APPRAISAL REVIEWS, EVALUATIONS & MANAGEMENT
We work with lenders on all property types including M&E, Business Valuation, Aircraft and Vessel
We work with lenders on all property types including M&E, Business Valuation, Aircraft and Vessel
ARC Appraisers is an independent commercial valuation review and compliance firm. We do not produce appraisals. We review them. Our clients are banks with an appraisal function already in place. We support that function. We do not replace it.
Appraisal review for banks and credit unions
Desk and field reviews of commercial, residential, business, and machinery and equipment appraisals. Each review is written to USPAP Standard 3, scored, and documented so an examiner can follow the reasoning.
Overflow and difficult files
Volume spikes, unusual property types, and files your staff would rather not sign alone. Your chief appraiser stays in charge. We take the files that do not fit.
Appraisal review policy and compliance
Review policies, procedures, and checklists aligned to the Interagency Appraisal and Evaluation Guidelines, FIRREA, Dodd-Frank, and USPAP. Audit and examination support when the regulator asks how your review function works.
Existing loan portfolio reviews
Reviews of appraisals on existing loans, updated valuations where market conditions warrant, and independent collateral observations for loan workouts and problem credits.
Evaluations and staff training
Evaluations where the Guidelines permit them. Training for lender staff in USPAP and appraisal review, kept current as federal and state requirements change.
Because ARC sits outside your institution, independence from loan production is structural, not procedural. There is no internal reporting line for an examiner to question.
Every review is signed by a designated review appraiser, not generated from a checklist. Every service line is supervised by a Designated Member of the Appraisal Institute holding the MAI, AI-GRS, FRICS, and CCIM designations.
$100B+ in valuations reviewed over 30 years. 20,000+ reviews.
Reviewing an appraisal takes more than knowing the rules. It takes years in the property type. ARC reviewers have both.
We review to FRB, OCC, FDIC, NCUA, Fannie Mae, IRS, and USPAP requirements, across commercial real estate, residential, business enterprise, and machinery and equipment. Our chief review appraiser holds the MAI, AI-GRS, FRICS, and CCIM designations, with SRA, CMEA, and SBA credentials for residential, equipment, and business valuation review.
1. The reviewer signs. Every ARC review is written and signed by a designated review appraiser, not generated from a checklist. Our lead reviewer holds the AI-GRS, the Appraisal Institute's credential specific to review.
2. We have sat on the other side of the desk. Our principals have served on a financial institution's board and its loan and credit committee, on a state appraisal licensing board as chairman and head of investigations, and as CMBS lenders and credit officers. We know what an examiner asks and what a credit committee needs.
3. Flat fee per review, quoted before we start. No percentage fees. No fee taken from the appraiser.
4. A named reviewer answers the phone. Questions, confirmations, examiner requests, and time-critical files go to the person who did the work.
Commercial appraisal desk review. A written, signed review of a single existing commercial appraisal, scored on a ten-point scale for USPAP and Interagency Guidelines compliance, with a stated conclusion on whether the value is supported. Flat fee. Typical turnaround [X] business days.
Field review. A desk review plus an inspection of the subject and comparables, for high-dollar, complex, or contested collateral.
Collateral observation. A short independent memo attached to a single credit file, stating whether the appraised value is supported by the debt the loan will carry. For loan committee, workouts, and problem credits.
Review policy and procedures. A written appraisal and evaluation review policy built to the Interagency Guidelines, with checklists your staff can run.
Evaluations. Where the Guidelines permit an evaluation instead of an appraisal, we prepare it.
The current edition of USPAP USPAP and the Interagency Appraisal and Evaluation Guidelines run to several hundred pages. Every page describes a minimum. A state certification is a minimum.
The Guidelines say reviewers should have the education, experience, and expertise to judge the appraisal in front of them, and independence from loan production. ARC reviewers work above that floor: designated by the Appraisal Institute, decades in the property types they review, and accountable by signature for every conclusion.
Examiners expect a documented review function, not a completed appraisal. The Interagency Appraisal and Evaluation Guidelines expect your review policy to specify:
Reviewer qualifications. Experience, education, training, and independence from loan production.
Timing. Reviews completed before the credit decision.
Scope. Calibrated to transaction type, risk, and size.
Documentation and findings. How reviews are recorded and communicated, and how inaccuracies, weaknesses, and ambiguities are resolved.
Escalation. When an appraisal is rejected, and how suspected fraud is referred to the appropriate regulator.
Every ARC review is built to satisfy each of these points and to show an examiner that it did.
The Interagency Appraisal and Evaluation Guidelines are direct on the point:
"An institution should establish reporting lines independent of loan production for staff who administer the institution's collateral valuation program, including the ordering, reviewing, and acceptance of appraisals and evaluations."
Interagency Appraisal and Evaluation Guidelines, December 2010
An internal reviewer satisfies that requirement by policy. An outside reviewer satisfies it by structure. ARC sits outside your institution. There is no internal reporting line for an examiner to question.
Not all appraisal management Not every review shop works to the same standard. Before you send a file, ask five questions:
Who signs the review? A designated review appraiser (AI-GRS) should sign every review, not a checklist system with a name attached.
Is the reviewer independent of your loan production? The Interagency Guidelines require it. An outside firm satisfies it by structure.
Has the reviewer sat on the lender's side? Board, credit committee, or examination experience tells you the review will answer what a credit decision needs.
What does a review cost, and when do you know? A flat fee quoted before the work starts. No percentage of value, no share of the appraiser's fee.
Which asset types can they review? Commercial real estate, residential, business enterprise, and machinery and equipment, under one roof, with the designations to match.
Owner, Principal & Chief Appraiser
Chris Baker is the chief review appraiser at ARC Appraisers and has spent 30 years working in commercial real estate and business assets from every side of the transaction. He has appraised and reviewed commercial collateral, placed CMBS debt on more than $100 million of it, closed it as a First American and Stewart Title agent, inspected it, managed it, owned it, and brokered it. Every seat at the deal table but one: the lawyer's.
He supervises every ARC service line as a Designated Member of the Appraisal Institute. His AI-GRS is the Institute's credential for review itself. His SRA covers residential review, and his CMEA and SBA designations extend that oversight to machinery, equipment, and business valuation. He also holds the CPM.
Regulators, lenders, and courts have relied on his judgment. He served on the board of directors and the loan and credit committee of a San Juan, Puerto Rico credit union (cooperativa) until it was sold. He served six years on the Alabama Real Estate Appraisers Board, one as chairman and all six as head of investigations and complaints. For the Appraisal Institute, he has graded demonstration reports and investigated professional-standards complaints. He has testified as an expert witness, served as a court-appointed Special Master on a $20 million asset division, and, as Chief Hearing Officer for the New Orleans City Council, decided more than 12,000 tax appeals.
He is a Certified General Appraiser in Alabama, Florida, and Louisiana, listed on the ASC National Registry. He works in English and Spanish.
Angie Frost runs ARC's operations and has more than a decade of appraisal management experience. Her expertise covers Title XIV of the Dodd-Frank Act as it applies to appraiser independence, AMC and ASC supervision and registration, evaluations, AVMs, and BPOs. She served on the Alabama Real Estate Appraisers Board from 2013 to 2019, where she chaired the Finance Committee and sat on the Education Committee. ARC sees regulatory change before it lands.
Patrick Mackin joined ARC in 2011 from APCO Employees Credit Union, a $1 billion institution, where he underwrote and approved loans and managed the paid mortgage portfolio. At ARC he prepares desk reviews and compliance checklists across the firm's bank and credit union clients. He has sat where our clients sit and knows what a credit decision needs from a review. He holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Virginia and an M.B.A.
Todd began his appraisal career in 1998 and moved into review and compliance work early on, building nearly three decades of experience in the discipline. He joined ARC as Senior Review Appraiser in 2017 and conducts commercial and residential appraisal reviews across our client base. His AI-GRS designation is the Appraisal Institute's credential specific to review work - a distinction that matters when the review itself is the deliverable.
Dianne Word has run ARC's finances, payables, and receivables for more than 15 years. She knows the mortgage lending and appraisal process from the inside. Clients and appraisers call her first on invoicing and appraiser payment.
Independent appraisal review and compliance for banks and credit unions. Desk and field reviews to USPAP and the Interagency Guidelines, signed by designated review appraisers.
PO Box 3, Rogersville, AL 35652
Hours: Monday - Friday 8am - 5pm
ARC Appraisers
ARC Appraisers - 1551 Calle Francia Unit 5a, San Juan, PR 00911 - PO Box 3,, Rogersville, AL 35652
Licensed Appraisal Management Company
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ARC Appraisers provides independent appraisal revi