Mahoney Appraisal Services, Inc upholds the highest professional ethicsAppraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever before. So it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be called a profession as opposed to a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we have a strict ethical code.
An appraiser's primary responsibility is to their client.
Normally, in residential practice, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal, and often the appraisal is ordered by a third party the lender has contracted in order to maintain independence.
Subsequently, appraisers have certain duties of privacy to their clients, plus strict rules and regulations to which we must adhere. So, as
a homeowner, if you would like a copy of an appraisal report, you generally should request it from your lender.
In some cases appraisers will have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Typically the third parties are specifically defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary role is only to those parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the order.
Appraisers also have standards outside of boundaries of with whom we share information For example, appraisers must store their work files for at least five years - something else Mahoney Appraisal Services, Inc diligently adheres to. We demand the highest professional integrity possible from ourselves. Accepting orders based on contingency fees is never an option. That means we are not able to agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. There's a definite conflict of interest if an appraiser can report an unsubstantiated value and then get paid more money! We just don't do it. Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice 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", or "the amount of a value opinion" as well as other situations. We diligently follow these rules to the letter which means you can be assured we are working hard to objectively determine the home or property value. With Mahoney Appraisal Services, Inc, you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, honest service. |