Sound Appraisals maintains the utmost professional ethics

Appraising is typically a long term career. 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 certainly be considered a profession rather than a trade. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.

We have quite a few responsibilities as appraisers but our main duty is to our clients. Generally, in residential practice, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal. Appraisers have rules and regulations they must follow, including confidentiality for their clients a homeowner, if you would like a copy of an appraisal report, you generally have to request it through your lender. Other obligations also include, accurate sums appropriate to the scope of the report, acquiring and sustaining a respectable level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at Sound Appraisals, we take these ethical responsibilities very to heart.

Appraisers will frequently be required to consider the interests of third parties, such as homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is only to those parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the order.

Appraisers also have standards outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must keep their work files for a minimum of five years - at Sound Appraisals 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. Working on assignments that contingency fees is not something we can consider That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. Another practice that's restricted is doing assignments on percentage fees. That is probably the appraisal industries most important rule, because it would tend to make appraisers raise the value of homes or properties to increase their fee. We set ourselves to a higher standard. Other improper practices may be established by state law or professional societies to which an appraiser belongs.

The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) also 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," "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 going above and beyond to objectively determine the home or property value.

As soon as you order an appraisal from Sound Appraisals we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the ethical handling of appraisals that we're known for.