Honesty and Integrity: Freedom Appraisal Services

Appraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever in the past. So it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can certainly be called a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we must follow strict ethical considerations.

We have quite a few responsibilities as appraisers but above everything we answer to our clients. Typically, in residential practice, the lender places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Appraisers have rules and regulations they must follow, including keeping many matters private for their clients a homeowner, if you want to review an appraisal report, you generally have to get it through your lender. Other obligations also include, numerical accuracy depending on the scope of the assignment, acquiring and sustaining a certain level of competency and education, and the appraiser must conduct him or herself as a professional. Here at Freedom Realty, we take these ethical responsibilities very to heart.

There are some scenarios in which appraisers will have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary roll is limited to those parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the order.

Appraisers also have duties outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must store their work files for at least five years - something else Freedom Realty takes very seriously.

We require the highest ethical standards possible from ourselves. We have a responsibility not to do assignments on contingency fees. That is, we can't agree to do an appraisal report and collect the fee only if the loan closes. We don't do assignments on percentage fees. That is probably the appraisal industries biggest taboo, because it would invite fraudulent practices since increasing the estimate of the home would increase the their paycheck. We don't do that. Other unprofessional practices may be defined by state law or professional organizations to which an appraiser belongs.

The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) also 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," "the amount of a value opinion," in addition to other situations We diligently follow these rules to the letter which means you can rest easy knowing we are going above and beyond to objectively determine the home or property value.

When you engage Freedom Appraisal Services we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the ethical handling of appraisals that we're known for.