Exec reveals how the industry is banding together to modernize the appraisal process
Flushing unconscious bias out of the appraisal industry’s system is a huge task that Class Valuation, an appraisal management company, believes can be accomplished with the help of impartial and rational technology.
“There’s a lot of discussions today regarding appraisal bias,” Cristy Conolly, executive vice president of valuations modernization at Class Valuation, said in an exclusive interview with Mortgage Professional America. “There are things that have come to light that [mean] the industry is banding together to take a step back, look at the appraisal process, and determine how to modernize it in a responsible, meaningful, and equitable way.”
Class Valuation offers an arsenal of appraisal tech tools, such as 3D scans, to provide a consistent, repeatable process that results in source-of-truth property data.
“We have property data collectors that complete a full 3D scan of a property,” Conolly said. “They use technology to obtain property data that are consistent and repeatable, not subjective. The technology captures a 360-degree view of the property in every room. So, there’s a virtual inspection for the appraiser to review. You literally can look around the entire property from top to bottom and can zoom in on any area. There’s no subjectivity or missing information on what is relayed and forwarded to the appraiser and any downstream investor.
Read more: Class Valuation invests in 3D technology
Conolly added that this technology helps mitigate bias because the appraiser has no interaction with the homeowners or the seller.
“When appraisers don’t go to the property, they have no idea what ethnicity the borrower is,” she said. “Any kind of bias can be presented - when you’re in person, when you meet people, when you have conversations. This piece completely eliminates that. Appraisers are still provided with everything they need to know about the property, but they have none of the interactions that can bring positive or negative bias into the equation.”
You can read the full exclusive interview here: Class Valuation stamping out appraisal bias.
