For honest and ethical appraisals, count on McHugh Appraisal ServiceAppraising is, by and large, a long term career. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever before. So it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can definitely be called a profession rather than a trade. As with any profession we must follow strict ethical considerations.The appraiser's primary responsibility is to their client. Typically, for a standard residential appraisal, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal, and often the appraisal is ordered by a third party the lender has hired in order to maintain independence. It follows that appraisers are typically restricted to only disclosing their findings to their clients, so as a homeowner, if you desire to review an appraisal report, you normally should request it through your lender and not the appraiser.
In some cases appraisers will have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary duty is only 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 rules that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must be able to produce their work files for a minimum of five years - at McHugh Appraisal Service you can rest assured that we adhere to that rule. McHugh Appraisal Service holds itself to the industry standards and guidelines set in place for professional behavior. We can't accept anything less from ourselves. Doing assignments where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is never an option. That means 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 what amounts to a higher paycheck is unethical! This isn't how we operate. Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "USPAP") explicitly defines unethical behavior 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", 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. When you request an appraisal from McHugh Appraisal Service, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you deserve along with the honesty and integrity we're known for. |