Overview
Reviewing and decisioning appraisal findings ensures your valuations are compliant and accurate. In Collateral Investigate™, you can toggle between Findings and your Checklist to track outstanding tasks. Filtering and resolving these items systematically helps you organize your workflow and prioritize critical issues. By documenting your decisions with comments, you resolve valuation risks and maintain a clear audit trail before final submission.
Review Findings
On the left panel, under File Information, use the toggle to switch between fired Findings and required Checklist items that that must be completed before finalizing your review.
Note: A red dot on the Checklist toggle indicates incomplete required items. Related article: How to Complete the Checklist .
Filter the findings to manage your workflow:
Appraisal section: filter to show findings related to specific parts of the appraisal report.
Severity: filter to view findings of a certain severity level.
Decision: filter to display only findings with a specific status, such as those with no decision.
Decision each individual finding based on its severity and guidelines.
Review the severity level of each finding to understand its impact (refer to the Finding Severity Levels table) .
Select a decision option from the Select decision menu for each finding to determine the resolution (refer to the Finding Decision Options table).
Findings Severity Levels
Severity | Description |
Low | Informational; lowest risk. |
Medium | Not an insurability issue, but may relate to a loan overlay. |
High | Insurability issue; must be worked individually (cannot use bulk actions). |
Severe (Fatal) | Auto-fail; file is returned to the vendor automatically upon submission and should not require manual review. |
Finding Decision Options
Decision | When to Use |
|---|---|
Accept | The finding is valid but will not affect the opinion of value. No comment required. (Can be disabled by your organization.) |
Dismiss | The finding is valid and acceptable. Add a comment justifying why the finding is cleared. |
Faulty Finding | The rule fired incorrectly for this report. Removes the finding from metrics and flags it for Cotality review. |
Revision Needed | The appraiser must correct or provide additional information. Adds the finding to a pending revision request. |
Escalation Needed | The file must be escalated to another reviewer or tier. Mutually exclusive with Revision Needed. |
Note: You cannot select Revision Needed for a finding if other findings on the file have an Escalation Needed status. Similarly, you cannot select Escalation Needed for a finding if other findings on the file have a Revision Needed status. This guardrail prevents ownership collision on review files.
Add comments and review finding details.
Click Add comment. (Comments are required for dismissed findings and optional for accepted findings.)
Enter your justification in the comment field and click Save comment.
Click View more to open the finding detail panel and review additional information. (This step is optional and intended only for complex issues that require further investigation.)
Outcome
You can now address, filter, and decision all appraisal findings for the review file. Your decisions, justifications, and comments are saved, and you are ready to proceed with finalizing your review on Collateral Investigate™.