Honesty and Integrity: Jim Bailey AppraisalAppraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. 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 unquestionably be called a profession as opposed to a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we must follow strict ethical considerations.
An appraiser's main responsibility 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 contracted in order to maintain independence.
Appraisers are typically restricted to only disclosing information to their clients, so as
a homeowner, if you want to review an appraisal report, you normally should obtain it from your lender.
Appraisers will regularly be required to consider the interests of third parties, including homeowners, buyers and sellers, or others. Normally the third parties are explicitly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary role is limited to those parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the assignment.
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 - something else Jim Bailey Appraisal diligently adheres to. When creating reports, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Doing orders based on contingency fees is never an option. In other words, we are not able to agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. There's certainly a 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 also defines 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 follow these rules to the letter which means you can be confident we are working hard to objectively determine the home or property value. When you engage Jim Bailey Appraisal, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you deserve along with the high ethical standards we're known for. |