FORT KENT, Maine — Acadia Federal Credit Union has added an in-house appraiser to their growing team of professionals.
Angela Cyr, a nearly 10-year veteran of Acadia FCU, has been promoted to fill this important role. She will cover northern Aroostook County, providing appraisals to those seeking mortgage loans from the credit union.
This move will dramatically decrease wait times for those obtaining real estate loans or looking to refinance existing loans, which can sometimes take up to 10 weeks during the busy summer season.
“We process a lot of mortgage loans and it is a regulatory requirement that we obtain a formal valuation from a qualified individual for each loan,” said David Desjardins, president/CEO of Acadia FCU.
“As we examined the list of current Aroostook County appraisers, we realized that there was only a handful doing it and out of those, several were getting close to retirement, which would surely impact Acadia’s turnaround time. Now that Angela is licensed in the state of Maine to provide appraisal services to our members, this will speed up the process of buying or refinancing a home with Acadia — a great benefit to our members.”
In order to become licensed for appraisals in the state of Maine, Cyr spent 1,000 hours mentoring with a local appraiser and further fulfilled her obligations by completing 50 supervised reports, nearly 170 hours of course study with McKissock Learning Online Appraisal School, and passed six different tests throughout her studies. In the final phase, Cyr completed and passed the State of Maine Licensed Residential Appraisal Exam in late 2021 in Bangor, making her a Licensed Residential Real Property Appraiser.
“We are happy that Angela accepted the position and worked to obtain her real estate appraiser’s license from the state of Maine,” said Desjardins. “Angela will now provide appraisal services to our members who are seeking a mortgage with Acadia FCU, further improving the turnaround time we currently have for our real estate lending services.”
Throughout Cyr’s career with Acadia FCU, she has held positions in member services, collections, lending, mortgage loan processing, and real estate valuation. This varied experience has given her a solid foundation as she ventured into becoming a licensed appraiser.
“Real estate was very interesting to me when I was in the collections department, working with foreclosures and offering inspections in order to market them,” said Cyr. “When the appraiser opportunity came up with Acadia, I jumped at the chance. I get to do something engaging and am happy to help to satisfy a very underserved market area of Aroostook County.”
Raised in Van Buren, Cyr is a 2008 graduate of Van Buren District Secondary School and earned an associates degree in criminal justice from the University of Maine at Fort Kent. She resides in Frenchville with her husband, Jeremy, infant daughter, Blake, and two dogs, Bart and Moose. She enjoys reading and time spent with her family and dogs.
