 Honesty and Integrity: Keim AppraisalsAppraising is, by and large, a long term career. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever before. So it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can definitely be called a profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession we must follow strict ethical considerations.
We have a great deal of obligations as appraisers, but first and foremost we answer to our clients.
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 brought in to maintain independence.
Subsequently, appraisers have certain duties of privacy to their clients, plus strict rules and regulations that must be followed. So, as
a homeowner, if you desire to review the appraisal document, you normally have to obtain it through your lender.
In some cases appraisers will 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 role is restricted to those third parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the job.
Appraisers also have rules outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must store their work files for a minimum of five years - at Keim Appraisals you can rest assured that we stick to that rule. When creating reports, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Working on assignments where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is not something we can consider. In other words, we can't agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. There's a definite conflict of interest if an appraiser can report an unsubstantiated value and then get paid more money! We set ourselves to a higher standard. Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice explicitly defines unethical behavior 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 doing everything we can to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value. With Keim Appraisals, you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, honest service. |
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