Hi everyone, hope you all have been having a great month so far. For the October edition of Dart Board, I wanted to give you a behind the scenes look into one of our most critical operations processes, and discuss how it affects your appraisal orders. I also wanted to share a few updates on our appraiser panel development. 

Service Level Coordination. Back in June, I shared information on Dart’s appraisal assignment process. Our Service Level Coordination (SLC) team handles both the assign process, as well as the status functions I’ll discuss here. SLC team members are charged with meeting or exceeding targeted Service Level Agreements (SLA) for all files. Some clients have varying SLAs, but as a standard Dart uses the following metrics:

• Assign an order within 4 hours of receipt 
• Our goal is to have every order accepted within 24 hours
• After acceptance, the appraiser must communicate their inspection date to Dart within 24 hours
• After the inspection is completed, the appraiser must complete their report and upload it to our site within 48 hours (unless otherwise specified)
• Received reports undergo QC within 4-6 hours of receipt
• If a correction is necessary, appraisers must upload the corrected report within 24 hours after the request was issued. Corrected reports go back through QC before they are delivered to the client.

Our SLC team members handle everything that happens between the time when Dart receives a file and delivery into Quality Control. They follow up with the appraiser if any files are in danger of falling off track, and keep clients updated of any issues. Our SLC team members are assigned to select states, giving them greater knowledge about local market conditions as well as the appraisers that serve those areas. SLC also handles ordering of our alternate products, including AVMs, BPOs, Property Condition Reports and Executive Value Reports.

Another report type SLC handles is our new Streamlined Appraisal Report. Completed by a credentialed appraiser, this report includes a physical inspection of the property’s exterior (done by a home inspector), as well as comparable photos and price trend information for the property and local market. The Streamlined Appraisal is a fast, flexible valuation product with full USPAP and FIRREA compliance. If you want more information about the Streamlined Appraisal Report, please contact Marc Tatarcuk. 

Appraiser Panel. Dart has spent more than 20 years building the industry’s most experienced and robust appraiser panel. We have county-level coverage for all 50 states, as well as in the US Territories. Our Vendor Management team is continuously working to ensure we have sufficient coverage to meet our clients’ needs. Earlier this month, we held an appraiser event in Houston to get to know our current panel members, as well as recruit new appraisers to the panel. Dart has staff appraisers employed in key markets where turn times have posed a problem for other AMCs, and we continue to add staff appraisers to improve efficiencies for our clients. To aid in our panel’s continued professional development, we just launched a revamped version of Dart Academy through our partnership with McKissock. All Dart Appraisers are eligible to receive a discount on their continuing education through Dart Academy.

St. Louis Networking Events. In just two weeks, Dart is hosting a pair of mortgage industry networking events in St. Louis. If you’re in the area, please join us for a happy hour on Wednesday, November 1 or a “coffee hour” on the morning of Thursday, November 2. Full event details and RSVP information can be found at www.dartappraisal.com/stlouis. Food and beverage are complimentary at both events.

Trade Shows. As I mentioned in last month’s newsletter, October has been a busy month for us in terms of trade shows and conferences. Already this month we’ve been to Valuation Expo, NAMB National, and the Association of Appraiser Regulatory Officials Fall Conference. This weekend we’ll be at MBA Annual in Denver, where we have a booth on the tradeshow floor and also a hospitality suite for meetings. If you’re interested in meeting, please email me at michael@dartappraisal.com. I also encourage you to stop by booth #507 to meet members of our team.

Thanks as always for your feedback and suggestions. I look forward to seeing many of you in Denver this weekend!

Thank you,

Michael Dresden
President
Dart Appraisal