Honesty and Integrity

Appraising is, by and large, a long term career. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever before. In our field, as with any profession, we are bound by ethical considerations.

As appraisers, our chief responsibility is to his or her client. Typically, for a regular residential appraisal, the appraiser's client is the lender or appraisal management company that orders the appraisal. Certain matters pertaining to an assignment can only be discussed with an appraiser's client. As a a homeowner, if you would like to review the appraisal document, you can and should request a copy of the report from your lender. Other responsibilities of an appraiser also include numerical accuracy depending on the assignment's nature, acquiring and maintaining a certain level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. 

Appraisers will often need to consider the interests of third parties, such as homeowners, sellers and buyers, or others. Those third parties normally are defined in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is only to the appraiser's client, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the order.

There are also ethical duties that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must be able to produce their work files for a minimum of five years - and you can rest assured that we stick to that rule.

The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) also defines a violation in ethics as the acceptance of an assignment that is contingent on "the reporting of a pre-determined result (e.g., opinion of value)" or "a direction in assignment results that favors the cause of the client." We follow these rules to the letter which means you can be confident we are working hard to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value.

As soon as you engage our services, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the ethical handling of appraisals that we're known for.