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72 are being met by providing a detailed letter of engagement communicating the lender or servicer's appraisal requirements and makes sure the required scope of work is pertinent and adequate for the intended use of the appraisal report. » Provides status on all open orders to help ensure any delays can be communicated to the borrower if/when applicable. » Performs a viable quality control function on each completed appraisal order and pursues all necessary corrections to the appraisal prior to submission of the completed appraisal report to the client. » Pays the appraiser a reasonable and customary fee for each assignment, and pays the appraiser within a required time frame. » Manages any post-submission challenges regarding the appraisal in a professional, unbiased, and non-emotional manner. » Ensures all regulatory guidelines are being adhered to through the use of full-time compliance staff, legal representation, information technology professionals, quality control personnel, and facilities management to help ensure business continuity and avoid interruptions in business. e quality control function mentioned above remains one of the most important functions an AMC can provide to its clients. Ideally, the AMC will employ full-time quality control staff, and, in addition to utilizing leading-edge technology for a portion of the quality control function, each appraisal should be manually reviewed as well by an appraiser holding a license at least equal to that possessed by the appraiser whose report is being reviewed. A competent reviewer is not only focusing on the reasonableness of the value estimate, but also the reasonableness of the adjustments applied and the corresponding support for those adjustments. A good reviewer will anticipate all the likely challenges from the end users of the appraisal and will review that report with those possible challenges in mind. By being familiar with how a typical borrower might review an appraisal submitted by his or her lender, a reviewer can help minimize borrower concerns by making sure each appraisal reviewed makes sense. A typical borrower will immediately look at the appraiser's physical description of his or her home, so a reviewer should always look at the appraiser's building sketch as well as the corresponding subject photos to try and ascertain if the measurements and physical description of the home appears adequately detailed, and consistent. In addition, a borrower will typically look at the photos and descriptions of the sales utilized in the appraisal of their home and make note of any differences they do not feel were adequately addressed. In this regard, a good reviewer will read the reports thoroughly and focus on the adjustments applied to each sale for material differences between those homes and the property appraised. Also, a borrower will immediately note if any locational factors have been adequately addressed by the appraiser and call any weakness in that regard into question. A reviewer can reference any number of mapping programs to "drive" the subject neighborhood and ascertain if any obvious locational factors were addressed by the appraiser. In addition to the benefits to the property owner, professionally managed appraisals conducted by AMCs offer benefits to all other components of the lending industry. For example, appraisals prepared in strict conformance with applicable industry guidelines can invite less challenge from mortgage insurance companies in their claims investigations, or from the GSEs in their repurchase investigations, and ultimately even the federal government in instances in which banks may have failed, in part, due to unsupported valuations. e intent behind the ECOA Valuations Rule in part was to make it easier for applicants to understand how a lender estimated the home's value. In addition, the rule is intended to make it easier for a borrower to review an appraisal to which he or she may not normally have access. e rule was also intended to help the applicant in knowing if there may have been any unlawful discrimination the loan process. A home's value cannot be based in any way on the racial or religious background of a community or individual, and it is important for a borrower to feel comfortable knowing this was not the case in the development of his or her home appraisal. As such, it is important the borrower be given the opportunity to review the report that was relied upon in the loan origination process. A credible and compliant appraisal can help instill confidence in the loan origination process. Most rules are made with the best intentions, but often unintended consequences occur. However, with strong practices in place from all parties involved, the negative consequences can be reduced or eliminated. A competent reviewer is not only focusing on the reasonableness of the value estimate, but also the reasonableness of the adjustments applied and the corresponding support for those adjustments.

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