 Honesty and Integrity: Ken Colley & Associates Inc.Generally, appraising is 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 considered a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we must follow strict ethical considerations.
An appraiser's main obligation 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.
Thereon, appraisers have certain duties of confidentiality to their clients, plus strict rules and regulations to which we must adhere. So, as
a homeowner, if you desire a copy of an appraisal report, you generally should request it from your lender.
Appraisers can regularly have fiduciary obligations to third parties, such as homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Typically the third parties are explicitly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary duty is only to those parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the job.
Appraisers also have standards outside of boundaries of with whom we share information For example, appraisers must be able to produce their work files for at least five years - at Ken Colley & Associates Inc. you can rest assured that we abide by that rule. We require the highest professional integrity possible from ourselves. Doing orders based on contingency fees is never an option. That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. It should be obvious that inflating a value to achieve essentially a higher fee is unethical! This isn't how we operate. Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "USPAP") explicitly describes 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" as well as other situations. We 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. When you engage Ken Colley & Associates Inc., we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the high ethical standards we're known for. |
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