 Honesty and Integrity: Beta a la modeAppraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever before. So it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be called a profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession we must follow strict ethical considerations.
An appraiser's main responsibility is to their client.
Typically, for a normal residential appraisal, the lender (or an agent of the lender) places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client.
Appraisers are typically limited to only disclosing their findings to their clients, so as
a homeowner, if you want a copy of the appraisal document, you normally should obtain it from your lender instead of the appraiser.
Appraisers can also have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, including homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are defined in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is restricted to those third parties who the appraiser is aware of, 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 at least five years - something else Beta a la mode diligently adheres to. When working on an appraisal, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Accepting orders based on contingency fees is never an option. In other words, we are not able to agree to do an appraisal report and base our pay upon coming up with a particular value conclusion. There's a definite conflict of interest if an appraiser can report a greater value and then get paid more money! Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice clearly describes a violation in ethics as accepting 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", or "the amount of a value opinion" as well as other situations. We diligently follow these rules to the letter which means you can rest easy knowing we are going above and beyond to objectively determine the home or property value. As soon as you request an appraisal from Beta a la mode, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the honesty and integrity we're known for. |
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