 McLeod Appraisal Group upholds the highest professional ethicsAppraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. Requirements to become 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 certainly be called a profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession we must follow strict ethical considerations.
We have many responsibilities as appraisers, but our main 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.
Subsequently, appraisers have certain duties of privacy to their clients, plus strict rules and regulations controlling with whom we share information. So, as
a homeowner, if you desire to review an appraisal report, you normally have to get it from your lender and not the appraiser.
Appraisers will regularly be required to consider the interests of third parties, including homeowners, both 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 parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the job.
Appraisers also have standards outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for a minimum of five years - something else McLeod Appraisal Group makes a part of their standard routine. When busy with an order, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Doing assignments based on contingency fees is not something we can consider. That is, we can't agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. There's a definite conflict of interest if an appraiser can report a larger value with the reward of getting paid more money! This isn't how we operate. Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice clearly describes unethical behavior 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 follow these rules to the letter which means you can be assured we are doing everything we can to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value. With McLeod Appraisal Group, you won't have any doubts that you're receiving 100 percent ethical, professional service. |
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