Honesty and Integrity: Ron Carty Appraisal

Appraising is typically a long term career. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever in the past. That's why it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can certainly be dubbed a profession rather than a trade. As with any profession we must follow strict ethical considerations.

We have many obligations as appraisers but above everything we answer to our clients. More often than not, for a normal residential appraisal, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal. 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 generally have to obtain it through your lender. Other obligations also include, numerical accuracy depending on the scope of the assignment, acquiring and keeping an appropriate level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at Ron Carty Appraisal, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

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

There are also ethical standards that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for at least five years - at Ron Carty Appraisal you can rest assured that we stick to that rule.

We meet or beat the industry standards and rules set in place for ethics. We refuse to accept anything less from ourselves. We never do assignments on contingency fees. That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. We can't do assignments on percentage fees. That is perhaps the appraisal industries biggest taboo, because it would invite appraisal fraud since increasing the value of the home would increase the fee. We don't do that. Other unethical practices may be defined by state law or professional societies that the 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 follow these rules to the letter which means you can be assured we are working hard to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value.

With Ron Carty Appraisal, you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, honest service.