1st Choice Valuation Services (207) 240-0991 upholds the utmost professional ethicsWe consider our job as a profession. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever in the past. That's why it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be called a profession as opposed to 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.
Typically, in residential practice, the lender (or an agent of the lender) places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client.
Thereon, appraisers are typically limited to only disclosing information to their clients, so as
a homeowner, if you want to obtain a copy of an appraisal report, you normally should obtain it through your lender and not the appraiser.
Appraisers can also have fiduciary obligations to third parties, including homeowners, buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary role is limited to those third parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the order.
There are also ethical duties that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must keep their work files for at least five years - at 1st Choice Valuation Services (207) 240-0991 you can rest assured that we adhere to that rule. When creating reports, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Doing orders based on contingency fees is never an option. In other words, 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 larger value with the reward of getting paid more money! Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice clearly defines unethical behavior 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 1st Choice Valuation Services (207) 240-0991, you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, professional service. |