Appraisal management services

PricewaterhouseCoopers has a long-standing reputation as a quality provider of appraisal management services to a global institutional clientele. Appraisal management is a core business of the firm’s real estate valuation & consulting practice, with a dedicated team of experienced professionals. This group has worked with a wide variety of organisational structures, and can assure complete understanding of each client’s existing valuation and reporting procedures so that cultural, operational and reporting issues are fully considered.

In addition to providing comprehensive appraisal management services, we can assist clients in evaluating in-house appraisal management functions with particular emphasis on best practices and cost savings. We can review and evaluate existing policies, procedures and systems, and provide recommendations as to possible changes or enhancements.

Our team members are experienced in providing a variety of appraisal management services designed specifically for the client’s individual requirements. These professionals:
  • Manage the transition from an internally-managed appraisal program to an outsourced process managed by PricewaterhouseCoopers
  • Manage the day-to-day running of the appraisal process based on industry best practices
  • Provide additional consulting services on an as-needed basis
Transition management

Because the vast majority of clients considering third party appraisal management services currently employ an internally-managed process, our fundamental goals in the transition of this function to PricewaterhouseCoopers are to achieve valuation consistency and to minimise cost. Our dedicated appraisal management team has extensive experience in transitioning internally managed appraisal programs, and our goal is to ensure the transition of the functions be as seamless and non-disruptive as possible.

Depending on the specific needs of the client, we can provide several services as part of transition management:

Development of appraisal policy & procedures manual - Defines the procedures to be followed and documents best practices.

Establish information flow protocols - Clear definition of the flow of information between the client, the management firm and the external appraisers must be established.

Scheduling: We manage the valuation and closing process based upon the client’s required schedule, complete the formal engagement of third party appraisal firms, and develop appraisal report formats, and appraisal review criteria that conform to industry best practices.

Appraisal Management Tracking System (AMTS) – A PricewaterhouseCoopers proprietary, integrated computer system used to facilitate the efficient management of all phases of the valuation process.

Asset and Portfolio Management Training – We provide training on all aspects of the process for portfolio and asset management.

Risk analysis – Real estate cycle exposure and value scoring.

Appraisal administration

Appraisal administration is the day-to-day management of the appraisal process. We can provide a variety of services at varying levels of detail:

Third party appraiser selection: We will recommend appropriate local, regional and national appraisers and maintain a list of qualified vendors.

Appraiser engagement: We evaluate and select qualified firms, co-ordinate the processing of engagement letters, information flow and other administrative functions.

Appraisal reviews: We perform appraisal reviews based on industry best practices. We will alternately develop and utilise a standard review form for each appraisal conducted, or utilise a proprietary review form already employed by the client.

Reconciliations : We serve as a liaison between the client and the third party appraiser in cases where the appraiser’s opinion of market value varies significantly from the client’s expectations.

Assist with the closing process: We provide any assistance necessary for the periodic closing process, including the reconciliation of capital expenditures and addressing issues raised by the fund’s auditors.

Assist in maintaining an appraisal database: We have developed a standardised Executive
Summary form containing data fields for rollup capabilities. All appraisers will be provided the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and detailed instructions for use. The user will be allowed to enter data into specified fields. All calculations are automatically performed.

Valuation review training: We are available to train client staff on a variety of topics including the training of Asset Managers in the review of cash flow models.

Property inspections: We are available to inspect client assets on an as needed basis.

Unspecified services: We can provide consulting support either on a property or portfolio level to aid clients in making critical decisions in today’s extremely competitive real estate environment.

Generate collateral asset database

This is a service that can be provided to control the quality of cash flows submitted in third party appraisals and to facilitate the rollup of collateral assets for securitization. If implemented, PricewaterhouseCoopers will:
  • Develop standardised lease abstracts, which will contain necessary fields for uniform tenant input to cash flow models
  • Construct standardised cash flow templates for each property type, to incorporate a standard chart of accounts, as well as uniform property data fields
  • Build base cash flow models to include property data and contractual tenant terms, which will be forwarded to third party appraisers