 For honest and ethical appraisals, count on Holmes AppraisalsTypically, appraising is a long term career. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever before. So it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can certainly be considered a profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.
The appraiser's chief obligation is to their client.
Typically, in residential practice, the lender (or an agent of the lender) places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client.
It follows that appraisers are privy to a lot of information, and like an attorney, can only discuss many of these matters with their client. As
a homeowner, if you want to obtain a copy of an appraisal report, you normally have to get it via your lender instead of the appraiser.
Appraisers will often be obligated to consider the interests of third parties, including homeowners, buyers and sellers, or others. Typically the third parties are clearly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary role is only to those parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the order.
There are also ethical standards that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must store their work files for a minimum of five years - at Holmes Appraisals you can rest assured that we abide by that rule. Holmes Appraisals holds itself to the industry standards and mandates set in place for ethics. We refuse to accept anything less from ourselves. Working on assignments based on contingency fees is not something we can consider. That means we don't agree to do an appraisal report and base our pay upon coming up with a particular value conclusion. It should be apparent to anyone that fabricating a home's value to achieve what amounts to a bigger paycheck is unethical! Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "USPAP") clearly states 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)", "a direction in assignment results that favors the cause of the client", or "the amount of a value opinion" in addition to other situations We diligently follow these rules to the letter which means you can be assured we are going above and beyond to get you an accurate home or property value. With Holmes Appraisals, you won't have any doubts that you're receiving 100 percent ethical, professional service. |
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