One of the promises of the Information Age that hasn't quite come true yet is the "paperless office." As a professional in a tightly regulated industry highly dependent on paper, you've probably been looking forward to the day when you could see the top of your desk again. Read More...
A consequence of the housing boom that has been overlooked — by homeowners and appraisers alike — has been the growing problem of underinsurance. Read More...
Past due fees that you might have been too busy to pay attention to the last few years are becoming more important to collect. You've been asking for features that can help you collect and avoid late or non-payment in the first place. Now we've added some tools to your XSite that make it easier to get paid. All without changing the way you work. Read More...
The Aurora Status Dashboard is a rich resource for getting up to speed on what's happening with WinTOTAL. Each Instant Customer Update (ICU) improves WinTOTAL with bug fixes, usability improvements, new forms or features. We released more than 150 ICUs for WinTOTAL version 4 (Athena) over five years. Read More...
A new WinTOTAL plugin can help you reap the rewards of the white hot market of the last few years and pick up some work from non-mortgage clients. Read More...
An outfit called the Center for Responsible Appraisals and Valuations released an "Appraisal Compliance Paper" this month with the purpose of informing lenders about their responsibilities for overseeing their appraisal and valuation systems. It's sometimes not as "plain English" as it could be but is a good summary of what responsible lenders are being instructed to do by FIRREA and federal banking authority guidance. Read More...
Now that Fannie Mae makes the cost approach optional, many of you aren't doing it anymore on single family residential assignments. Many of you still are because your clients sometimes ask for it, and you like delivering a more complete, even more attractive, report. Many of you would include the cost approach if you could upcharge for it, while some of you are reluctant to do so. Read More...
Client pressure is a huge issue and concern for most appraisers. In a recent survey the Appraisal Advocacy Coalition found that when asked about the importance of 14 different issues appraisers rated client pressure the most important of all, tied with data theft. Read More...
All the tricks of the marketing and client retention trade won't keep all your clients ordering at the same pace they did in 2003. But that's not a reason to take your eye off the ball, it's a reason to bear down and do everything you can to be sure your phone keeps ringing (or XSite keeps pumping out orders) while your colleagues' go silent. Read More...
Last week Washington Mutual announced it was cutting some 900 jobs, including hundreds in its in-house appraisal department, in favor of outsourcing appraisal management to two Appraisal Management Companies, LSI and a First American unit. The transition is underway and will proceed "throughout the remainder of 2006." Read More...
Contact Kara Calderon for appraisal or real estate industry news and Molly Dowdy for mortgage industry news. Or call 1-800-252-6633.
a la mode and its products are trademarks or registered trademarks of a la mode, inc.
Other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Copyright © 2009 a la mode, inc. 1-800-ALAMODE (252-6633)
