Honesty and Integrity: Anglin Appraisal

Appraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever in the past. So it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be dubbed a profession rather than a trade. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.

As appraisers our primary obligation is to his or her client. Typically, for a normal residential appraisal, the lender places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Appraisers have rules and regulations they must follow, including keeping many matters private for their clients a homeowner, if you require a copy of the appraisal document, you generally have to get it through your lender. Other responsibilities also include, numerical accuracy depending on the scope of the assignment, acquiring and keeping a certain level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at Anglin Appraisal, we take these ethical responsibilities very to heart.

Appraisers will regularly be required to consider the interests of third parties, including homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Typically the third parties are specifically defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is limited to those parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the job.

There are also ethical standards that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must store their work files for a minimum of five years - at Anglin Appraisal you can rest assured that we abide by that rule.

Anglin Appraisal holds itself to the industry standards and mandates set in place for professional behavior. We won't accept anything less from ourselves. We never do assignments on contingency fees. That is, we don't 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 perhaps the appraisal professions biggest taboo, because it would tend to make appraisers raise the value of homes or properties to increase their paycheck. We don't do that. 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," in addition to other situations We follow these rules to the letter which means you can rest easy knowing we are working hard to objectively determine the home or property value.

As soon as you engage Anglin Appraisal we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the ethical handling of appraisals that we're known for.