Honesty and Integrity: Houston Appraisal Services, Inc.Appraising is, by and large, a long term career. The rigors of becoming a certified appraiser have become more difficult than ever before. That's why it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can definitely be considered a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we must follow strict ethical considerations.The appraiser's main obligation is to their client. Generally, 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 typically restricted to only disclosing their findings to their clients, so as a homeowner, if you would like to obtain a copy of the appraisal document, you normally should request it via your lender.
Appraisers may also have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, including homeowners, both sellers and buyers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in the scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary role is restricted to those parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the assignment.
There are also ethical standards that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for at least five years - at Houston Appraisal Services, you can rest assured that we adhere to that rule. We require the highest ethical standards possible from ourselves. Working on assignments based on contingency fees is not something we can consider. That means we don't agree to do an appraisal report and base our pay upon coming up with a particular value conclusion. Anyone should be able to see that inflating a value to achieve a bigger paycheck is unethical! Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice also states 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" in addition to other situations We follow these rules to the letter which means you can be confident we are going above and beyond to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value. When you engage Houston Appraisal Services, Inc., we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you deserve along with the business principles we're known for. |