ACCUappraisals maintains the highest professional ethics

Appraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever before. So it goes without question in this day and age 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 quite a few responsibilities as appraisers but our chief duty is to our clients. Normally, in residential practice, the lender places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Certain matters pertaining to an assignment can only be discussed with an appraiser's client. As a a homeowner, if you would like to review the appraisal document, you should get it through your lender. Other responsibilities also include, numerical accuracy depending on the assignment's nature, acquiring and keeping a particular level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at ACCUappraisals, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

Appraisers will sometimes be obligated to consider the interests of third parties, such as homeowners, sellers and buyers, or others. Those third parties normally are listed in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary roll is only to those third parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the order.

There are also ethical standards that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for a minimum of five years - at ACCUappraisals you can rest assured that we adhere to that rule.

We meet or beat the industry standards and mandates set in place for professional behavior. We refuse to accept anything less from ourselves. Working on orders that contingency fees is not something we can consider That is, we can't agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. We can't do assignments on percentage fees. That is perhaps the appraisal industries biggest taboo, because it would tend to make appraisers up the value of homes or properties to increase their fee. We set ourselves to a higher standard. Other improper practices may be defined by state law or professional societies that the appraiser belongs.

The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) also defines unethical behavior 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," "the amount of a value opinion," in addition to other situations We follow these rules to the letter which means you can rest easy knowing we are going above and beyond to objectively determine the home or property value.

With ACCUappraisals, you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, honest service.