I am from State of Louisiana and we are also trying to address the issue of hybrid Appraisals.   The dialogue is pointing towards modernizing the appraisal process; however, the part of the discussion that continues to be missed is how does this improve the appraisal. The appraisal completed by a professional appraiser is the only independent part of the process of buying and selling real estate. The buying of a home is an emotional experience and the appraiser that visits the property  has the knowledge and experience to understand what is important to physically view that a computer cannot determine. Having a person that does not understand the entire appraisal process gather information to submit to an appraiser  could be completely misleading to the consumer that is going to be responsible for paying back the loan on the property that is being appraised.  This new third-party inspection process also holds no responsibility to their actions as the appraisal would be completely responsible for the report that they are signing therefore why would it be beneficial to have an unknown third-party entering someone else’s home.

 The third-party inspection services may sound like a good idea; however, there is already a method of “third-party inspections“ call the trainee program where the trainee Appraiser works under the direct supervision of a certified appraiser and learns and understands the process of a site visit  and how it ties into the overall appraisal process. This is where the hybrid model misses the mark.     If there’s anything that Louisiana can do to assist Virginia please let us know .