ValuAppraisal upholds the utmost professional ethics

Appraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever in the past. So it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be dubbed a profession rather than a trade. As with any profession we are bound by ethical considerations.

An appraiser's chief responsibility is to their client. Typically, in residential practice, the lender places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Appraisers have certain duties of confidentiality to their clients, and as a homeowner, if you desire to review the appraisal document, you generally have to get it through your lender. Other obligations also include, accurate figures appropriate to the nature of the assignment, acquiring and keeping an appropriate level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Maintaining high ethics is standard operating procedure for us at ValuAppraisal.

Appraisers can regularly have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, sellers and buyers, or others. Normally the third parties are clearly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary duty is only to those third parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the order.

Appraisers also have standards outside of boundaries of with whom we share information For example, appraisers must backup their work files for at least five years - something else ValuAppraisal takes very seriously.

While working on an order, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Working on assignments that contingency fees is not something we can consider That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. We don't do assignments on percentage fees. That is perhaps the appraisal professions most important rule, because it would invite fraudulent practices since raising the value of the home would inflate the their paycheck. We set ourselves to a higher standard. Other unethical practices may be established by state law or professional societies to which an appraiser belongs.

The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) also states 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 follow these rules to the letter which means you can be confident we are doing everything we can to objectively determine the home or property value.

With ValuAppraisal, you won't have any doubts that you're receiving 100 percent ethical, professional service.