 For honest and ethical appraisals, count on Jonathan Burke & AssociatesAppraising is, by and large, a long term career. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever before. That's why it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can definitely be dubbed a profession as opposed to a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we must follow strict ethical considerations.
We have a lot of responsibilities as appraisers, but first and foremost we answer to our clients.
Typically, in residential practice, the lender (or an agent of the lender) places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client.
Subsequently, appraisers have certain duties of privacy to their clients, plus many rules and regulations to which we must adhere. As
a homeowner, if you want to obtain a copy of the appraisal document, you generally should obtain it from your lender instead of the appraiser.
Appraisers will often be obligated to consider the interests of third parties, such as homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Generally the third parties are specifically 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 job.
There are also ethical rules that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must keep their work files for at least five years - something else Jonathan Burke & Associates takes very seriously. Jonathan Burke & Associates holds itself to the industry standards and rules set in place for professional behavior. We won't accept anything less from ourselves. Working on orders where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is not something we can consider. In other words, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. There's an obvious conflict of interest if an appraiser can report a larger value and then get paid more money! Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "USPAP") clearly 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 rest easy knowing we are going above and beyond to objectively determine the home or property value. With Jonathan Burke & Associates, you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, honest service. |
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