 Honesty and Integrity: Missouri Property Appraisal, Inc.Typically, appraising is a long term career. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have increased more 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 are bound by an ethical code.
An appraiser's main responsibility is to their client.
Generally, for a regular residential appraisal, the lender (or an agent of the lender) places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client.
Appraisers have certain duties of privacy to their clients, plus many rules and regulations that must be followed. As
a homeowner, if you want to obtain a copy of an appraisal report, you generally have to get it through your lender and not the appraiser.
Appraisers can also have fiduciary obligations to third parties, such as homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are listed in scope of 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 things in the framework of the job.
There are also ethical duties that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must be able to produce their work files for at least five years - something else Missouri Property Appraisal, Inc. diligently adheres to. When creating reports, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Accepting orders where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion 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. There's certainly a 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 (or simply "USPAP") 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" as well as other situations. We diligently follow these rules to the letter which means you can be at ease knowing we are working hard to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value. When you request an appraisal from Missouri Property Appraisal, Inc., we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the high ethical standards we're known for. |
|||||||||
