Honesty and Integrity: Turner Consulting & EvaluationWe think of our business as a profession. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever before. So it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can definitely be considered a profession as opposed to a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we must follow strict ethical considerations.
An appraiser's chief obligation is to their client.
Most of the time, in residential practice, the lender (or an agent of the lender) places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client.
Thereon, appraisers are typically limited to only disclosing information to their clients, so as
a homeowner, if you want to obtain a copy of the appraisal document, you normally have to obtain it through your lender.
Appraisers may also have fiduciary obligations to 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 duty is limited to those third parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the job.
There are also ethical duties that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must keep their work files for a minimum of five years - at Turner Consulting & Evaluation you can rest assured that we stick to that rule. We demand the highest professional integrity possible from ourselves. Doing orders where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is not something we can consider. That means we don't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. There's certainly a conflict of interest if an appraiser can report an unsubstantiated value and then get paid more money! This isn't how we operate. Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "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", or "the amount of a value opinion" as well as other situations. We follow these rules to the letter which means you can be confident we are working hard to get you an accurate home or property value. With Turner Consulting & Evaluation, you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, honest service. |