An appraisal service out of Oklahoma City helps mortgage lenders maintain compliance with appraisal regulations while letting appraisers keep most of the fee.
The firm is Mercury Network, a subsidiary of al a mode.
The company provides a vendor management platform available at no charge to lenders. The platform ensures they comply with the Home Valuation Code of Conduct, Federal Housing Administration requirements and Federal Interagency Appraisal Guidelines.
Even appraisal management companies are customers of the company.
“AMCs see it as a really affordable transaction charge to get a technology backbone that allows them to comply with regulatory guidelines and provide great service to their clients,” a la mode Executive Vice President Molly Dowdy said in a statement. “It would cost an obscene amount of money to build their own custom backbone.”
If the appraiser is paid the published fee or median fee for the county, then the appraiser pays just $13.75 to Mercury for the order. But if the lender or AMC pays less than the full fee, then they wind up paying the $13.75 fee.
“Appraisers love it because it’s a far cry from the 40-50 percent of the appraisal fee that many solutions take from the appraiser just for the order,” Dowdy said.
Business has been so good at the company that Mercury has opened up a client relations department headed by Chris Sullivan. Customers can get support on a 24-hour basis.
Several lender-customers are quoted on Mercury’s Web site praising the service. Among the benefits mentioned are continued use of the appraiser network they already have relationships with, avoiding AMCs with poor service and the use of local appraisers.
Competing providers include InHouse and MortgageDaily.com advertiser GlobalDMS.
