Overview
US Appraisal Group, Inc. is an appraisal solutions firm that works with the best real estate appraisers worldwide for commercial and residential client needs. Whether you only need one appraisal or hundreds each month, each client receives a complimentary analysis to determine the optimal way to handle their needs. We then build a customized solution which helps our clients be more efficient, save time and resources, and consolidate appraisal orders to one source. Our appraisers are the best in their respective markets and always produce quality reports that include sound analyses and well-documented reasoning. As a result, working with US has been known to dramatically increase public confidence in the appraisal profession.
History
US Appraisal Group was started in 2003 by a group of appraisers that saw a huge gap in the market between appraisal management and appraisal quality. US Appraisal Group was designed to ensure that everyone who orders appraisals was able to engage the best appraiser for the assignment and get a quality report delivered on time. The company was designed to alleviate frustrations from ordering appraisals and managing appraisers and has since expanded to offer services internationally.
Mission
To deliver appraisals of the highest quality.
Vision
To dramatically increase confidence in appraisal management.
Purpose
We exist because everyone deserves to have a positive appraisal management experience.
Core Values
We conduct ourselves with integrity and build our reputation by providing appraisals of the highest quality. We are committed to building appraisal process solutions that help our clients be more efficient by saving them time, energy, and resources. We are empowered to make ethical decisions that benefit our company and use our commitment to help us accomplish our personal and professional goals. We adapt when clients’ needs change by improving our efficiency and building processes that scale. We protect our appraisers from undue value pressure. We continually educate, support, and communicate with each other, our clients, and our appraisers.
Structure
US Appraisal Group consists of a corporate office and virtual alliances located throughout the nation. Each appraiser communicates on our secure network and client confidentiality and service is maintained through delegation of assignments through the main office, located in downtown Chicago. Online ordering, status updates, and file delivery are accomplished securely through the US Appraisal Group website. Clients can communicate with US associates any time of day via email or utilize the live web chat on our website during business hours.
Experience
US Appraisal Group has completed all types of appraisals, including those for lending purposes, litigation, PMI removal, sales price establishment, construction analysis, and foreclosures. Our team has extensive experience in relocation appraisals and working with corporations to accurately value assets. We welcome the challenge of unique properties and enjoy looking for data in remote regions. In the commercial sector, US Appraisal Group is experienced in all types of investment real estate including industrial, manufacturing, warehouse, office, apartment, retail, and special-purpose properties. We also have valued health care related real estate, including hospitals, medical office buildings, surgery centers, nursing homes, and senior living facilities. We have completed cost segregation and feasibility studies for individual investors as well as large entities. We are confident in handling your assignment, whether it is for merger and acquisition, internal planning, or government reporting purposes. Samples of any of our work and references can be provided upon request.
Examples of Our Core Values in Action
Building Creative Solutions: After recognizing that the order entry system of a national risk management company was cumbersome and time-consuming, the US Appraisal Group team worked quickly with the client to design and build a needs-specific process. The innovation continues to save significant time and effort for all parties.
Efficiency: Most AMCs fail to recognize that over 50% of revision requests can be resolved without going back to the appraiser. Instead of simply forwarding the request along – a move that can add days to a report’s lifecycle – US Appraisal Group opens the report and analyses each request. In many cases we are able to work directly with the client to resolve the issue quickly and effectively.
Support: Because we provide our clients with consistent feedback, innovative solutions and quality service during the regular course of business, they often approach us with questions that fall outside the day-to-day lifecycle of their orders. Our clients use us for much more than appraisal management. We are their partners, consultants, and problem solvers.
Education: We send out regular educational emails to our clients regarding regulatory developments, market trends, and other important news items. Our clients know that they can depend on US to keep them updated on the most recent hot topics in our field.
Quality: Every report received by our office goes through our rigorous quality control review system. In addition, US Appraisal Group executives conduct exhaustive reviews of panel applicants’ areas of expertise, competency and experience levels, and take each appraiser’s qualifications into account when assigning an order.
Innovation: By creating a custom-built solution for a leading national internet lending company, US Appraisal Group was able to reduce their appraisal turn-time from four days from inspection to completion to 2.5 days from inspection to completion.
Value: In the past year, US Appraisal Group has cut the cost per appraisal by 25% for several national mortgage banking firms.
Creativity: Our revisions team has reduced client revision requests by more than 50% through a combination of appraiser education and the implementation of an innovative and systematized review process.
Collaboration: After taking on the approved appraiser list of a regional bank and requalifying its panel, USAG improved its appraisal quality and processing speed and continues to maintain all updated documents for the client’s appraisers. We also perform ongoing progress tracking for the client, thereby allowing the bank to focus its time on loan processing.
Empowerment: US Appraisal Group’s revisions department took the initiative to create a dedicated communication system designed to increase the efficiency of their internal workflow. The idea was spearheaded and implemented within 24 hours. How? USAG employees are empowered to run with their innovations, instead of being required to navigate through cumbersome layers of micromanagement and paperwork required by most companies.
Communication: Our team members conduct daily inter-departmental updating and brainstorming sessions to ensure company-wide synergy and communication.
Vitality: From a USAG team member: “Our sense of empowerment drives our commitment to our work, and as team members we foster one anothers’ creativity and communication. At US Appraisal Group collaboration, adaptability and flexibility, energy, synergy, levity, laughter, and respect permeate through our daily actions as we all feel a tenacious sense of ownership.”
Deep Industry Knowledge: Every member of our team has been trained on, and understands, each step of the appraisal lifecycle and the appraisal management process. We believe that a truly harmonious company requires that all parts of the whole understand and are in communication with one another.
