Month: June 2022

Article originally published at MortgageOrb

Equity Valuation Partners (EVP), a provider of home value services, valuation tools and property value data for the real estate industry, has launched WAIVIT, a one-stop platform that empowers lenders to generate their own compliant estimate of value for residential and commercial real estate (CRE) properties.

Because the demand for home valuations far exceeds the supply of appraisers, many lenders are experiencing delays in closing real estate transactions. Using the internal evaluation bank regulatory carveout, WAIVIT eliminates these obstacles by utilizing data and an appraisal platform to enable lenders to come up with their own estimates of value in a controlled environment.

“When appraisal management companies first emerged after the financial crisis, I saw an opportunity to transform appraisals for appraisers, banks, credit unions and portfolio lenders with a product that did not require an appraiser’s inspection,” says Drew Watson, executive vice president, founder, CEO and principal of Inhabet, in a release. “Today, with the unveiling of the Inhabet platform, we have made it possible for a lender’s trained staff to complete an estimate of value themselves.”

The WAIVIT platform is self-contained and includes the comparable sale data, app-based inspection platform and valuation platform. No third-party login is required for Inhabet, and there is no software to install. Instead, users with basic knowledge of real estate transactions are guided through a multi-step process that leverages big data to simulate the appraisal process.

After gathering data about the property, such as its age, square footage, interior condition and surrounding neighborhood characteristics, Inhabet helps lenders select and assess comparable properties. 

Following refinements to comparable adjustments, WAIVIT‘s reconciliation process completes the compliant value estimate. If a lender feels they are unable to complete a valuation themselves, they can pass the valuation on to EVP to complete with the click of a button.

While much of EVP’s business is for residential valuations including automated valuation models (AVM) and hybrid models, WAIVIT also empowers CRE valuations, enabling banks to standardize data so it can be more easily analyzed. Given the high cost of CRE appraisals, CRE investors stand to benefit greatly from the platform, particularly since commercial real estate industry previously had no standardized data.

Watson noted that while there are other real estate valuation data providers, WAIVIT is the unique in that it is a valuation system with multiple data sources and the only platform that enables a lender’s staff to prepare valuation reports on their own, using a process and a set of standards that is consistent across their entire product line.

Article originally published at GlobeSt.com

Equity Valuation Partners (EVP) this week announced a new DIY valuation platform for lenders, called WAIVIT, that the company says will allow them to “generate their own compliant estimate of value for residential and commercial real estate properties.”

Part of the announcement was the intent “to transform appraisals for appraisers, banks, credit unions and portfolio lenders with a product that did not require an appraiser’s inspection,” EVP CEO Drew Watson said in prepared remarks. 

The twist rests on using “the internal evaluation bank regulatory carveout” that allows substitution of an estimated value rather than a traditional appraisal.

This may be more limited than it immediately sounds. An “Interagency Advisory on Use of Evaluations in Real Estate-Related Financial Transactions” lists three types of transactions that can use an evaluation without an appraisal:

1. “Transactions where the ‘transaction value’ (generally the loan amount) is $250,000 or less,” although there can be situations where a transaction value is low enough but other factors, like a sufficiently high interest rate, can still require an appraisal.
2. “Certain renewals, refinances, or other transactions involving existing extensions of credit.”
3. “Real estate-secured business loans with a transaction value of $1,000,000 or less and when the sale of, or rental income derived from, real estate is not the primary source of repayment for the loan.”

The advisory also notes that a financial institution might decide an appraisal would be necessary or prudent even if apparently not required under the exception.

Regarding the qualifications for someone to prepare an evaluation, the advisory says this: “An evaluation is not required to be completed by a state-licensed or state-certified appraiser or to comply with USPAP. The evaluation preparer should, however, be knowledgeable, competent, and independent of the transaction and the loan production function of the institution. Valuations may be completed by a bank employee or by a third party. In smaller communities, bankers and third-party real estate professionals have access to local market information and may be qualified to prepare evaluations for an institution.”

“The WAIVIT platform is self-contained and includes the comparable sale data, app-based inspection platform and valuation platform,” the EVP release states. “No third-party login is required for WAIVIT, and there is no software to install. Instead, users with basic knowledge of real estate transactions are guided through a multi-step process that leverages big data to simulate the appraisal process. After gathering data about the property, such as its age, square footage, interior condition and surrounding neighborhood characteristics, WAIVIT helps lenders select and assess comparable properties.”

A lender can also pass the evaluation task over to EVP to complete.

The company says that while the system is primarily for residential valuations, it allows banks to standardize CRE data for easier analysis. EVP also claims that while there are other providers of valuation data, it is the only one that enables lenders to prepare their own evaluation reports.