Services
Three ways to engage, one method underneath them. Everything is fixed-fee or fixed-retainer, scoped in writing before it starts.
Readiness & Assessment
Fixed-fee, time-boxed review of where your valuation program actually stands against USPAP, agency requirements, and the current UAD 3.6 mandate. You get findings, severity, and a remediation sequence, not a list of observations.
You should be reading this if
- You are delivering to the GSEs and nobody has confirmed in writing what happens to your pipeline on November 2.
- An examiner, an investor, or a counterparty has asked how you oversee your AMC, and the honest answer is a contract and a monthly report.
- Somebody owns appraisal at your shop, but not on paper, and not in a job description.
- Fee basis
- Fixed fee, quoted in the statement of work
- Timeline
- Two to four weeks from deposit
- Deposit
- 50% on signing, non-refundable; balance at delivery
See the readiness assessment →
Governance & Program Build
Standing up the thing that was missing. Appraisal desk, review function, ROV program, AMC oversight program, panel management. Written policy, working checklists, trained staff, and a file that shows the process.
You should be reading this if
- A program exists in practice but not on paper, and the paper is what gets examined.
- A readiness assessment produced findings and somebody has to build the remediations.
- You bought a valuation technology and nobody has written down what it is allowed to decide.
- Fee basis
- Fixed fee, quoted in the scope
- Timeline
- Eight to sixteen weeks, milestone billing
- Access
- Level 2, named, time-boxed, read-only
Fractional Chief Appraiser
A named appraisal authority on your org chart without the seat. Monthly retainer, six-month minimum. For lenders and AMCs that need someone accountable for collateral and cannot justify a full-time hire.
You should be reading this if
- An examiner, an investor, or a plaintiff will eventually ask who owns collateral, and today the honest answer is that nobody does.
- Your policy names a designated appraisal subject-matter expert and the name in the box is blank.
- Escalations reach whoever is available rather than whoever is accountable.
- Fee basis
- Monthly retainer, quoted in the engagement
- Term
- Six-month minimum, then month to month with thirty days' notice
- Access
- Level 3, embedded, full third-party risk onboarding
The catalogue
Every engagement offered, grouped by buyer, with timelines and what the client receives. Each is a real engagement; nothing here is aspirational, and no row carries a fee, every fee is quoted against a defined scope.
For lenders
| Engagement | Timeline | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| UAD 3.6 and UCDP readiness assessment | 2–4 weeks | Findings with severity and authority, sequenced remediation, live readout |
| Appraisal desk stand-up | 8–16 weeks | The function, its placement, its authority, its workflow, and the person who owns it in writing |
| Reconsideration-of-value program build | 3–5 weeks | Policy, borrower disclosure, SME gate, appraiser communication standard, outcome documentation, channel coverage |
| AMC and vendor oversight program | 4–6 weeks | Contract standards, service levels, performance reporting, escalation, and a file that proves oversight happened |
| Review and quality control program build | 8–14 weeks | What the desk catches, sampling, reviewer calibration, defect taxonomy, and where a finding goes |
| Fractional chief appraiser | Retainer, 6-month minimum | A named appraisal authority on the org chart, escalation coverage, policy currency, exam support |
| Appraiser independence training for staff | Half day or full day | The line between a permitted correction and prohibited influence, an escalation script, and an audit trail that shows which side a message fell on |
For appraisal management companies
| Engagement | Timeline | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Compliance and appraiser-independence gap assessment | 3–5 weeks | Where the review desk sits relative to the line, with findings by severity and authority |
| Review desk and QC operation build | 8–14 weeks | Reviewer standards, calibration, sampling, defect taxonomy, escalation, reporting |
| Panel management program | 4–6 weeks | Eligibility, onboarding, credential currency, geographic and product competency, performance monitoring, defensible removal |
| UAD 3.6 operational conversion | 3–6 weeks | Ordering logic, vendor verification, reviewer retraining, pipeline exposure |
| State licensure and registry remediation | Per state | Registration currency, registry status, renewal calendar, and what a compliance review will look for |
| Fractional chief appraiser or compliance officer | Retainer, 6-month minimum | Named credentialed authority, escalation review, policy currency |
For appraisal firms
| Engagement | Timeline | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Workfile and QC audit | 2 weeks | A sample of recent reports read against USPAP, UAD 3.6 and client requirements, with findings you can act on |
| UAD 3.6 shop conversion | 2–3 weeks | Templates, checklists, software configuration, and a walkthrough |
| QC program build | 3–4 weeks | Checklists, revision tracking, pre-delivery review, usually the first time it has been written down |
| Supervisor and trainee program design | 3–4 weeks | A program aligned to the qualification criteria, built to survive the changes now in exposure draft |
| On-site shop assessment | 1 day + findings | A day in the shop, then written findings within the week |
| Growth advisory | Retainer | Pipeline, client mix, panel positioning, dispute support |
Training and briefings
- Appraiser independence for lender and AMC staff, what may be said to an appraiser, by whom, in what words, and what the file has to show afterwards.
- UAD 3.6 for underwriting, QC and technology teams, what changed, what breaks, and what each function has to do differently.
- Reconsideration-of-value handling, vetting a request before it reaches an appraiser.
- Association, chapter and conference sessions.
Formats: virtual working session, half day, or full day on site. Delivered live, not recorded and resold.
The method
Four phases, on every engagement.
- Scope
A conversation, then a written scope of work naming the documents I need, the system access level, what is in scope and what is expressly out. Nothing starts before this is signed.
You get: Statement of work with a fixed fee and a fixed end date
- Evidence
I read your actual files. Policies, checklists, panel records, review files, escalation logs, submission data. Not a questionnaire, the documents themselves.
You get: A document register showing what was reviewed and what was not available
- Findings
Every finding carries a severity, the authority it runs against, the operational consequence, and what fixes it. A finding with no cited authority is an opinion and is labelled as one.
You get: Written findings with severity, authority, consequence, and remediation
- Readout
A live session with the people who have to act on it. Questions answered in the room. The remediation sequence agreed, in order, with owners.
You get: Sequenced remediation plan and a recorded readout
How engagements work
How scoping works, deposits, what changes a fee, system access, data handling, and the conflict check, written down before you ask.
The first conversation is a conversation, not a pitch. Tell me what prompted it and I will tell you whether it is something I should be working on.
Schedule a Conversation