A host of new and existing services are designed to help mortgage firms comply with a new appraisal rule. Meanwhile, appraisal management companies are teaming up with technology firms to offer enhanced services.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s amendment to Regulation B, which implements the provisions of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, requires lenders to deliver copies of appraisals and valuation documents to loan applicants prior to closing.
An expansion of Mercury Network’s SureReceipts helps lenders avoid violating the ECOA Valuations Rule, which went into effect on Jan. 18, a la mode announced this month. It automatically produces an audit trail on every send for compliance verification.
“As lenders are learning, some the hard way, providing electronic copies of some documents is not simply a matter of e-mailing them to borrowers, or even blasting out links to download the documents,” a la mode said. “New ECOA requirements mandate certain specific disclosures and demonstrations by the borrower of their ability to receive electronic documents, before they download anything.”
Information about SureReceipts is online at www.mercuryvmp.com/SureReceipts.
First Look Appraisal said that it has expanded its service to ensure lenders are in compliance with the ECOA Valuations Rule. It provides lenders with a verifiable and secure means to deliver the appraisal to the borrower in compliance with the Electronic Signatures in Global National Commerce Act.
First Look in online at www.FirstLookAppraisals.com.
The online property intelligence portal PropertyFinder 2G promises to help lenders maintain compliance with Reg B, DataQuick recently announced. It allows lenders to research and validate comparable sales and identify alternative comparables, if required, without creating a valuation for the subject property.
“Regulation B has created a bit of an administrative nightmare for lenders who must figure out how to deliver AVM reports to the consumer and explain their contents,” DataQuick President John Walsh said in the statement. “Many lenders have been tempted to stop using AVMs all together to avoid the hassle of providing reports, but in so doing risk losing out on the intelligence that evaluation provides. PropertyFinder 2G is customized to produce all of the valuable comparable sales data and analysis lenders need to accurately assess the property without an actual valuation figure that must be sent to the credit applicant.”
DataQuick, which operates from San Diego, provides more information at www.dataquick.com/products/research/propfinder/.
Torrance, Calif.-based DocMagic Inc. recently said that it has a variety of solutions that easily and efficiently enable a lender to be compliant with the ECOA Valuation Rule. Its website is located at www.docmagic.com.
A partnership between StreetLinks Lender Solutions and InHouse Connexions will make automated appraisal review technologies available to InHouse lender clients, a March 11 statement said. StreetLinks, a Mortgage Daily advertiser, is online at www.streetlinks.com.
An announcement earlier this month indicated that VirPack has been integrated into StreetLinks’ LenderX to expedite appraisal delivery to loan files. The move is expected to save lenders between 10 and 15 minutes per loan.
Indianapolis-based StreetLinks reported on March 4 that its AppraiserPlus program has experienced “unprecedented growth” since launching in August 2013. Reports ordered through the service are completed an average of one day sooner since it eliminates AMC micromanagement. Half of all StreetLinks’ appraisals are being processed through AppraiserPlus.
DataVerify said in a news release last month that its newly launched CompQC acts as a data validation tool for appraisal reports and streamlines the validation process by eliminating time-wasting manual checks of third-party sites.
“In addition to saving the user time and aiding compliance efforts, CompQC allows the user to set customized filters to determine when the level of variance between data sources is high enough to trigger an alert,” DataVerify said. “This reduces the potential for false alarms.”
St. Louis-based DataVerify’s website is at www.dataverify.com.
Platinum Data Solutions reported in February that each of the 18 non-proprietary AVMs it resells has been tested for accuracy. Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Platinum, which claims to be “the industry’s largest independent provider” of AVMs, is online at www.PlatinumData.com.
