Featured news — posted May 26, 2005

When you heard we were shutting down the EDI Center, some of you thought this meant you'd be forced to buy a new product of ours, or spend money on something else to replace the free EDI functionality in WinTOTAL. That's not the case at all. There will be three ways to make sure your clients get their reports quickly and securely.

Within WinTOTAL — Athena and Aurora, once released — you'll click the 'Send' button and will be given a choice of whether to post the report to XSite Order Manager, use SureReceipts, or use Outlook® or Outlook Express®.

	If you own an XSite, or ever get one, you'll be able to use XSite Order Manager to send your reports. XSite Order Manager is the best of everything — all the functionality and utility of SureReceipts (see below) and the option to attach a PDF. But you don't have to get an XSite or XSite Order Manager just to send reports.
	SureReceipts is the best, most secure option, if you don't have an XSite — and it will be provided free of charge to anyone with WinTOTAL and a support membership. Here's how it works. Your report is uploaded to a secure site. Your client is sent an automatic e-mail letting her know it's done and ready for download. She clicks on a link in that e-mail message — a unique link, which only she has — and downloads a PDF or ZAP of the report. Then, you get an automatic e-mail by SureReceipts to let you know the file was delivered.
	Among the advantages of this method is that the report remains available for 30 days after it's complete, in case your client misplaces it or needs another copy. SureReceipts also avoids file size restrictions that some e-mail services, on your or your client's end, may have. And you can't beat getting a notification that your report was downloaded. With e-mail, you're never 100 percent sure.
	The third way you can deliver reports is simply through Outlook or Outlook Express. WinTOTAL will do all the work of creating the message and attaching the ZAP or PDF. From there, it goes out like any other e-mail message. There will even be a utility for receiving ZAP files as an e-mail attachment through a 3rd party client — so receiving ZAPs in another e-mail program will work just like it did in the old EDI Center.

WinTOTAL's EDI Center was revolutionary when it was introduced and it changed the industry forever. Without it, today most of you would probably be using a pay-for-play proprietary network for transmitting completed reports. But the problems it was meant to solve don't exist anymore, thanks to the natural evolution of technology and the way you and your clients do business.

The important thing to remember is that we're retiring a feature that you don't need to buy a replacement for, or otherwise spend money to replace. You'll be able to, but won't be required to, use your XSite or SureReceipts. You'll also be able to use the e-mail program you use for everything else. WinTOTAL will make whatever delivery method you choose a snap.

For common questions and answers about these changes, click here. And when we release the update implementing the new feature, we'll provide equally detailed documentation. Remember, you have 90 days after the EDI Center is disabled to make sure everyone knows not to use your Proj2000.com e-mail address(es) anymore. We'll forward messages to your Proj2000.com addresses to your CertMail account or whatever address you want.

Appraisal Foundation survey of thousands of appraisers reveals extent of lender pressure

A 2004 survey of appraisal practitioners by The Appraisal Foundation, the results for which were reported this month, found that more than half of residential appraisers feel they are expected to hit a certain value or risk losing business.

7,646 practitioners returned complete or partial surveys, which were distributed to some 55,000 appraisers attending USPAP update courses. Thirty-eight percent of respondents — or 55 percent of residential respondents — reported being expected to hit a number. Sixty-two percent agreed that they had lost work for failure to meet a prescribed value.

The survey asked about the prevalence and influence of Automated Valuation Models (AVMs) in the lending industry. Twenty-five percent of respondents said they felt the use of AVMs by lenders have a direct impact on their business. Only 11 percent (555) of appraisers said they use AVMs in their practice, in a field that included 167 respondents who identified mass appraisal as their primary practice area.

Sixty-three percent of respondents said they do some drive-bys, but only 18 percent said they represented a "significant" part of their work.

Half of respondents said they were affiliated with one of the Appraisal Foundation sponsoring organizations (Appraisal Institute, NAIFA, NAR, etc.). Significantly, 20 percent indicated they had been a member of one or more of the sponsoring organizations but no longer maintained membership. More than 40 percent of respondents answering the question indicated they belonged to no appraisal organization.

Forty-three percent of respondents expect regulation within the mortgage/lending industries to increase. Sixty-five percent feel that increase regulation on the lender side would lead to greater appraiser independence.

Ninety-four percent of respondents said they considered appraisal a profession, not a trade, cheering us that we've been using the right term in this newsletter all this time (because we think so, too).

A summary of results for all questions as well as demographic information can be found in Microsoft Word format here.

Capturing quality leads with local search engine services

Web marketing features like Yahoo!® Local and Google™ Local enable search engine users to find relevant local information with neighborhood business listings, maps, directions and web pages. Why should you list your business on one (or both) of these sites? You'll make it easy for clients and new customers to find your business, you have full control over your listing and, best of all, it's free.

Both Google Local and the Yahoo! Local Listings program collect business information from their own indexes of Websites, Yellow Pages directories, and other sources to populate search results. However, the best way to get an accurate listing is to submit your own listing to the directories.

It takes three to five business days for your listing to appear in Yahoo! Local. After submitting your information to Google Local, you'll receive a letter to your business address within two weeks containing a unique PIN number and activation instructions for your listing. Your listing will then display on Google Local four to six weeks after it's submitted.

Need help setting up your business listing? No problem. We've created a tutorial for setting up your listing on Google Local and Yahoo! Local in our Web Marketing Strategies section of our website, which you can access here. If you have XSellerate, the tutorial is also located in the Marketing Aids section under Tools.