 Rivers Edge Appraisals & Consulting, Inc. upholds the utmost professional ethicsAppraising is typically a long term career. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever before. So it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can certainly be dubbed a profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.
We have many obligations as appraisers, but our primary duty is to our clients.
Typically, in residential practice, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal, and often the appraisal is ordered by a third party the lender has hired in order to maintain independence.
Certain elements relating to an assignment are to be shared exclusively with the appraiser's client. As
a homeowner, if you would like to review the appraisal document, you generally should request it through your lender and not the appraiser.
Appraisers will regularly need to consider the interests of third parties, such as homeowners, sellers and buyers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is only to those third parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the assignment.
There are also ethical rules that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for at least five years - at Rivers Edge Appraisals & Consulting, Inc. you can rest assured that we adhere to that rule. While busy with an assignment, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Working on assignments based on contingency fees is never an option. In other words, we can't agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. There's an obvious conflict of interest if an appraiser can report a greater value and then get paid more money! This isn't how we operate. Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "USPAP") also 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 confident we are working hard to get you an accurate home or property value. With Rivers Edge Appraisals & Consulting, Inc., you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, professional service. |
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