One at a time, one at a time . . .

Did you get the call? I guess Lendervend has re-instated a bunch of the Suspended appraisers on a probationary "one at a time" basis.  This means they have full access to orders, but can only have 1 in their Queue at a time (not counting "In QC" of course). They would not say how long the "probationary" status would last, or if it was even permanent. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. If you were Suspended and did not get re-instated, give them a call or email, it might not be too late to plead your case.

The "8 Days In April" curse

So I have it on good authority what caused the Appraiser Suspensions over at Lendervend/Provident Funding in May.  Lendervend employees swept through all of their appraisers' accounts and anyone who had a turn time of over 8 days, just on April appraisals, was suspended.  If the appraiser has good reasons why the file took so long (out of town borrowers, higher complexity property, etc) they are letting them send in a letter basically explaining their case in hopes to get reinstated. I understand that they are going to make a decision on a bunch of appraisers at once.  If you were suspended in the recent sweep, I recommend getting these letters in ASAP, because I am sure that once they make their decisions it will be a HUGE pain to get them to revisit the issue.  Send them to as many email addresses for Lendervend employees that you have (get them from your conditions, communications, etc) and they should get forwarded to the right place.

To those "Suspended" within the past few weeks, any luck?

Has anyone "Suspended" from Lendervend's Real Estate Appraiser Panel in the past few weeks received any response to a rebuttal yet? I have a few really good friends that were suspended that were able to submit "letters of explanation", basically to plead their case to stay on the list.  None has received word back yet, but I am curious to see if anyone has been let back on.  If you are one of the unlucky ones that got Suspended off the AMC list, but feel you were done so without merit, get those letters in, because I get the impression that as they make final decisions this month the list will be locked down for a while after wards. Send me a message to lendervendorders gmail com or post a comment here and let us know your story, good or bad. maybe we can help or learn from what you have going on.

Dear Lendervend,

You hired someone to send out information and news items to your appraisers.  I don't know if you knew this, but they are sending out a jpeg picture file instead of text. This is the wrong way to do it, and this person should probably be transferred into a position more fitting of their skill set. In no circumstance is this even a remotely appropriate way to send out newsletters, especially since 90% of your appraisers are reading them on smart phones. If you would like I could teach your employee how to properly send emails. Just let me know, no charge.

Love,

Charlie B.

WOW! Hope you all made it. (aka Times They Are a Changin')

So it looks like Lendervend has made a HUGE sweep of its appraiser roster.  It appears as though a LOT of appraisers were "Suspended" and are not able to get orders right now. From what I have been able to gather, they wanted to clean out slow and sloppy appraisers, and get rid of people breaking the "third party capture" rule.  They went through their list and looked at turn times, and conditions, and removed anyone they felt was not performing.  They SAY they also Suspended a lot of appraisers that were using those "order grabbing" companies, but I am skeptical of that. The only one I can think of that they would have been able to track at this point would have been the one that required you to change your email address to their servers (which is stupid in the first place because your email address would show that you were using the service, but whatever). I do, however, believe that Lendervend is starting to hire some new technicians, or the current ones are getting up to speed, and they soon will be able to track anyone using those third party order grabbing companies.

If you were one of the "unlucky" ones that was Suspended, all hope is not lost.  Give Lendervend a call or email and plead your case.  Send them a letter explaining why you did (whatever you were Suspended for) and how you are going to change course and learn from it.  They are just people over there, like you and me, and if you show them that you are willing to correct your performance you might have a shot. Of course, in order to get orders you will need to hire someone to sit at YOUR machine (or in your office anyway) and check the site for orders, but if you can get even 1 a day it should pay for itself.

With all of this being said, I am making some changes too. No longer am I going to create tools for Lendervend order grabbing.  I believe that era is over.  They are really showing how concerned they are with automation, and are looking to start making examples of people that do not live by the Terms and Conditions (for both order capturing automation and turn times/quality of work).  I am now going to focus my attention on helping appraisers become better at appraising.  Not necessarily at "how" to appraise, there are better training and educational outlets for that, but on how to be a better Appraiser. This means knowing what tools to use, how to be as productive as possible, how to speak to clients and underwriters, how to explain appraisals to the borrowers, etc. I am not doing this because I see myself as any better than any of you, but I know that if I research, write about, and present this sort of information, it will make me better at all of these things.

Adding CAPTCHA Characters? Really?

I don't know what Lendervend thinks that adding an additional CAPTCHA character will do.  They are WAY off on the whole CAPTCHA system anyway. Lendervend, if you would like a FAIR system for order distribution, that ACTUALLY works, send me a message. I would love to manage the project for you, and set you up with something that actually makes sense.  Having your appraisers sit mindlessly in front of their computers all day is probably the worst idea you have ever had, but it is not too late to fix things.  Send me an email, I'll help you out.

No fix yet

The fix has proved to be much more complicated (sort of) than I thought it would be.  It would be an easy ordeal to just bypass Lendervend's system and grab orders, but then you would not be in compliance and would get booted off the list anyway.  I am still pursuing some avenues and will try to keep everyone in the loop.  Until then, just keep trying by hand and hope for the best (as I am). Best of luck!

Still working on a fix

Just thought I would check in and let everyone know that I am working on a fix for the new website. It is actually more than a fix, it is a whole new system.  I will keep in touch as it progresses, but in the meantime, just keep checking the site by hand.

As a side note, I have started a new "non-Lendervend exclusive" blog.  A place where i can talk about more general appraising and business issues etc. If you are interested, it is located at charliebowens.blogspot.com.

New Order System on the Lendervend site is LIVE

Lendervend has implemented their new order system, where you have to hand enter the "captcha" phrase. I will be working on a fix this weekend and hopefully will get something that works, but in the meantime do not use your automatic order grabbing systems. Turn them off ASAP and check Lendervend by hand until I can get a fix together. I have a few ideas and am working with some computer geniuses to hopefully get something that works.

Maybe this weekend would be a great time to get working on applying to some new AMC's, something to fill the void until Lendervend picks up more in your area.

New Lendervend Security Features

I am sure you have all seen the email by now explaining Lendervend's new "security features".  These are not yet live, so continue to use the system as before.  Once they push these new features out, we will start working on a fix. I have a couple theories about their new system, and if they are correct, it could actually make the system work better than before.  I pulled the purchase link down for the time being, and once I come up with a fix for the new security features I will put it back up.  You are all the best, and let's keep at it.

Pulling the ebook down for now

It looks like Lendervend is instituting a new policy where you can only refresh 5 times a minute and have to enter an alphanumeric code each time. Do they want their appraisers to be able to finish appraisal? Any way, I am pulling down the ebook until I can get a better handle on what this will actually mean and we can build a fix. It hasn't been implemented yet, so keep running the system until they update their site. In the meantime, check out my AMC List for a list of other potential clients. This attempt to "level the playing field" as they say will only benefit the appraisers that can afford someone on staff to watch the site, but we'll see how it plays out.

AMC and Lender List

Good afternoon everyone.  I finally finished my AMC/Lender List and thought I would offer it to you all.  It contains over 300 Appraisal Management Companies and 100 "Direct Lenders".  It is in no way a complete list of AMC's, that would be impossible given the churn rate of the "fly by night"-ers. We have ALL dealt with them, and you can usually tell the ones that are the next to go by how they treat their appraisers.  Why is it that the worse they treat the appraisers, the ones actually MAKING them money, the faster they are out of business?  It's not that difficult to see, but they just don't seem to get it.

If we have all learned an important lesson over the past few months, it is that having all of our eggs in one basket can be a tough, tough way to go. Lendervend is, by far, the best AMC out there (if you know of a better one PLEASE let me know), but when Lendervend goes "slow" for a while, we need to have a backup plan.

On a brighter note, there are a lot of good AMC's out there (the diamonds in the rough, as they say), but it becomes a matter of tracking them down. My list will at least give you a starting point, a list that you can go down and start applying for appraiser panels and weeding out the bad ones from the good. With as many companies as there are here, if only 5% worked out for you, that would be over 20 new clients, and that is at only 5%. Imagine if 10% work out?

Buy my list now, and start adding new clients to your roster. Even 1 new order pays for the list multiple times, and after you prove that you are one of the best appraisers in your area on that first one, the orders will start rolling in.

2 Big Announcements

I am currently working on the second edition of the ebook, which should come out in a couple weeks (it will mainly be a simplifying of the instructions, some other tweaks, etc). If you consider yourself "tech savvy" the second edition probably won't help much, most of it is just more in-depth explanation and some new cleaned up video tutorials. Everything within the system will work exactly the same still. Don't worry, EVERYONE who owns version 1 will get a FREE UPGRADE. At that time the "introductory special" will end and the price will be back to $79.99, so BUY NOW if you haven't yet so you can get the free upgrade and save $20.

Also, I am putting the finishing touches on an Appraisal Management Company List that I will be offering here as well.  If we have all learned an important lesson over the past few months, it is that having all of our eggs in one basket can be a tough, tough way to go. Lendervend is, by far, the best AMC out there (if you know of a better one PLEASE let me know), but when Lendervend goes "slow" for a while, we need to have a backup plan.  I am compiling a list of all of the Appraisal Management Companies, and direct lenders, that I have been able to find. It will come as a PDF, for printing, and also an Excel spreadsheet, so you can add/delete/edit as you need to. We all know that these "fly by night" AMC's come and go, so I wanted a format that can be changed as companies go out of business, open up shop, or change contact info. The list should be available within the next few days.

Hope all is well, and let's make it a great March.

The Fix Has Been Sent Out

The fix has been emailed to everyone. If you did not receive it let me know. Make sure you email me from the same email address you used when you purchased the ebook, so I can verify that you are a current customer.

The Fix Is In

Since Lendervend changed their website last week, the system has not been functioning properly.  I have written and tested a fix and it will be sent out to everyone this afternoon. Thank you so much for your patience, and let me know if there are any issues with the new fix.

News Link in Lendervend?

Lendervend added a "News" link to the top of the page, doesn't look like any updates have been posted to it yet.  I wonder what types of info they will be sending out on it. Having a "News" link is a step in the right direction, as my feelings has always been that Lendervend keeps us totally in the dark, but let's wait and see if they actually use it.

To those using the ebook system, a quick fix is needed to account for the link. I sent an email to everyone with instructions, and a Quicktime Video showing exactly how to make the change.  It is an easy fix and only takes a minute or so.  If you did not receive the update, email me (make sure you use the same email address you purchased with) and I will send it over.

Things picking up in your area too?

Has anyone else noticed a recent uptick in activity in there area?  Hopefully it is the indication of another small upswing in transactions. I have noticed that orders have been ramping up over the past week or so.

Lendervend is not down

For the past day www.lendervend.com has been down, but going directly to appraisalzone.lendervend.com will get you access to the site. It is currently Friday morning, Feb 12. Hopefully they fix the main address soon, but in the meantime continue to work as normal by accessing the appraisalzone.lendervend.com address.

Lendervend's site is down . . . or is it?

It is so frustrating when I have an order to deliver or need some info from my Lendervend account and I enter www.lendervend.com only to get a "Page Not Found" error. For some reason this seems to happen with Lendervend every once in a while. I have discovered, though, that MOST times this happens if you go to http://appraisalzone.lendervend.com instead of http://www.lendervend.com it works.

FHA Approved Status for Lendervend

Something has popped up on the "My Account" screen in the past few weeks. If you are FHA Approved make sure you select "Yes" in your account. My guess is that starting February 15th when all FHA appraisals have to be "HVCC Compliant" some orders may be filtering through the Lendervend system. Since Lendervend does not like to announce ANY changes to its site, most people did not even know this new option existed. Why do they not give us any information?

Appraisal Inspection Worksheet

I have been developing this worksheet ever since Lendervend first opened, for my own personal use. I LOVE working with Lendervend, they pay more than any other AMC and are generally really easy to work with.  Every job I do for them I want to be rock solid and fulfill their guidelines.  I HATE conditions and try to make sure every file proactively addresses their Quality Control Checklist. I have developed this Appraisal Inspection Worksheet through trial and error (taking off items that I never used or did not have trouble remembering, etc).

I also like to use the worksheet for another reason.  It addresses a 12 month listing history and a 36 month sales history.  This shows a record of me asking the borrower the history, to back up any info found, or not found, on the MLS.  I would much rather send in a work file with a question and answer report if I was ever "called up" to prove that I did my research.

I based the grid off of the 10 by 10 grid style of graph paper and use each square to represent a foot.  I scale this up or down sometimes depending on the size of the home but for 95% of the appraisals I do 1 square each foot works perfectly. This, coupled with my Disto, make for quick and accurate measurements, so for me it has been really effective.

I also included a questionnaire on the side for the borrower so I don't forget to ask the most important questions at the inspection (I really dislike having to call them later if I forget something). I added a notes field that I use for general information, and a "Condition Summary" field that I usually fill out when I get out to my car so the property is fresh in my mind, but the borrower cannot see over my shoulder.
  
Anyway, I thought I would offer this as a pdf to anyone that was interested.  I am charging a little for it, to compensate me for the time developing it and designing it, and so that I can invest a little into the next appraisal related project to help everyone out.  It also will save you a lot of money on graph paper, as you just print this out onto a regular legal sized piece of paper (much cheaper than any graph paper I have been able to find that is worthwhile). You also don't need to worry about having stock of graph paper on hand, just the legal sized printer paper you already use to print out your reports.

The file comes in .pdf (Adobe Acrobat) form and is printed straight out of Adobe Reader (free). I have set it up to use the "Scale To Fit" default printing setting in Adobe so it should work no matter what printer you have and if it is laser or inkjet.

You can purchase the Appraisal Inspection Worksheet here for only $5

It is processed through Google Checkout and after checking out you gain access to the digital download.  This entitles you to print it out as many times as you want or need.  I will also be giving, for free to those that purchase, any updates to the worksheet that I decide to do.  Please send me suggestions or ideas and I will possibly incorporate them into a future version.

Lendervend "no railing on porch or deck" Condition

Every once in a while I run into a property where the owner is mid-construction or repair on a deck or porch. This ranges from; no railings on the deck, to the back door being a 20 foot drop to nowhere. In this case Provident Funding requires that the borrower either permanently seal the door or finish the deck/porch. The "permanent seal" can be as simple as disabling the locking mechanism so that the door cannot be opened, or a permanent seal of some kind (which makes no sense because NO ONE would ever do this method). Then Provident orders a "final inspection" from the appraiser to go out and check to make sure the work is done. It makes me cringe to think of the borrower paying $100-$150 for me to come back out and look at a disabled lock that took them less than 5 minutes to do.  I have made it a habit to educate the borrower on the Provident guideline and then give them a chance to disable the lock while I am completing the inspection.  This serves 2 purposes:

1. The borrower is happy to be given the information and chance to save money
2. It makes me look more professional and proficient in my job, adding credibility to the appraisal itself

If I leave the borrower with a "teaching moment" they remember that they were treated with respect by the appraiser who knew the guidelines, and saved them money by giving them information, so must have been extremely knowledgeable.  If the appraised value is less than they had "hoped for" (in this market? never . . . ) they would be less likely to accuse me, the appraiser, of incompetence and my opinion carries more weight.

By saving the borrower money (especially after they have paid the "higher than last time" appraisal fee) they have less of a feeling of being "nickel and dimed" and will be more likely to insist on Provident Funding next time (or the same mortgage broker who is sending deals to Provident).  When they use Provident next time that is another job for us, Lendervend's appraisal panel.

Yes, I know that by not requiring the final inspection I am losing money. Getting a mortgage loan is hard enough these days without us, the appraisers, trying to squeeze every penny out of the transaction ourselves. Lendervend is paying more than any other AMC I have come across and, although we have no control over market conditions and values, we can help keep Provident's customers happy in the small ways that we are able. Especially when it is something so simple as letting them disable a lock while we finish the inspection.

To all current customers, a MAJOR fix and update to the e-book

I have made a MAJOR fix and update to the e-book.  Please return to your download account and download the new version (for everyone that purchased before January 25, 2010).  Thank you.

E-Book downloads fixed

For some reason a few people did not get both files when purchasing the e-book (the e-book itself and the text file with additional information).  I have fixed this on the server side and everything should be fine from here on out.  I have also emailed the file directly to everyone that had a problem getting both files.  Now when you purchase the e-book both files are in 1 .zip file instead of 2 separate downloads.

I was "Active" and now I am "Registered"

This is an update to my last post.  It appears that if you change your password in the Lendervend System they change your status from "Active" to "Registered".  I think this is a database issue and when the database does whatever updating it does each night it should put you right back to "Active".  No word on whether or not orders are available to you at the time you show as "Registered". If anyone knows, please post the info in the comments section.

Help! I Was "Inactivated"!

Lendervend's website is built on ANCIENT technology (well in the internet world anyway) and their database has a ton of problems. If your account ever gets set to "Not Registered" or "Inactive" and you don't know why, email them ( lendervend@providentfunding.com ) and ask them to look at your account. I have been marked Inactive for changing my phone number, and for no reason at all. Every time I contact them they fix it within 24 hours. I just think that their system is so poorly built that ANY changes to your account, or their servers, can lead to you inadvertently being deactivated. It does not necessarily mean you have been kicked off of their appraiser panel or "blacklisted" by Provident Funding.

Lendervend "Tier" Status

I get asked quite frequently if I know what the "Tier" system is on the Lendervend account and how it is calculated. According to my sources in Lendervend, it will dictate how many current orders you can have in your queue at any one time. Tier 1 appraisers will be able to have 10, Tier 2 will be able to have 2, and Tier 3 will be able to have 2 as well (so why differentiate?).

According to the Lendervend website, the Tier is based on turn time:

• Tier 1: Average Turn Time 0-5 Days
• Tier 2: Average Turn Time 5.01-10 Days
• Tier 3: Average Turn Time Over 10.01 Days

As you all know, the turn times are currently calculated using time within QC for each order. Lendervend wants this fixed before it will actually implement the Tier System and start restricting order volume based on what Tier you are in. They are also waiting until they fix the time calculation to take out weekends and holidays (according to my source).