Honesty and Integrity: Fife Appraising

We have a great deal of responsibilities as appraisers, but above everything we answer to our clients. Typically, for a regular 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 brought in to maintain independence. Thereon, appraisers are privy to a lot of data, and like an attorney, can only discuss many of these matters with their client. As a homeowner, if you want to obtain a copy of the appraisal document, you normally should obtain it from your lender.

Other obligations include numerical accuracy depending on the assignment's nature, reaching and sustaining an appropriate level of competency and education, and naturally, the appraiser must bear a professional demeanor. Here at Fife Appraising, we take these ethical responsibilities very to heart.

There are some scenarios in which appraisers will have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Normally the third parties are clearly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary duty is restricted to those third parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the order.

	Fife Appraising has an established reputation for completing appraisals with the highest of ethics. To learn more, contact us.

There are also ethical duties that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must keep their work files for at least five years - something else Fife Appraising takes very seriously.

Fife Appraising holds itself to the industry standards and mandates set in place for ethics. We refuse to accept anything less from ourselves. Working on assignments where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is not something we can consider. That means we don't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. It should be obvious that fabricating a home's value to achieve a higher paycheck is unethical!

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice also states unethical behavior as the acceptance 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 doing everything we can to objectively determine the home or property value.

With Fife Appraising, you won't have any doubts that you're receiving 100 percent ethical, honest service.