked and unregulated…the death knell for appraising as a profession. Never once has anyone ever asked me for a resume, or a list of my recent education, or even how long I had been appraising.
No, fee and turn time is all they care about. The appraisal could have been done in crayon by my 4 year old as long as it says what they want, (ie HIT THE TARGET) and they can get it back 10 minutes before the send the order.
This guarantees that the lender and borrower get basically the least possibly researched appraisal that very little money can buy. I am sure that is just what a borrower wants to use to base a 200K+ decision on.
In the long run, I am pretty sure AMCs lack of quality control and rush to complete tasks will relegate them to the ash heap of bad ideas within the next 3-5 years.
So, yeah, yuck it up how you cracked the whip on a bunch of inexperienced, gullible appraisers. I’d pat you guys on the back, but you’d have to move your own hands first.
Many years ago (early 1980s) I was an employee of a major national employee relocation company. One of the ways in which we tracked appraiser performance was with “turn-time” to complete an appraisal assignment.
During this same period, the market for residential real estate was in the proverbial tank–do you remember mortgage interest rates in the neighborhood of 18%?
Well, it did not take long for us to discover that our requirement for a “fast” appraisal was leading to unacceptable short-cuts and diminished quality analysis. Following, the “turn-time” requirement was modified to reflect the realities of both the market and our needs (i.e., credible appraisals).
Well, here we are, approximately 30 years later, and what do we have? Some lessons are too soon forgotten.
An appraisal is a process and no one can stipulate how long that process takes . We see our scope of work changed or expanded all the time.
Good luck to you Mr Coester. I do not work for you and never will.
Congratulations of thinking you have achieved something.
“My appraisers are fresh out of school so they have not forgotten all of the important things they have learned. I pay them fair and they are very happy to even have a job in this economy and do not complain about their pay rate. $100 is a great rate for a full appraisal in this economy.”
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