Coester Appraisal Group, a nationwide provider of appraisal management technology and services, changed its name to CoesterVMS. The new name was selected to better brand the company’s new, expanded line of valuation management services, which includes the “assisted self-service” option, in which CoesterVMS provides appraisal management services in addition to managing the lender’s appraiser panel. 

CoesterVMS provides three distinct options for managing the appraisal process:

• Full-service appraisal management provided by Coester Appraisal Group, a nationwide appraisal management company (AMC)

• In-house appraisal management with Cloud Control, Coester’s zero-cost “do-it-yourself” appraisal management technology, the only appraisal solution to be built on the Salesforce.com platform 

• “Assisted self-serve” appraisal management is a hybrid service that allows lenders to use Coester’s AMC, while also having CoesterVMS manage the lender’s appraisal panel.

Regardless of the option selected, CoesterVMS ensures lenders 100 percent compliance with all regulations, guidelines, blacklists and more.  

Until CoesterVMS, lenders had only two choices for managing appraisals—outsourcing appraisal management to an AMC or using an appraisal management technology to manage the appraisal process in-house. The all-new assisted self-serve option allows lenders to use Coester’s appraisal management services in conjunction with their own appraiser panels—and have Coester manage the entire process, including management of the lender’s appraisal panel. 

“We’re changing the way that the mortgage industry handles appraisals,” said Brian Coester, chief executive officer of CoesterVMS. “Lenders need ways to stay compliant without upsetting their ecosystems or their budgets. No one was addressing their needs, so we stepped up to the plate. Until the assisted self-serve option, no AMC would manage a lender’s appraiser panel. Until Cloud Control, no appraisal management technology was configurable to the user level, and no appraisal technology was 100 percent free. These advances might upset our competition, but we’re just giving lenders what they’re asking for.”

The primary differences between the CoesterVMS’ full service AMC option and the assisted self-serve option are: (1) lenders using assisted self-serve receive status updates and correspondence through their appraisal management technologies rather than through a dedicated Coester account representative, and (2) lenders using full service delegate all appraisal process functions to Coester, from initial appraisal request through fully compliant UCDP delivery, and are assigned an account representative from whom they can get information on appraisal related issues, questions or updates.