![]() For honest and ethical appraisals, rely on Rob HarrisAppraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever before. That's why it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can definitely be called a profession rather than a trade. As with any profession we are bound by an ethical code.
We have quite a few obligations as appraisers, but above everything we answer to our clients.
Typically, for a regular residential appraisal, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal, and often the appraisal is ordered by a third party the lender has hired in order to maintain independence.
Consequently, appraisers have certain duties of privacy to their clients, plus strict rules and regulations to which we must adhere. As
a homeowner, if you desire a copy of an appraisal report, you normally should obtain it via your lender instead of the appraiser.
There are some scenarios in which appraisers will have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, including homeowners, buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are listed in the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary duty is restricted to those third parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the job.
There are also ethical duties that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for at least five years - something else Rob Harris diligently adheres to. While busy with an order, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Working on assignments where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is never an option. That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and base our pay upon coming up with a particular value conclusion. Anyone should be able to see that inflating a value to achieve what amounts to a higher fee is unethical! Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice explicitly defines unethical behavior 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 follow these rules to the letter which means you can be at ease knowing we are doing everything we can to objectively determine the home or property value. With Rob Harris, you won't have any doubts that you're getting 100 percent ethical, honest service. |