Overview
You can configure Vendor Selection Settings within the Residential Appraisals workflow to automate appraiser selection through the Intelligent Selection System (ISS), manage competitive bidding, and establish order timelines. These settings ensure orders are assigned to the most qualified vendors—based on proximity, experience, and licensing—while increasing efficiency through standardized automation.
How to Complete Lender Compliance Settings
Available only for non-bid residential appraisal orders, the Lender Compliance options allow you to activate double-blind ordering when selecting an appraiser. Additionally, with appropriate permissions, you have the option to allow the override of canned comments.
Navigate to the top navigation bar and select Preferences.
Select Vendor Selection Settings.
From the Residential appraisers tab, select your Lender compliance.
Double-blind Communication: Prevents you from selecting a specific vendor and conceals the vendor's identity until the order is complete. In addition, it limits the range of communications you can have with the vendor to just the most essential communications so you are compliant with coercion concerns. Double-blind communication cannot be enabled if Allow order bidding is turned on.
Canned Comment Override: Allows vendors to bypass canned comments in double-blind orders to send a free form message. The custom messages are visible only to the compliance officer and must be approved before they're made available to non-compliance users.
Note: Users must have the Compliance permission enabled for their User Profile, in addition to the Vendor Selection Settings permission, to enable or disable Canned Comment Override.
Tip: Click Save in the top-left corner to save your selections before navigating to other Vendor Selection Settings.
How to Configure Residential Appraisal Selection
Each vendor type has specific applicable selection options. For example, residential appraisers can be selected for assignment automatically and commercial appraisers may be selected to bid on a commercial opportunity. Mercury Network® allows for specific operation based on vendor and product type.
Allow order bidding — This enables the bidding options for residential orders, so any user with appropriate permissions can issue an order as a bid. Enabling this option will disable Double-blind communication and Unattended order assignment.
Fee — Click the lock icon to toggle the fee lock. When locked, the order fee is determined when the order is placed, so the appraiser can't change it. When unlocked, the appraisers will include their requested fee on their bid.
Date — Click the lock icon to toggle the due date lock. When locked, the due date for the order is determined when the order is placed, so the appraiser can't change it. When unlocked, the appraisers will enter their turn time on their bid. The moment the bid is awarded, the due date will be calculated using business days based on the appraiser's turn time. For example, if the appraiser submitted a turn time of 5 days and is awarded the bid on Thursday, the order will be due the following Wednesday.
Check Hide lender details from the vendor until a bid is awarded so the lender's information will not be shown on the vendor's notifications or order before the bid is awarded.
Automatic vendor selection - When enabled, during order assignment, your configured Intelligent Selection Settings (ISS) automatically select the most qualified vendor for each assignment.
If the order is not issued as a bid, a single vendor will be selected and assigned to the order.
If the order is issued as a bid, your ISS criteria will be used to select multiple appraisers who will receive bid requests.
Use the Select at least field to specify the minimum number of appraisers, and use the and at most field to specify the maximum number of appraisers to be selected for bidding.
Unattended order assignment — When enabled, orders placed through the VMP Client Portal are automatically assigned to a vendor, eliminating all manual involvement from the assignment process. This cannot be enabled (and will be grayed out) when Allow order bidding is enabled because the bidding process cannot be used unattended.
Unattended order reassignment — Automatically reassigns expired and declined orders using ISS rules.
Stop and notify me after _ attempts: This limits the number of attempts to reassign the order before stopping to notify you.
To navigate to automatic settings click Configure automatic settings.
Specify the pool from which you want Mercury to recommend or select vendors.
Mark Mercury Network® directory to use Mercury's entire nationwide vendor directory.
To use your own custom directory of vendors, mark Custom fee panel and then indicate whether you want to Use Mercury Network® directory as a backup.
How to Configure Ordering Options
Each vendor type has specific ordering options. For example, residential appraisers can be required to include MISMO XML files with the report while MISMO XML does not apply to commercial appraisals.
By default, Mercury Network® orders expire if they are not acknowledged by a vendor within 24 hours. To change this expiration time, check the following:
Set default order expiration time box and enter the number of hours to use as the Default order expiration hours. You can override this default on a per-order basis.
By default, appraisers must submit their bids for residential orders within 4 hours. To change this time, check the Default bid due box and enter the number of hours to use as the default bid window. This can be changed on a per-order basis.
By default, the grace period (during which orders will not expire) is 11PM - 9AM based on the time zone where the subject address is located. To set your own custom grace period, check Set grace period then use the drop-down boxes to choose your From and To times. The grace period automatically includes weekends and federal holidays.
Check the Pay all transaction fees box to elect to pay all the Mercury Network® transaction fees on behalf of your vendors.
Select Require MISMO XML to require appraisers to submit MISMO XML files for applicable UCDP products. This limits assignment to appraisers who support MISMO XML submissions.
How to Configure Intelligent Selection System (ISS)
The Intelligent Selection System (ISS) helps Mercury Network® select qualified vendors for your orders based on criteria you define, such as proximity, experience, and availability. You can prioritize certain criteria by moving them higher in the ISS weighting list.
Require Valid License - Mark this option to limit the list of suggested vendors to those with an up-to-date license on file in their profile.
Require Local Appraiser - Mark this option to determine the maximum acceptable distance from the subject which the appraiser may be located. Enter the distance in miles in the vendor located within __ miles field.
Require Years of Experience - Mark this option if you want to define the minimum years of experience a vendor must have to be considered for an order.
Require staff vendor - Mark this to require a vendor whose profile has been marked as staff/salaried. Select Require to only consider staff/salaried vendors, or select Prefer to consider other vendors when a staff vendor is unavailable.
Exclude past due vendors - Mark this option to avoid assigning orders to vendors who have a past due order with you.
Use supervisor - Mark this option to prefer or require appraisers who have added trainees to their profile. When an order is assigned to a supervisor, a Trainee field will appear in Order Details if the appraiser adds a trainee to an order.
Require Errors and Omissions - Mark this option to limit the list of suggested vendors to those with an E&O policy listed in their profiles and enter the minimum amount of E&O insurance you require in the provided box.
Require Vendor Rating - Mark this option to define a minimum acceptable star rating for a vendor to be eligible for orders when new orders are placed. Check the Consider new vendors box to allow vendors new to the system to receive orders from you.
Limit vendor capacity - Mark this option to limit vendor capacity the number of orders that can be assigned to a vendor concurrently.
Enforce vendor priority - Mark this option to restrict order assignment to vendors who have a priority rank. Mark Consider unranked vendors to open up assignment to unranked vendors if a ranked vendor isn't available.
Reviewed Documents - When enabled, you can prefer or require approved documents from your vendors when assigning orders. New documents are given a 30-day grace period for you and your vendor to correct any issues before the vendor is removed from consideration during assignments; this 30-day period includes documents which were marked for review and updated by the vendor. This item will only appear if you've enabled document review in your Fee Panel Options.
How to Set a Residential Appraisers Priority Rank & Configure Weighting Factors
To prioritize Mercury's vendor suggestions by other factors, check the box beside any of the Selection Weighting factors you want Mercury to consider when suggesting vendors.
Click and drag the row for that item up or down the list to prioritize it. Dragging it up the list increases its priority rank in Mercury's suggestions. Dragging it down the list decreases its priority rank.
Weighting Factors
Turn time | Number of days between the time an order was accepted by a vendor and when it was delivered. |
Acceptance percentage | The percentage of orders that vendor has accepted out of the total number of orders that have been placed with them. Higher percentages are returned higher in the list. |
On Time percentage | The percentage of orders that vendor has accepted out of the total number of orders that have been placed with them. Higher percentages are returned higher in the list. |
Expiration percentage | The number of orders vendor has received that they neither accepted nor declined. This number can be an indication of responsiveness. Lower numbers are returned higher in the list. |
Proximity to subject | Vendors located closest to the subject property are returned higher in the list than those located farther away. |
Quality rating | A compiled rating that is applied based on your experience with the quality of the reports delivered by the vendor. |
Professionalism rating | A compiled rating that is applied based on your experience with the professionalism of the vendor. |
Rework percentage | The number of assignments where the vendor has to make changes to the report after delivery. |
Revision turn time | Number of hours between the time a revision was requested and it was redelivered by the vendor. |
Outcome
You can now configure Residential Appraisal settings within Vendor Selection Settings to manage how the Intelligent Selection System (ISS) qualifies and assigns vendors. Configuring these settings automates your workflow, enforces compliance, and ensures every assignment is handled by the most qualified professional.