Effective: July 27, 2026 · Version 4.0
The short version: Appraisal Desk is software. Every order on the platform is managed by the AMC or lender appraisal-desk department named on it; your relationships about appraisals are with them, not us. When money moves, we move it only as the AMC's payment agent. Your data stays yours, but completed-order history doesn't get erased. This summary is for convenience; the terms below control.
These terms are an agreement between Appraisaldesk.com, LLC, a Utah company ("Appraisal Desk," "we"), and you. You accept them by creating an account, clicking to accept, or using the platform. Part 1 applies to everyone. Parts 2 through 4 add terms for your role. If you're an AMC or a lender's appraisal desk department, the AMC Platform Agreement also applies and wins over these terms if they conflict.
We provide software that lenders, appraisal management companies ("AMCs"), lender appraisal desk departments ("ADDs"), and appraisers use to send, manage, pay for, and deliver appraisal orders.
We are a technology company. We do not provide appraisal management services (as defined in 12 C.F.R. § 34.211 or similar state laws). We never: hire or engage appraisers, keep an appraiser panel of our own, choose which appraiser gets an order by our own judgment, set appraisal fees, or review appraisals. Every one of those things is done by the AMC or ADD named on the order (the "Managing Party"). Every order has one; it is never us. Nothing the platform produces is an appraisal or an opinion of value from us.
Use real, current information; keep your login secure; you're responsible for activity under it. Don't use the platform to break the law (including appraiser-independence rules, 12 C.F.R. § 1026.42), upload malicious code, copy or reverse-engineer the platform, misrepresent who you are, use platform contact info to circumvent a Managing Party's terms, or interfere with the system.
We don't own your data. Managing Parties own their order data, lenders own what they submit, appraisers keep their rights in their work; rights among those parties follow their own agreements. You give us permission to host, process, and transmit data to run the platform, comply with law, and improve the product, plus use of de-identified, aggregated data (numbers that can't identify any person, property, or company). We don't sell data.
History doesn't get erased. Closing your account stops activity but keeps your profile, so you can pick up where you left off if you return; to have your profile and company details deleted, email privacy@appraisaldesk.com. Either way, completed orders are business records our customers must legally keep (typically seven or more years), so who-did-what on a completed appraisal, including names and license details on reports, stays available to the parties on that order. We don't change history, and nothing here promises deletion of it.
We protect nonpublic personal information under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Details in the Privacy Policy.
When a Managing Party uses platform payments, we collect and disburse only as that Managing Party's payment agent under the AMC Platform Agreement. Paying us counts as paying them, and the payer bears no risk if we fail to pass funds along. We are never the merchant or payor for appraisal fees, take no share of them, and guarantee no one's payment. Our own platform fees are charged to AMCs.
The platform is provided "as is": no promises that it's uninterrupted or error-free, and no promises about any appraisal. Quality, accuracy, timeliness, value, and compliance are the responsibility of those who perform and manage the appraisal. Neither of us owes the other indirect damages or lost profits. Our total liability to you is capped at what you paid us in the prior 12 months ($100 for free accounts). The cap doesn't excuse either side's fraud, willful misconduct, or confidentiality breaches, and never limits our duty to pay over money we received as a payment agent. Claims about an appraisal or its management go against the party that did that work, not us.
You'll defend and cover us for third-party claims arising from your use of the platform, your data, your legal violations, or your disputes with other platform users. We'll defend and cover you if the platform itself infringes someone's IP, or a security breach we caused harms you.
Either side can end this at any time with notice (role agreements may set longer terms); we can suspend accounts for security risk, unpaid fees, unlawful use, or breach. Utah law governs. Disputes go to binding arbitration (AAA, Salt Lake City; one arbitrator, three above $250,000; winner recovers reasonable fees), except court in Salt Lake County for IP/confidentiality/unauthorized-access injunctions. Individual claims only, no class actions, brought within one year. Your click is your signature. We can update these terms prospectively with 30 days' notice; material payment/data changes need a fresh click. No third-party beneficiaries; severability; this doc + your role terms + the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement. Nobody here is anyone's employee, partner, or subcontractor; the only agency anywhere is the payment agency in the AMC Platform Agreement.
Your account is free. You never pay us anything, and we never take a cut of your fee. Your fee is the amount in the offer you accept, and that's exactly what you're paid. What an AMC pays us for the platform, and how an AMC sets its own fees, are the AMC's business, not a deduction from yours.
We're not your client and this isn't an engagement. We don't engage you, run a panel, pick who gets orders, set or approve fees, review your work, or owe you money for any appraisal. You're not our subcontractor.
Every assignment is from the AMC on the order. If you take it, everything about the engagement (scope, fee, deadline, revisions, insurance, payment) is between you and that Managing Party, under their terms. Those terms are linked (with version number) at the Accept button on every order and included in the order form itself. Accepting an order means you agree to that Managing Party's terms as linked and included with it, for that order, and as the standing terms for future orders from them until they update. Our terms govern the software; their terms govern the work. Decline anything, block any Managing Party in settings, work with anyone on or off the platform. No quotas, no exclusivity.
Professional basics: keep your license active and your profile accurate; perform to USPAP and the law. Your appraisals and conclusions are yours alone (nothing in the platform is appraisal assistance or our opinion). Keep order communication in the platform; don't discuss value with loan production or borrowers; report pressure to the Managing Party. Insurance requirements come from each Managing Party's terms. If your license lapses, stop accepting work and tell your Managing Parties. They run their panels; we only suspend software access for platform abuse.
Getting paid: the Managing Party owes you, under their terms (most states require AMC payment within 30 to 60 days of delivery). When they use platform payments we pay you as their agent, from their funds, typically released automatically once the lender accepts your completed report. We don't guarantee payment, but money we've received to pay you is never subject to our liability cap. One W-9 through the platform; 1099s issue under the engaging Managing Party's name and EIN, not ours.
If you leave: you stop receiving work, and we keep your profile so you can pick up where you left off if you come back. Want it gone? Email privacy@appraisaldesk.com and we'll delete it. Either way, your details stay on appraisals you completed, because the AMCs and lenders on those orders must keep them. We don't change history.
Your relationship is with your AMC. Appraiser selection, panel management, fees, quality control, delivery: all done by the AMC (or your own appraisal desk department) managing your orders, under your agreement with them. You form and keep that relationship by sending them orders; whether they host their agreement on our platform or elsewhere is between you and them. We're not part of it, and we owe you no duties about any appraisal.
If you use the platform directly, these terms apply to you, and: you pick your Managing Party (and can set your own backups); routing runs on your choices, never ours. You follow appraiser-independence rules (your production staff never selects or pressures appraisers). Your consumer disclosures and fee tolerances are yours. Appraisal Desk's platform fees are charged to AMCs, not to you.
Billing: when your AMC uses platform payments, charges to you or your borrower are collected by us as your AMC's agent, on your AMC's instructions, under your arrangement with your AMC. Paying us settles the debt to your AMC, with no risk to you if we fail to remit. Failed borrower payments, refunds, and cancellations follow your AMC's policy on the order.
No AMC yet? Orders on the platform flow through a partnership between a lender and an AMC, set up in the platform. If you don't have one, we can connect you with our Partner AMC, currently Home Base Appraisal Management ("Home Base AMC"), a licensed AMC, and that partnership may be set up for you as the default so you can submit orders. Submitting an order to Home Base AMC is your agreement to Home Base AMC's terms, which are presented to you on the partnership page for your review. Every order you send them is governed by those terms. You're never required to use Home Base AMC; you can partner with any AMC on the platform at any time. Home Base AMC's services are governed by its agreement with you, and claims about them go to Home Base AMC, not to us.
The deal, in bold: any claim connected to an appraisal or its management (quality, value, timeliness, compliance, alleged bias, repurchase demands, or recovering appraisal costs) goes solely against your Managing Party and/or the appraiser. You waive all such claims against Appraisal Desk. What we owe you is a working platform, capped per Part 1.
The AMC Platform Agreement is your document. It covers your responsibilities, your uploaded terms, payment services, taxes, and fees, and it controls over these Terms of Use. These terms still cover your individual users' platform conduct.