 Honesty and Integrity: Summit Appraisal ServicesAppraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever before. That's why it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can definitely be dubbed a profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.
We have many responsibilities 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 contracted in order to maintain independence.
Consequently, appraisers have certain duties of privacy to their clients, plus many rules and regulations controlling with whom we share information. As
a homeowner, if you would like to review an appraisal report, you generally have to get it via your lender and not the appraiser.
Appraisers can regularly have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, both sellers and buyers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary role 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.
There are also ethical rules that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must store their work files for at least five years - at Summit Appraisal Services you can rest assured that we adhere to that rule. We demand the highest professional integrity possible from ourselves. Doing assignments based on contingency fees is never an option. In other words, we are not able to agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. There's a definite conflict of interest if an appraiser can report a greater value with the reward of getting paid more money! We just don't do it. Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice also describes 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", 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 confident we are going above and beyond to objectively determine the home or property value. With Summit Appraisal Services, you won't have any doubts that you're receiving 100 percent ethical, honest service. |
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