We kicked off our second annual Summer Convention at Disney's Contemporary Resort in Orlando June 5 with a question: Are you green or blue?

Appraisers who have already seen The Wheel and entered to win a 2006 Range Rover Sport from us this summer know what we're talking about. You want your technology to be deployed to help you complete reports or to manage your business. Or both. Your business is a cycle that encompasses more deliverables and responsibilities than many realize. We talked about The Wheel and this way of approaching how you do business in an opening session with Chris Low, our EVP of Products.

From there, we embarked on three days of hands on and seminar size classes with instruction provided by a la mode developers, support techs and managers. As with our previous three conventions, classes covered such technology topics as mobile productivity tools, electronic report delivery, workflow management, marketing, customer relations and more. Most popular were out Hands On Training sessions, classes where attendees had their own desktops and a smaller instructor-to-appraiser ratio to learn in a custom fashion.

Attendees enjoyed free hors d'oeuvres, cocktails, wine and beer in the exhibit hall Monday evening and experienced some of the industry's most important vendors. Among the exhibitors was the Appraisal Advocacy Coalition, which saw a lot of interest from attendees. The biggest piece of eye candy was a 2006 Range Rover Sport we're giving away next month, which was on display in the hall.

Readers recall (see our last newsletter edition here) that we are taking the lead bringing the implications of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley financial privacy law to the attention of appraisers, who are specifically named in the law as required to comply. On Tuesday we had a convention lunch panel discussion of the issue attended by nearly 200 people. Your newsletter author was joined by Jennifer Sides, our Corporate Counsel and Low to discuss the law and its enabling regulations, enforcement, applicability and how a la mode customers can comply.

Tuesday night saw another popular feature of past conventions, an evening of dinner, cocktails, music and dancing at a Disney's Contemporary Resort ballroom. Attendees mingled with one another and dozens of a la mode employees and had a great time. We announced at dinner Tuesday that we will be going from two conventions a year to one, next scheduled for summer, 2007 in Las Vegas. Watch this space for dates and details. It's going to be huge.

In the meantime, we'e brought back our "road trip" seminars that have always been so popular. Click here for details and a schedule to see when we're going to be in your neck of the woods.

Alarmingly, 2,531 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) were filed by depository institutions on appraisers, an increase of 16.5 percent from 2004 and up 187 percent from 2003. The report — data here (.xls), summary here (.pdf) — deals with the number of SAR filings, so doesn't break out the total number of appraisers. The same appraiser may have had SARs filed from different people or clients. Still, if you're comfortable guessing 2,500 SARs might have been filed on 1,500 appraisers or more, that's one out of every 50 working in the U.S. today.

What is a SAR and why does a bank file one? The SAR form is here, and banks are required to file them under several circumstances. If a bank employee suspects a federal financial institution has been defrauded, including by a phony or inflated appraisal, a SAR is supposed to be filed.

When an appraiser is the subject of a SAR the bank is supposed to also report the incident to the appropriate state board. A federal agency responsible for enforcement under Title XI of FIRREA, like the FDIC, might also sanction an appraiser suspected of fraud.

How do you find out if a SAR has been filed against you? Theoretically you would go through the Freedom of Information Act, information here, but if you're considered the subject of a criminal investigation, don't hold your breath.

In previous years, Mortgage Technology acknowledged the Top 100 mortgage technology companies of any stripe, and a la mode is a fixture on those annual lists. This year, the editors halved the list and split it into two different ones: the top 25 technology service providers, Like Fair Isaac Corp. (the FICO score people) and the First American Companies, and the top 25 vendors "that license technology per se," like Calyx Software, Ellie Mae, Fiserv and us.

Our blurb shows that the editors were impressed both by WinTOTAL's dominance of the appraisal market as well as our revolutionary new SureDocs public beta, out for use by mortgage brokers and with an appraisal version in the works:

Oklahoma City-based a la mode inc. produces electronic document and transaction management software. Over 50% of the nation's real estate appraisers use its WinTotal report production product. Its XSites Network provides LOS integration, nationwide coverage, automated status messaging, pre-delivery underwriting-guideline checks, PDF/XML reports, and HMDA reporting. This year the company launched SureDocs, which creates a PDF digital file from any desktop application - including their loan origination software, word processing or spreadsheet software. The digital documents are easily stored, retrieved and manipulated. Through a la mode's partnership with Wave Systems, SureDocs includes e-signature technology.

Do the math and you understand making the top 100 list in previous years isn't a pass onto the new list(s). 2005 honorees like Appraisal.com, makers of Day One, and FNC, Inc. didn't make the cut.

A top 25 vendor called Veros Software, an AVM developer, had its partnership with Bradford Software touted on the basis that "Lenders will be able to incorporate multiple collateral valuation techniques into their appraisal reports through the familiar ClickFORMS interface." Lenders can't add anything to your reports with WinTOTAL, let alone AVM values, but thankfully that hasn't kept us off the list.