 Honesty and Integrity: Hancock Appraisal Services, Inc.We think of our job as a profession. The rigors of becoming 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 certainly 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 lot of obligations as appraisers, but our primary 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.
It follows that 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 the appraisal document, you normally have to obtain it via your lender and not the appraiser.
In some cases appraisers will have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Typically the third parties are specifically defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is only to those third parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the assignment.
There are also ethical duties that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for at least five years - at Hancock Appraisal Services, Inc. you can rest assured that we adhere to that rule. We only perform to the highest ethical standards possible. Working on orders where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is not something we can consider. In other words, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and base our pay upon coming up with a particular value conclusion. There's certainly a conflict of interest if an appraiser can report a larger value and then get paid more money! We just don't do it. Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "USPAP") clearly states 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 rest easy knowing we are going above and beyond to get you an accurate home or property value. When you order an appraisal from Hancock Appraisal Services, Inc., we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the high ethical standards we're known for. |
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