 Honesty and Integrity: Folsom Appraisal Service, LLCWe consider our business as a profession. 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 considered a profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession we are bound by an ethical code.
We have a lot of responsibilities as appraisers, but our main duty is to our clients.
Most of the time, for a typical residential appraisal, 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 follows that appraisers are typically limited to only disclosing their findings to their clients, so as
a homeowner, if you would like to obtain a copy of an appraisal report, you generally have to get it from your lender instead of the appraiser.
Appraisers will regularly be obligated to consider the interests of 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 limited to those parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the order.
Appraisers also have duties outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for a minimum of five years - something else Folsom Appraisal Service, LLC takes very seriously. We meet or exceed the industry standards and mandates set in place for professional behavior. We won't accept anything less from ourselves. Working on assignments where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is never an option. That means we don't agree to do an appraisal report and collect the fee only if the loan closes. There's an obvious conflict of interest if an appraiser can report a greater value and then get paid more money! We just don't do it. Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice clearly defines a violation in ethics as accepting 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 be at ease knowing we are working hard to objectively determine the home or property value. As soon as you order an appraisal from Folsom Appraisal Service, 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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