Title/Appraisal Vendor Management Association Publishes Standards of Good Practice in Appraisal Management

PITTSBURGH, Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- The Title/Appraisal Vendor Management Association (TAVMA) announced today that its membership has developed "Standards of Good Practices in Appraisal Management," a set of guidelines for the industry.  The Standards outline best practices to help ensure that appraisal management companies (AMCs) and appraisers deliver quality, objective valuations to their common customers – financial intuitions.

The Standards take into consideration the needs of all stakeholders as well as federal interagency guidance, the new Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) and other federal and state statutes.  The Standards attempt to codify long-time industry practices on a variety of issues, including local market knowledge and competency, distance appraisers travel, appraiser selection and communications, and dispute resolution.

"There has been a great deal of distortion in the press and on the Internet about the role of AMCs, the qualifications of the appraisers they work with, appraiser travel policies and the value that AMCs bring to the lending process," said Jeff Schurman, Executive Director of TAVMA. "Many of these stories are based on anecdotal complaints by third parties who don't regularly work with AMCs. In fact, AMCs are currently involved in over 60 percent of all residential transactions; over two-thirds of all licensed and certified residential appraisers work with AMCs; and preliminary results of a member survey suggest that the average AMC appraiser has 13-16 years experience."

"The Standards were drawn from the best practices of reputable AMCs and reinforce the benefits AMCs bring to the market: appraiser independence; quality control and transparency that increase lender and consumer confidence; and efficiency and logistics that support national lending," Schurman explained. "Our new standards provide a roadmap that reputable AMCs can follow to deliver quality appraisals and to attract highly qualified appraisers. As the real estate and mortgage industries emerge from its current downturn it is vital that AMCs continue to focus on processes, systems and controls to ensure that they continue to deliver high quality, objective valuations."

Developed over the past year with input from TAVMA members, lending institutions and appraisers, the standards address nine key areas including:

• Supplier Recruitment and Coordination
• Appraisal Order Assignment
• Order Tracking and Workflow Management
• Pre- and Post-Delivery Quality Control
• Appraisal Delivery
• Customer Service, Dispute Resolution, Client Pressure
• Product and Technology Development and Utilization
• Sales, Marketing and Administration
• Training and Development

Other highlights of the standards focus on issues such as recruitment and qualifying appraisers; negotiating and setting service levels; quality reviews of completed appraisals reports and, expectations and developing a technology that permits auto assigning, tracking, reviewing and electronic delivery of reports.

Schurman said, "Like any industry, AMCs must continually update their standards to be responsive to the needs of customers and suppliers. These standards allow the industry to put some parameters around what it means to be a professional, objective, and successful AMC."

About TAVMA

TAVMA, the Title/Appraisal Vendor Management Association, is a non-profit professional organization that represents more than 75 companies including more than 40 of the largest Appraisal Management Companies (AMCs) with combined market share of 85 percent of the AMC market. TAVMA promotes the vendor management industry and presents its members' positions to government and media, protects its members' rights to do business without unfair and anticompetitive legislation and regulations and provides useful information about issues impacting the real estate settlement services industry. For more information about the organization, visit the website at www.tavma.org.  

SOURCE Title/Appraisal Vendor Management Association (TAVMA)