Mortgage technology provider SharperLending® announced today that its Verisite mobile property inspection tools have been enhanced to help keep real estate appraisers safe during property inspections by allowing homeowners to take interior property photos, then transfer interior photos and descriptions to appraisers for their reports. This helps keep appraisers safe while accomplishing their work in the field and promotes efficiency in lenders’ origination processes by keeping pipelines moving.
The announcement comes as the nation practices social distancing as part of a national guidance plan to slow the spread of COVID-19. The company’s goal is to promote safety and health for real estate appraisers that go out into the field, and into residential properties, to perform interior inspections of properties being used as collateral while making sure loan application volumes are handled expediently.
The Verisite mobile property inspection tools are available in the Appraisal Firewall® real estate appraisal platform which enables lenders to manage their own appraisal process and connects lenders, appraisers and homeowners in a single system.
“With rates so low, we are seeing record loan volumes and we want to do what we can to help appraisers stay safe and healthy as they are out in force completing inspections,” said David Chiappe, President of SharperLending, the company behind the Verisite and Appraisal Firewall technology. “While safety and health are paramount to us, we also don’t want lender pipelines to become blocked. We want to get the word out to all types of lenders: Verisite keeps pipelines moving and reduces appraisal cancellations because its mobile nature promotes social distancing, so appraisers stay safe. Not only does this have positive impacts on lender offices, but it supports the health of the mortgage industry and the economy as a whole.”
In addition to the Verisite mobile property inspection tools helping keep appraisers safe by enabling homeowners to take interior photos, Verisite automatically verifies the accuracy of the location where the photos were taken down to a ten-foot radius, helping eliminate fraud and assure lenders that the photos are of the property being used as collateral to secure the loan.