For honest and ethical appraisals, count on Elite Appraisal Service

By and large, appraising a long term career. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever in the past. So it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be considered a profession as opposed to a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we have a strict ethical code.

For an appraiser the main obligation is to his or her client. Most of the time, in residential practice, the lender places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Appraisers have certain duties of confidentiality to their clients, and as a homeowner, if you want to obtain a copy of the appraisal document, you normally have to get it from your lender. Other responsibilities also include, numerical accuracy depending on the scope of the assignment, attaining and keeping a certain level of competency and education, and the appraiser must conduct him or herself as a professional. Maintaining high ethics is is what we do everyday at Elite Appraisal Service.

Appraisers may also have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, including homeowners, sellers and buyers, or others. Generally the third parties are specifically defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is limited to those third parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the job.

Appraisers also have standards outside of boundaries of with whom we share information For example, appraisers must store their work files for at least five years - something else Elite Appraisal Service diligently adheres to.

Elite Appraisal Service holds itself to the industry standards and rules set in place for ethics. We won't accept anything less from ourselves. Working on assignments that contingency fees is never an option. That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. We can't do assignments on percentage fees. That is perhaps the appraisal industries biggest taboo, because it would tend to make appraisers increase the value of homes or properties to increase their paycheck. We set ourselves to a higher standard. Other unprofessional practices may be established by state law or professional societies that the appraiser belongs.

The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) also states 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," "the amount of a value opinion," as well as other situations. We diligently follow these rules to the letter which means you can rest easy knowing we are going above and beyond to objectively determine the home or property value.

With Elite Appraisal Service, you won't have any doubts that you're getting 100 percent ethical, honest service.