How To Get Mercury Network Orders
Though every appraiser with an XSite can be on the Mercury Network and tap into the flow of the tens of thousands of orders being placed per month, we still have some appraisers who haven’t turned on their profile, or haven’t filled it out completely. This is a critical oversight that could be costing you new income. Take a few minutes to look over your Mercury Network profile from within your XSite, paying special attention to these areas:
- Active Products — Of the orders placed on Mercury Network, 49% have been for something other than a plain 1004. However, many appraisers have only enabled that first 1004 product, so they are missing out on all the 2055s, Condo, Land and FHA varieties. Check the box in front of all the job types that you do. If you don’t check the box for a particular product, your profile won’t come up for any lender trying to buy that product. Also, as we improve Mercury Network, we’ll update the job types, so check this section often to make sure it’s complete. (On that note, you may even want to set a calendar reminder for yourself to update your profile weekly.)
- Fees — Put your standard fee in for each product. Regardless of how you feel about publishing fees, leaving this blank will take yourself out of the pool for many clients. Also, your profile should always reflect your full fee. If it currently reflects a client specific fee, change it to reflect your full amount.
- Fee Notes — If you charge extra for some services, like trip fees for certain counties, put this information in the fee notes for your products. Any lender who places an order in Mercury Network is required to read and agree to the fee notes prior to placing the order. These notes can also be used to specify your refund and cancellation policy.
- Coverage — Add every county that you cover, but be sure that you will accept orders in those counties. We sometimes see appraisers decline jobs stating the subject is outside their coverage even though the appraiser indicated that the county was covered. If you’d like to add comments about service areas, put that information into the fee notes in the active products section.
- License Information — Most clients who use Mercury Network choose to exclude any appraisers from their lists who don’t have a valid license. Once you put your license information in here, we validate that information against the ASC database. If your license doesn’t validate, check www.ASC.gov.
- FHA — If you’re an FHA appraiser, make sure and check the box for “FHA” in the License Information section. Most clients who place FHA orders only work with appraisers who have checked this box. As you might suspect, a few FHA appraisers have either not checked this box, or haven’t checked the boxes for the FHA products in the “Active Products” section.
- E&O — Fill this out as completely as possible. While we don’t require E&O insurance, the Mercury Network client may require it. So, if you have coverage, add it to your profile to make sure you’re visible to clients that require the insurance.
- Notifications — Mercury Network allows appraisers to accept orders via text message. For this reason, clients prefer appraisers with mobile phones added to their profile. But, you don’t have to worry — we don’t share your cell phone number with the client (without your express permission). Adding your mobile number just means we’ll send you a text when you get a new order.
- Enable Profile for Mercury Network — Make sure to check this box to turn your profile on.
- User Information — Right above your Mercury Network profile is your XSite user information. Make sure to put your local address in here. Many clients choose to make the option “proximity to subject” an important criterion in the selection process; Mercury determines this proximity from your user information. And when an order is placed, the client always sees the distance between your office and the subject property.
Beyond your profile, here are more pointers on boosting your chances of getting orders:
- Create a user account/Mercury Network profile for all of your appraisers. More appraisers means more visibility to clients on Mercury Network.
- When you get an order, respond quickly, even if you decline it. Responding to requests is the most important thing you will do as an appraiser in Mercury Network.
- Only accept orders you plan on completing. Believe it or not, occasionally an appraiser will accept an offer without first reviewing it and realize shortly thereafter that they cannot complete the assignment.
- Keep the status of your orders updated by using all of the available statuses such as “Inspection Scheduled” and “Delayed” to keep the client informed. This will cut down on the phone calls from clients and increase your chances of repeat work.
- If you need the due date modified because of circumstances out of your control, send the client a “Modification Request” status. It’s very important to make sure that the accurate due date is reflected in the order as this is used to determine if a report was delivered on time.
It’s important to note that the Mercury Network doesn’t play favorites with Standard or Enterprise level XSites. It doesn’t even care if you use WinTOTAL. The client controls which appraisers are eligible for assignments. The client decides E&O requirements, required proximity to the subject, and whether appraisers are assigned manually or automatically. The way appraisers are displayed to each client will be different since they’re customized to that particular client’s preferences.
If you’re curious about what clients see in Mercury Network, check out our video: Mercury Network for Curious Appraisers at www.MercuryVMP.com/Appraiser. Or, let us know if you have any questions at info@alamode.com. We want you to get as many orders as you possibly can.