Honesty and Integrity: Certified Appraisal Services

Appraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever before. That's why it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can certainly be called a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we must follow strict ethical considerations.

We have many responsibilities as appraisers but our main duty is to our clients. Typically, for a standard residential appraisal, the lender places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Appraisers have rules and regulations they must follow, including keeping many matters private for their clients a homeowner, if you would like a copy of an appraisal report, you normally have to obtain it from your lender. Other obligations also include, accurate figures appropriate to the parameters of the report, reaching and keeping a particular level of competency and education, and the appraiser must conduct him or herself as a professional. Here at Certified Appraisal Services, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

Appraisers may regularly have fiduciary obligations to third parties, including homeowners, sellers and buyers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary roll is restricted to those third parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the assignment.

There are also ethical duties that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must store their work files for at least five years - at Certified Appraisal Services you can rest assured that we abide by that rule.

We demand the highest ethical standards possible from ourselves. Working on orders that contingency fees is not something we can consider That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. We don't do assignments on percentage fees. That is probably the appraisal industries biggest no-no, because it would invite appraisal fraud since raising the value of the home would raise the fee. We set ourselves to a higher standard. Other improper practices may be established by state law or professional societies that the appraiser belongs.

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

As soon as you request an appraisal from Certified Appraisal Services we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the an ethical approach with appraisals that we're known for.