Honesty and Integrity

Appraising is typically a long term career. Requirements to become a certified residential appraiser have become more difficult than ever before. So it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can certainly be dubbed a profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.

For an appraiser, the main responsibility is to their client. Most of the time, for a normal residential appraisal, the lender places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Appraisers have certain duties of privacy to their clients, and as a homeowner, if you want to obtain a copy of an appraisal report, you normally have to request it from your lender. Other obligations also include, accurate calculations appropriate to the scope of the assignment, attaining and keeping a respectable level of competency and education, and the appraiser must conduct him or herself as a professional. Maintaining high ethics and client confidentiality is just normal course of business for us at Caloosa Appraisal Services, Inc..

Appraisers will regularly need to consider the interests of third parties, including homeowners, buyers and sellers, or others. Typically the third parties are clearly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is limited to those parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the assignment.

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

Caloosa Appraisal Services, Inc. holds itself to the industry standards and mandates set in place for professional behavior. We can't accept anything less from ourselves. Working on orders that contingency fees is not something we can consider, That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and collect the fee only if the loan closes. Another practice that's restricted is doing assignments on percentage fees. That is probably the appraisal professions most important rule, because it would tend to make appraisers inflate the value of homes or properties to increase their fee. We set ourselves to a higher standard. Other unprofessional practices may be established by state law or professional organizations to which an appraiser belongs.

The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) also defines 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 confident we are going above and beyond to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value.

When you engage Caloosa Appraisal Services, Inc. we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the ethical handling of appraisals that we're known for.