![]() For honest and ethical appraisals, count on Bob Hayes Real Estate AppraiserWe think of our business as a profession. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever before. That's why it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be dubbed a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we must follow strict ethical considerations.
We have a great deal of responsibilities as appraisers, but our chief duty is to our clients.
Most of the time, in residential practice, 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 the appraisal document, you generally have to obtain it from your lender and not the appraiser.
Appraisers can often have fiduciary obligations to third parties, including homeowners, both sellers and buyers, or others. Those third parties normally are defined in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is only to those third parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the assignment.
There are also ethical standards that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must keep their work files for a minimum of five years - something else Bob Hayes Real Estate Appraiser diligently adheres to. We meet or exceed the industry standards and mandates set in place for professional behavior. We refuse to accept anything less from ourselves. Accepting assignments based on contingency fees is not something we can consider. That is, we are not able to agree to do an appraisal report and collect the fee only if the loan closes. There's certainly a conflict of interest if an appraiser can report a greater value with the reward of getting paid more money! This isn't how we operate. Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice explicitly states a violation in ethics 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" in addition to other situations We follow these rules to the letter which means you can be at ease knowing we are doing everything we can to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value. With Bob Hayes Real Estate Appraiser, you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, professional service. |