Property Reporting System Reminders and Tips

May 31, 2012

It has been almost two months since we launched the Property Reporting System (PRS) and only a few weeks that you've had access to the Bulk template feature. However, with tomorrow's Annual Income & Expense (AIE) deadline, we would like to provide a refresher on using some PRS features.

Bulk Templates Versus Individual Templates

The Bulk templates are accessible on the Blank Assessment Templates page of PRS under the Downloads on the main menu. The Upload Bulk Data File page should only be used for submitting multi-loan data file submissions. This is not the place to upload individual assessment templates or assessment attachments. Individual assessment templates must be submitted on the Assessment and Attachment page. Please note that you can upload multiple individual assessments and attachments at the same time.

Upload Bulk Data – Wrong screen for individual assessment files

Upload Individual Files – Correct screen for individual assessment files and attachments. You can upload many files at the same time.

File Extensions

It is important to submit Assessment attachment files in the original file extension of each document type. Assessment templates can only be accepted in the Microsoft Office Excel file types listed below. However, attachments can also be submitted in any of these listed file types supported by PRS.

File Type	Extension	Description
PDF	.pdf	The PDF file type is designed to view, create, manipulate and manage files in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF).
Excel	.xl	Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file
Excel	.xls	Microsoft Excel 97 to 2003 workbook file
Excel	.xlsx	Microsoft Excel 2007/2010 Open XML workbook file
Word	.doc & .docx	Microsoft world document files
HTML	.htm & .html	Web files
Text	.txt	Plain Text File
JPG	.jpg & .jpeg	Image file format
TIFF	.tif & tiff	Image file format

File Naming Convention

Many of you have been experiencing upload failure issues due to an inaccurate file naming convention. In order for assessment files to be accepted by PRS, the file naming convention must be strictly followed. Some of the issues we noticed include:

Lack of using the actual due date of the Assessment per the due date shown in the due queue of PRS. Please note returned and extended Assessments have a new due date.
Lack of using DD-MM-YY format for the due date.
Misspelling [example, "AIE_From" vs. "AIE_Form"].
Using uppercase letters [example, "AIE_FORM" vs. "AIE_Form"].

As a reminder, Assessment Desk References are available at http://www.freddiemac.com/multifamily/resource/asset.html and provide a detailed description on file naming convention.

MBA Form

With PRS, we replaced our ALI form. Although our new ALI form is closely aligned with the MBA Property Inspection form, it includes a few additional fields used exclusively by Freddie Mac. It is crucial that you download our ALI form and do not use the MBA Property Inspection form. The additional fields on the ALI include information that you normally collect in your inspection process.

If you have any feedback on these tips and reminders, please submit comments to the Multifamily Asset Performance mailbox.

Please visit the Asset Management Resources page of FreddieMac.com and our Multifamily News Center for the latest news, information, and alerts.