 For honest and ethical appraisals, count on Mark C Woodruff Appraisals LLCWe consider our business as a profession. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever in the past. So it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be called a profession rather than a trade. As with any profession we must follow strict ethical considerations.
We have many responsibilities as appraisers, but first and foremost we answer to our clients.
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 contracted in order to maintain independence.
Thereon, appraisers have certain duties of privacy to their clients, plus many rules and regulations that must be followed. As
a homeowner, if you want a copy of the appraisal document, you normally have to get it from your lender.
Appraisers may also have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, including homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in the appraisal assignment itself. 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.
Appraisers also have standards outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must store their work files for a minimum of five years - something else Mark C Woodruff Appraisals LLC diligently adheres to. We require the highest ethical standards possible from ourselves. Working on assignments where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is not something we can consider. That is, we are not able to agree to do an appraisal report and collect the fee only if the loan closes. Anyone should be able to see that fabricating a property's value to achieve what amounts to a bigger fee is unethical! Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "USPAP") explicitly 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 follow these rules to the letter which means you can be confident we are working hard to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value. As soon as you request an appraisal from Mark C Woodruff Appraisals LLC, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the honesty and integrity we're known for. |
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