 For honest and ethical appraisals, trust Wicomico Appraisals, LLCAppraising 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 these days that real estate appraisal can certainly be dubbed a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we have a strict ethical code.
The appraiser's primary obligation is to their client.
Normally, 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.
Appraisers are privy to a lot of information, and like an attorney, can only discuss many of these matters with their client. As
a homeowner, if you would like a copy of the appraisal document, you normally have to request it through your lender and not the appraiser.
Appraisers can sometimes have fiduciary obligations to third parties, including homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Generally the third parties are explicitly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is limited to those parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the job.
Appraisers also have duties outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must be able to produce their work files for at least five years - at Wicomico Appraisals, LLC you can rest assured that we abide by that rule. When creating reports, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Accepting assignments based on contingency fees is not something we can consider. That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and base our pay upon coming up with a particular value conclusion. There's a definite conflict of interest if an appraiser can report a larger value and then get paid more money! Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice clearly states 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" 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. When you engage Wicomico Appraisals, LLC, 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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