Build an efficient fee panel for faster turn times and higher appraisal quality

Mercury Network connects over 30,000 appraisers and hundreds of AMCs to lenders nationwide. The tools in the platform offer flexible ways to build your own customized panel of vendors to serve your needs in any geographical footprint in the United States. And, while we’ve built these tools to be intuitive, there are so many options that you might miss a feature that would make your job easier. So, we’ve added new tutorials to help you build a reliable fee panel that is responsive, reduces turn times, and helps you achieve higher appraisal quality.

Import your own vendors

If you already work with a group of trusted appraisers and/or AMCs, you can easily import them into Mercury Network using a CSV or Excel spreadsheet. When you do, your vendors will be added to the Candidate list. Here, you’ll have a clear view of each appraiser and AMC with columns that provide details such as their name, company name, and the state where they’re licensed.

Example of an appraiser’s profile (click to zoom)

Most appraisers and AMCs already have a Mercury Network profile, and there’s an indicator to show those who do. For those already in Mercury Network, you’ll have access to their profile so you can check their license(s), designations, insurance, and other important details. You can also see whether they use Mercury Mobile. This is our mobile app that enables appraisers to accept orders and manage their status on the go, and often correlates with faster acceptance rates and more timely updates.

For vendors who don’t have a Mercury Network profile, you can easily invite them (all at once or individually) to create a profile that will enable them to accept and complete your appraisal orders. It’s free for them to sign up and only takes a few minutes to complete.

Support Center Walkthrough

 

Build a fee panel from scratch

If you haven’t already selected your preferred appraisers and/or AMCs, you can easily select qualified vendors from those who are enrolled in Mercury Network. Using the Build fee panel tool, you can enter your criteria to find vendors to suit your needs. This includes essential information such as the type of vendor, license types and specific designations, but it goes even further.

Use these criteria to find appraisers (click to zoom)

You can require a valid license (verified with ASC.gov daily) and a specific amount of E&O insurance. Even better, you can set thresholds for the percentage of reports that were delivered after the due date, acceptance percentage, and even their average turn time. All your criteria will be used to find vendors who will be added to your Candidate list.

Once you have candidates in your Candidate list, you’ll be able to view their details and invite them to your fee panel individually or all at once with just a few clicks.

Support Center Walkthrough

 

Manage your fee panel

Once you’ve built your fee panel, you have powerful tools to help you manage vendors’ eligibility, assignment criteria, coverage area, and more. You can easily communicate with them directly in the platform, and you can see statistics that help you understand their performance on a granular level. Most of these tasks are self-evident, but you might not know how some of them can be used to streamline your workflow. One of the powerful features is called Order groups.

Order groups

Order groups act like mini fee panels

Order groups work like “mini fee panels” that can be used for specific order types of appraisal assignments. For example, if you have a group of appraisers who you rely on for Jumbo appraisals, you can add them to a group called Jumbo which can then be used when assigning orders for these types of orders. Or, you could create Order groups for each of your organization’s branches. Order groups can also be used in conjunction with Client Groups to create efficient, targeted assignment automations.

Support Center Walkthroughs

 

More resources

There’s so much more to your fee panel, and we’d love to help you understand what’s available. You can read the Fee Panel section in the user guide, and we think you’ll enjoy the walkthroughs in Mercury Network that show you how to use these features while you complete your task.

To get started, log in to Mercury Network and click the Support Center button in the top-right corner. The tutorials are organized using a functional focus, so you can scroll down to the Fee Panel Management folder to find all the walkthroughs available. Or, just type a couple of keywords in the search bar for even quicker access.