Over the last few years, we’ve seen a significant amount of change in the reverse industry and in how businesses function, which has been dictated by both regulatory and programmatic changes. As these changes occurred within the housing market, we also found ourselves needing to adapt and rethink our business. It was clear we would need to make drastic changes within our organization, both in terms of service and product offerings, in order to best support our clients. We had to pivot from being strictly an appraisal management service to being a true valuation partner. This meant exploiting what we were already doing very well: developing technology. But, in order to understand that progression, you’d have to understand a little bit about the history of Landmark and the appraisal management company.

Landmark was founded during a time when AMCs were largely used by lenders with national footprints and preferred to use an organization that could handle their valuation needs, rather than working with and managing individual vendors nationwide. For the most part, brokers and regional lenders tended to manage their valuation process through an internal solution, which always meant having staff that would order and manage the appraisal orders directly with the local appraisers. It wasn’t until 2009-2010, with the advent of the Appraiser Independence requirements that stemmed from the HVCC and HUD, that AMCs were pushed to the forefront and spurred significant growth in our industry, leading to the widespread creation of AMCs as we know them today. At that time, many AMCs brought their existing process forward and sold it to lender clients as an out-of-the-box solution for their appraisal management needs. In truth, the vast majority of AMCs lease third-party software platforms to manage the process. We used to do that too, but as the industry evolved, more lenders began dictating the workflow and requesting customizations that weren’t previously a part of the appraisal process. The fact that we were boxed into a third-party software technology that allowed minimal to no customizations forced us to create manual workarounds, resulting in a less efficient and costly operation. In doing so, we quickly realized that we were giving up too much control over our operation by going with the herd and not developing a proprietary appraisal management platform. That was the beginning of our move into technology development. We realized that we needed to rethink the appraisal process and anticipate the capacity for the change that we knew was coming.

Now, lenders have their own specific requirements and requests. It’s no longer a one-size-fits-all appraisal world. An AMC’s ability to quickly evolve and adapt to these new needs directly dictates its success, and fortunately we’ve been very successful at it thus far.

In addition to innovative requests and options, we recognize that convenience is key. That’s why, in April 2013, we were the first AMC to bring a smartphone app to market that allows clients and vendors to track order updates and request additional information; and for appraisers to provide scheduling updates easily from the field. As society has become more mobile-centric, we have stayed ahead of the curve by taking desktop technology and placing it in people’s hands, to be used at their convenience.

We’ve been leveraging technology so we can do our job better and make the lender’s job easier. We’re proud to be one of the largest AMCs in the reverse space and excited to be a leading innovator of valuation technology. Now, due to the variations in what lenders want, we are taking what we believe is the next big step by rolling out a new version of our cloudware, Landscape, which will allow lenders to manage their own appraisal process while being backed by the compliance and strength of a full-service AMC.

We often have conversations with potential clients and we need to make sure that we are offering the best solutions to their problems. When they share their pain points with existing vendors, it’s always easy to assume that our appraisal management service is somehow a cure-all and utilizing it will solve their problems. But that just isn’t practical. If we are to be a true partner, we need to provide solutions that will actually work for the clients—all of the clients. Sometimes the solutions may be a better way to manage existing AMC relationships or manage their internal process, or a hybrid of the two. With added features to Landscape, we’re able to provide a full range of solutions that are wholly dependent on lenders needs. There are software platforms that lenders use to manage their appraisal process, but ours has a competitive advantage because it’s backed by a licensed AMC. There are many things that we are licensed to do, which allows us to better support lenders where they specifically need our help. A non-AMC technology company would be prohibited from doing that.

Case in point: Vendor onboarding and payments are always a concern for banks and lenders. Many institutions have processes that require a lot of work to board new vendors into their system. If you are a lender and you want to add a new appraiser to do an assignment in Chicago, for instance, onboarding them through your approval department can take time and create a bottleneck. We offer the benefit of a two-way solution where lenders can choose to manage their own workflow but the appraisers will be managed as a part of our vendor panel so that we can still do what we are licensed to do (process payments, onboarding, etc.) and remove that burden from them. As a lender or bank, there is an additional concern that exists around payment collection for appraisals. If a bank or lender wants to collect appraisal deposits or partial payments, they would have to escrow those funds, which can be a hindrance on the operation due to state-specific requirements. As a licensed AMC, we have the ability to collect and process payments, while at the same time allowing the lender to manage their own workflow, if that’s a solution they need.

That’s our vision: We will continue to operate as a full-service AMC, but our cloudware will also be a tool for those lenders who wish to dictate their own process and workflow as the industry and regulation continue to evolve.