OKLAHOMA CITY, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- a la mode, inc., the dominant provider of appraisal-related technology and services to the mortgage industry, today released the first public edition of The Appraisal Fee Reference(TM). The AFR(TM) is the authoritative national analysis of independent appraisal fees, and is just one of the monthly data sets published as part of a la mode's Appraisal Industry Analytics(TM) practice.

Using the data from hundreds of thousands of verified and validated appraisals, the AFR reports the median appraisal fees for each of the 3,221 counties and districts in the fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam.

The timing of the release is critical, since FHA's recently implemented guidelines require that participating lenders ensure that appraisers are paid "reasonable and customary" fees, independent of what may be added on by appraisal management companies, or AMCs. Only by using the AFR can a lender or appraiser objectively determine what is a 'customary' fee, and decide whether the appraiser is being offered less than that by an AMC. Appraisers and the National Association of Realtors have complained loudly about the issue in recent months, which appears to have prompted the issuance of the new mortgagee rules by FHA.

For compliance with HUD's new 2010 RESPA rules and the revised Good Faith Estimate, the AFR gives a lender a defensible basis for estimating closing costs on a GFE for loans using independent fee appraisers. Lenders utilizing the Mercury Network (www.alamode.com.

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    Press contact:                   Sales contact:
    Leonard Acquaye                  Chris Sullivan
    Analytics Product Manager,       VP, Mercury Network Sales,
    a la mode, inc.                  a la mode, inc.
    Telephone: 800-252-6633          Telephone: 800-252-6633

SOURCE a la mode, inc.