|
|
Honesty and Integrity: Paul James Appraisals, Inc.Appraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. Requirements to become a licensed or certified appraiser has become more difficult than ever in the past. That's why it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be considered a profession rather than a trade. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.
We have quite a few responsibilities as appraisers, but above everything we answer to our clients. 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. Subsequently, 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 would like to review an appraisal report, you should get it through your lender if the appraisal was prepared for a lender.
Other responsibilities include numerical accuracy depending on the scope of the assignment, reaching and maintaining a certain level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at Paul James Appraisals, Inc., we take these ethical responsibilities very to heart.
Appraisers may also have fiduciary responsibilities 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 role is limited to those third parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the assignment.
 |
 |
 |
Paul James Appraisals, Inc. has an established track record for performing appraisals with the highest of ethics. To learn more, contact us. |
|
|
Appraisers also have rules outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must keep their work files for at least five years - at Paul James Appraisals, Inc. you can rest assured that we abide by that rule.
We demand the highest ethical standards possible from ourselves. Doing orders where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is not something we can consider. In other words, we can't agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. Anyone should be able to see that inflating a value to achieve what amounts to a bigger paycheck is unethical! This isn't how we operate.
Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice also defines 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" as well as other situations. We diligently follow these rules to the letter which means you can be confident we are doing everything we can to get you an accurate home or property value.
As soon as you engage Paul James Appraisals, Inc., we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the high ethical standards we're known for.
|
|
