Honesty and Integrity: Valuation Professionals PLC

We think of our job as a profession. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever in the past. So it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can certainly be considered a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we are bound by ethical considerations.

We have many responsibilities as appraisers but above everything we answer to our clients. Typically, in residential practice, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal. Appraisers have rules and regulations they must follow, including confidentiality for their clients a homeowner, if you want a copy of the appraisal document, you normally have to request it through your lender. Other responsibilities also include, numerical accuracy depending on the assignment parameters, reaching and keeping an adequate level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at Valuation Professionals PLC, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

Appraisers will often be required to consider the interests of third parties, such as homeowners, both sellers and buyers, or others. Those third parties normally are defined in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary duty is only to those parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the assignment.

Appraisers also have duties outside of boundaries of with whom we share information For example, appraisers must store their work files for at least five years - something else Valuation Professionals PLC takes very seriously.

While busy with an assignment, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. We have a responsibility not to do assignments on contingency fees. That is, we are not able to agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. We don't do assignments on percentage fees. That is probably the appraisal professions most important rule, because it would invite appraisal fraud since raising the value of the home would increase the fee. We set ourselves to a higher standard. Other unethical practices may be defined by state law or professional organizations to which an appraiser belongs.

The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) also states 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," "the amount of a value opinion," as well as other situations. We diligently follow these rules to the letter which means you can rest easy knowing we are doing everything we can to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value.

With Valuation Professionals PLC, you won't have any doubts that you're getting 100 percent ethical, professional service.