Appraiser Help Center

The order acceptance feature allows you to officially receive an order, set the price, and begin working on it within the system. Before you accept an order, you can view important order information such as the date required, product ordered, and service fee information. You can also view the price (if the lender has specified one) or set your own.

The Accept feature allows you to officially accept the order and even conditionally accept it if certain order requirements can be adjusted. For example, your lender may use fixed fees that may not match the work required for the order, or they may enter a requested due date that does not work with your time schedule. With the Accept With Conditions feature, you can accept an order on the condition that the lender approve an alternate due date or price.

This guide will familiarize you with using the Acceptance feature within the system.

Overview

Under the New Orders tab, you have fast and easy access to all orders that have been assigned to you. By default, when you log into your appraiser account, any new orders that need to be accepted will appear under the New Orders tab. Along the left-hand side of your account, you can edit profile and settings, view your orders, review lenders you are connected to, monitor messages, and run reports.

Accepting an Order

To accept an order that has been assigned to you, you can either access the order via a link in the email you received, or log into your account and click on the order within the order list to open it.

Once in the order, the property information tab is automatically displayed so you can quickly gather information about the order. Click the Accept button to access the Accept screen.

On the Accept screen, you may be able to enter in your price for performing the appraisal. A Service Fee may be applied to the order. If so, you will see the up-front fee and the amount you will net once the order is complete.

If you have base pricing entered on your account profile, the amount you have entered for the corresponding product will automatically appear in the Price field, which you can edit on the Accept screen.

Some lenders used ‘fixed pricing’ to standardize their costs. On orders that have a fixed price, the price of the order will automatically display on the Accept screen which you may or may not be able to edit (see section on Conditional Acceptance for more information). You can always accept the order and then request a price increase through the system if you think a different amount is warranted.

• Product Type – Displays the product that was ordered by the lender.
• Lender – This displays the lender that placed the order and the name that should appear on your report.
• Payment Terms – Depending on your lender’s settings, payment for the report may come directly from your lender or from your account manager. You can contact the name listed in this field for information regarding payment schedules.
• Price – This is the price the lender pays for the order.
• Service Fee – Depending on your lender’s settings, you may be responsible for a technology fee for the order. If a service fee applies, it will be listed here so you know how much you will be charged.
• Appraiser Net – This is the amount you will net after all fees have been deducted and the order completed.
• Date Required – Depending on your lender’s settings, a date required may be entered by the user who placed the order. Contact the lender if you have questions regarding the due date.
• Engagement Terms – Depending on your lender’s settings, you may be required to view and approve any required terms the lender uses to manage their appraiser relationships.
• Request Inspection Date with Entry Contact – This optional feature available on some orders allows you to communicate with the entry contact of the property through the system. You can propose primary and secondary inspection times which the contact can approve or decline. You will be notified of the entry contact’s response.
• Disclosures – If you have appraised the same property in the last three years, you can disclose that information to the lender. You can still accept the order, disclose your previous appraisal, and include a brief message. Note: If you have a message that is not about disclosing a previous appraisal, please accept the order first, and then use the Send Message feature to deliver your message.

Once all required information has been entered, click the Accept button to officially accept the order and begin working on it.

After an order is officially accepted, you can view and print the order form, send messages, set statuses, and proceed with working on the order.

Please Note: Some lenders operate with a ‘Fixed Price’ for their orders in which case you cannot enter your own price. Contact your lender if you have questions about any fixed pricing entered.

Reminders: 

• Orders that are not accepted within the system will be automatically reassigned to another appraiser.
• To accept an order, you must open it, click the Accept button along the right, make sure a price has been entered, enter any other required information, then click Accept at the bottom of the screen.
• After you successfully accept an order, you can view the order form and send a message to the lender.