 Honesty and Integrity: Dickson AppraisalsAppraising is typically a long term career. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever in the past. So it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can certainly be dubbed a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we are bound by an ethical code.
The appraiser's chief responsibility is to their client.
Typically, for a standard 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.
Subsequently, appraisers are privy to a lot of data, and like an attorney, can only discuss many of these matters with their client. As
a homeowner, if you would like to obtain a copy of the appraisal document, you generally have to get it via your lender.
There are some scenarios in which appraisers will have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, both sellers and buyers, or others. Those third parties normally are listed in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is only to those parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the order.
There are also ethical standards that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for a minimum of five years - at Dickson Appraisals you can rest assured that we stick to that rule. We demand the highest ethical standards possible from ourselves. Working on assignments based on contingency fees is not something we can consider. That means we are not able to 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 essentially a higher paycheck is unethical! Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "USPAP") clearly describes 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" in addition to other situations We diligently follow these rules to the letter which means you can be at ease knowing we are working hard to objectively determine the home or property value. With Dickson Appraisals, you won't have any doubts that you're getting 100 percent ethical, honest service. |
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