Overview
Navigating and customizing the Product Requirements settings for your appraisal products is an important aspect of the Mercury Network®. You’ll learn how to access product‑specific preferences, adjust instructions and automatic designations for vendors, manage order options, and configure assignment behavior. By understanding each section of the Product Requirements screen, you’ll be able to tailor your workflow, ensure consistent order quality, and optimize how vendors interact with your appraisal orders.
How to Find Product Requirements
Navigate to the top navigation bar and select Preferences.
Select Product Requirements in the dropdown menu.
In the Product Requirements screen you will be presented with several tabs. The first tab by default will be the Residential Appraisal tab listing all the products for it.
How to Edit Product Preferences
Double-click an appraisal product to open its Preferences screen, where you can configure comments, designation requirements, order options, and assignment settings for that product.
Comments / Special Instructions: Enter any comments or special instructions you’d like the vendor to receive when they get assigned to your appraisal order.
Designations: You can use these settings to decide whether all vendor types may receive orders, or whether vendors with certain licenses should be preferred or strictly required. Requiring vendors to hold specific designations may limit your vendor options, as the system will exclude any vendor who has not marked that designation. To avoid reduced coverage, consider the prefer designation instead; this gives priority to vendors with the designation without restricting others from being assigned to the appraisal order.
Do not use: No restriction or preference based on the appraiser's designation.
Prefer vendors with this license or designation: Rank appraisers with the designations you mark higher for this type of appraisal product than those without the marked designations.
Require vendors to have this designation: Only order this type of appraisal from appraisers with the marked designation.
Order Options: There are four options you can review or change in this section:
You can attach any documents to your orders by dragging and dropping them into the Attached Documents section or by clicking Upload Document button to upload it in a separate window.
You can attach a Statement of Engagement for residentials appraisals by clicking the dropdown menu to see all the Engagement Letter you have created.
Under My Product Fee, you can see and choose all the product fees you want assigned to this appraisal order. This fee will only be ignored if there is a Vendor Override Fee that applies. As a reminder, you can enter multiple My Product Fees in the Product Requirements main screen. You can also set your vendor fee options to automatically default to your My Product Fee either globally in Automatic Assignment Settings or by client group under Automated Client Group Settings
The Salient Information feature will allow you to have access to salient information automatically from the completed appraisal report on a per product basis. Once enabled, the requested information will be made available in Order Details for you to view and edit on completed orders. This information will also be shared with your client when the order was placed from the VMP XSite.
Assignment Options: This section includes four different conditions you can activate or deactivate to change the way people assigned to your order interact with it and each other. Check or uncheck to enable or disable:
Double-Blind Communication
Automatic Vendor Selection
Unattended Order Assignment
Unattended Order Reassignment
These options won't appear for products where these assignment options don't apply (such as commercial appraisals.)
Tip: The product Assignment Options configured for each product override the global settings configured in the Vendor selection settings. For example, you can turn on Automatic Order Assignment for all orders in the Vendor Selection Settings, but turn it off for any Appraisal Update/Recertification (FNMA 1004D) products in the Product Requirements.
Your changes will be saved as you edit them. Once you’ve finished editing your product requirements to your liking, click the back arrow at the top left to return to Product Requirements.
How to Configure Required Forms
Open a product’s Preferences screen and use the Required Forms section to select required forms and set any applicable quantity requirements.
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Tip: When you specify required forms or the number of photos, comps, and listings, it helps activate specific rules on the vendor’s desktop. However, since many vendors use non‑standard forms, review rules may flag items as missing even when they’re located on different forms. Because of this, these rules are set to display warnings only.
Outcome
Now you know how to update and manage product‑level requirements for any appraisal type. By following this set of instructions, you understand how to set instructions for vendors, choose designation preferences, attach documents, select fees, enable salient information, and fine‑tune assignment options to match your workflow. In tandem, they will allow you to streamline order processing, maintain consistent standards, and make full use of the platform’s customization features across all your appraisal products.