Getting the Best Appraisal Turnaround Time
By Charlie Elliott, Jr., MAI, SRA

When ordering an appraisal, the great majority of lenders usually have two questions: (1) “How much will the appraisal cost?” and (2) “How quick can you get the appraisal back to me?” While both of these questions are important, the lenders seem to be more concerned about the turnaround time than the price

Many appraisal clients do not seem to understand why turnaround time is not more consistent. A lot of clients expect to get an appraisal back in a day or two even though that’s not usually the case. While the normal turnaround time of a residential appraisal is about five days, it can vary from a couple of days to two weeks or, in some cases, longer than that. The client, going into an appraisal transaction with a better understanding and expectation of what the turnaround time will be, will probably end up being satisfied coming out of the transaction.

Many clients have the impression that an appraisal is a commodity, like five pounds of sugar or a gallon of milk. Now I’m not saying these people think appraisals are milk or sugar, but I am saying that some think appraisals are the same anywhere and they ought to cost about the same and be equally available. Contrary to that misconception, an appraisal is a service, and it is a very specialized service. There is a lot of work involved in producing it and delivering it and there are a lot of circumstances that affect the quality of the utility received. No two appraisals are the same. They frequently vary in relative price. They also vary in turnaround time and in the time it takes to produce them within the market as well as, a lot of times, within the same appraisal shop.

An appraisal purchase might be better compared to the act of calling a plumber, who, like an appraiser, is providing a service. If you call a plumber and tell him water is leaking under your house, you can’t expect him to tell you exactly how long it will take to repair what is causing the leak or what it would cost because he doesn’t know without inspecting the property why the water is leaking. Like any other professional, he also has to work you into his schedule. Once the plumber gets to your house, he might find a simple leak that could be repaired in five minutes. On the other hand, he could find that the water heater needs to be replaced and that some pipes have rusted. This could keep him working at your house all day. Therefore, until the plumber knows what all has to be done to prevent water from leaking in your house, he would not be able to determine how fast he could repair it or what the cost of his visit would be.

Let me pass along a few tips to help a client assess in advance the amount of time that might be involved in receiving an appraisal. Turnaround time varies with a lot of factors, too many, in fact, to list, but here are some of the more important.

At the top of the list would be the type of appraisal that is being ordered. There are limited appraisals, limited appraisals with exterior inspections, appraisals with interior inspections and more thorough appraisals. As a rule of thumb, the more complicated the appraisal, the longer the turnaround time would be. That is partly because of the time it takes to produce a more thorough appraisal, but also because an appointment with the homeowner has to be made for an interior inspection, and time often elapses as the appraiser and the homeowner work to coordinate their schedules.

Another significant factor in turnaround time is the location of the property. Property located in a rural area is generally going to be farther away from where the appraiser normally operates, making the appraisal process more time consuming.

A third factor with a substantial affect on turnaround time is the market. Generally, when there is a lot of mortgage lending going on, whether it’s because of refinancing or home sales, appraisers are busy. The busier they get the longer the turnaround time tends to be.

One way for a client to improve service is to order the appraisal as soon as possible. Sometimes we don’t get an appraisal order until a month after the loan application has been submitted. Suddenly, under those circumstances, the client wants the appraisal completed in the next day or two. Of course, the urgency for the appraisal would not have been necessary if it had been ordered earlier in the process.

Another tip for a quicker turnaround time is for the client to provide the appraiser with as much information as possible about the property, the owner and anything else that might be important to the appraiser in finding what needs to be appraised. Sometimes it takes an appraiser two or three days to track down the owner or find some records. Then after those are found, the appraiser would have to delve into questions that the client already knew the answer to.

The best way I know to get the shortest turnaround time is for the client to use the same appraisal company all, or at least most, of the time. If appraisers get a significant volume of business from a company, they are going to be more responsive and flexible when someone from that company orders an appraisal.

I would also say that a larger company is usually able to provide better service than a one-man shop. When the single independent operator gets a flurry of appraisals he has no options except to push back everybody’s schedule. The larger shop frequently can bring in other appraisers and juggle the workload in such a way as to improve service.

Finally, but perhaps as important as anything else in keeping turnaround time to a minimum, is that a client makes sure he pays his appraisers the market price for their services. An appraiser who feels like he is not being paid adequately, even though he might accept an assignment, probably is not going to be nearly as excited about going that extra mile and giving that extra push as someone who is pleased with the fee he will be receiving for his services. They may not say it, but appraisers certainly will be more responsive if they are being paid a fair price.

Charlie W. Elliott, Jr., MAI, SRA, is President of ELLIOTT® & Company Appraisers, a national real estate appraisal company. He can be reached at (800) 854-5889 or at charlie@elliottco.com or through the company’s Web site at www.appraisalsanywhere.com.