Generally, appraising is 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. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.

The appraiser’s primary obligation is to their client. 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. It’s important to know that a lot of matters relating to an assignment are to be discussed exclusively with the appraiser’s client. So, as a homeowner, if you want a copy of an appraisal report, you generally should request it via your lender instead of the appraiser.

Other responsibilities include numerical accuracy depending on the scope of the assignment, attaining and sustaining an adequate level of competency and education, and naturally, the appraiser must bear a professional demeanor. Here at Reveille Real Estate Appraisal, we take these ethical responsibilities very to heart.

There are some scenarios in which appraisers will have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, including homeowners, buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser’s fiduciary duty is only to those parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the job.

We have worked hard for our track record for performing competent and ethically superior appraisals. To learn more, contact us.

There are also ethical standards that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for at least five years – at Reveille Real Estate Appraisal you can rest assured that we adhere to that rule.

When creating reports, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Accepting assignments where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is never an option. That is, we don’t agree to do an appraisal report and base our pay upon coming up with a particular value conclusion. Anyone should be able to see that inflating a value to achieve essentially a higher paycheck is unethical! We just don’t do it.

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply “USPAP”) explicitly defines 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 be confident we are going above and beyond to get you an accurate home or property value.

As soon as you engage Reveille Real Estate Appraisal, we’ll make sure you’re getting the professional service you deserve along with the high ethical standards we’re known for.