As the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) looks to prevent additional disruption in the housing sector amidst the coronavirus pandemic, it has instructed the government-backed mortgage enterprises—Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—to adopt “alternative methods” to conduct home appraisals.

While the FHFA did not specify what the alternative ways of home appraising might be, there are two options where appraisers are finding Quiktrak’s services extremely useful.

For occupied properties, in coordination with you, we’ll contact the occupant and provide them specific instructions to download an app on their smartphone. If a property is vacant, we’ll work with a realtor.

Once the app is downloaded, a live video stream begins. We then have the person walk around the property so we can view the property conditions, take pictures of certain rooms or areas, and anything else you need. This typically takes 15-20 minutes. Once the call is complete, the occupant can delete the application from their phone. We then compile the information we collected and put it into a comprehensive report for you with time- and date-stamped high definition photos and GPS coordinates verifying the property location. We’ll tailor information collected during the virtual inspection to your needs including the conditions of the interior and exterior of the property.

With drive-bys we have inspectors walk the outside of the property to perform the inspection, taking photos and noting the condition of the exterior.

Both options provide comprehensive reports with high definition photos that are time and date stamped with GPS coordinates verifying the address.