This fall will make a year since the announcement that the GSEs would begin to permanently accept desktop appraisals for conventional loans. In light of this, HW Media CEO Clayton Collins sits down with Mark Walser, president of Incenter Appraisal Management, to discuss remote desktop appraisals and what the industry has learned about them.
“The surprise that took a lot of the lending industry was they were expecting this new desktop to sort of mirror the COVID flexibility of the past,” Walser explained. “And it turns out, this is actually basically a new product, right? It requires an interior floorplan with wall partitions. And it also requires some verification from the appraiser. So a lot of vendors weren’t really prepared to provide those floor plans.”
Walser said he believes the industry is now at a point in which requirements are better understood and lenders are starting to work more with appraisal tech vendors.
“So as lenders start to explore this, as appraisers start to become more comfortable with what the requirements are and as they turn to companies like us that have an answer for things like floor plans, I think you will see increased adoption and prevalence,” Walser said.
In terms of what lenders can do to best meet desktop appraisal requirements and generate floor plans, Walser said the best thing that they can do is first of all have vendors that have a clear product and a solution that can turn-key this process for them and for their appraiser.
“The technology is out there. It’s very prevalent. It’s on almost all phones,” Walser said. “And I think a lender can best be served again, by just working with vendors that have the technology and can articulate a clear vision for how to use it and how to deploy it.”
For more information on Incenter Appraisal Management, click here.
