COMMUNICATION Keeping up with Kairos

Kairos has started using video conference tools to make the appraisal process more efficient. We are trying to replace the most dangerous and exhaustive piece of the mortgage puzzle: the appraisal. Appraisers exist to keep the housing market safe. They protect our investment and our economy, but the process of appraising a home has become dangerous. Current processes demand that appraisers enter private homes to determine value, but an in-person inspection is no longer safe, nor is it necessary. Rather than appraisers entering the homes of strangers, they can now be hosted by homeowners with video conference calls. Appraisers agree that live video tours of homes are as effective as in person visits, and are much more efficient.

1) Social Distancing – It’s tough for appraisers to keep a true social distance while inside a stranger’s house inspecting every corner, nook, and cranny. Video conferencing allows appraisers to do a thorough inspection without ever entering the house.

2) Scheduling – Getting two people’s schedules to coincide can be difficult, especially when they both have separate lives, careers, and expectations. Allowing appraisers to simply sit at their desk for a live video tour means that scheduling inspections just became as easy as scheduling a phone call.

3) Travel Time – Many appraisers are forced to travel for miles to get to a subject house, often during high traffic hours. Live video conferencing not only saves gas, making it more environmentally friendly, but it saves hours of wasted road time.

4) Faster Turn Times – The mortgage industry is laser focused on delivering loans quickly and efficiently, but the appraisals are widely known to be the slowest part of the mortgage process. Video conferencing speeds up the process by days, not hours. This could prove very useful to borrowers in a pinch and pumps more money into the economy at a much faster rate.

5) Appraisal Wavers – This is such a controversial part of the mortgage world. Appraisal wavers create home loans without any check or balance on the value of a home. Borrower’s state the value and a federal database decides if the loan requires an appraisal or will suffice with a waver. Wavers provide no protection to the housing market, our economy, or the American taxpayer. If we replaced appraisal wavers with video conferencing, every loan would have a level of accountability we haven’t seen for decades.

6) Documentation – When a live video tour is recorded and stored in a secure location, there is a record of the interaction, and proof that the appraiser was diligent. There is also proof that the home owner was honest. If another housing market correction hits the economy hard again, we will be able to prove value, and better define where we went wrong in determining valuations.