Honesty and Integrity: Firebird Appraisal & Consulting

Appraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever in the past. So it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can certainly be considered a profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.

As appraisers our chief obligation is to his or her client. Typically, in residential practice, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal. Appraisers are required to only disclosing information to their clients, and as a homeowner, if you desire to review an appraisal report, you should get it from your lender. Other obligations also include, numerical accuracy depending on the assignment parameters, attaining and keeping a certain level of competency and education, and the appraiser must conduct him or herself as a professional. Here at Firebird Appraisal & Consulting, we take these ethical responsibilities very to heart.

In some cases appraisers will have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, sellers and buyers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary roll is only to those third parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the job.

Appraisers also have rules outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for at least five years - something else Firebird Appraisal & Consulting makes a part of their standard routine.

We require the highest ethical standards possible 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 the fee only if the loan closes. We can't do assignments on percentage fees. That is perhaps the appraisal industries most important rule, because it would tend to make appraisers inflate the value of homes or properties to increase their fee. We don't do that. Other unethical 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," in addition to other situations We follow these rules to the letter which means you can be assured we are doing everything we can to objectively determine the home or property value.

As soon as you engage Firebird Appraisal & Consulting we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the ethical handling of appraisals that we're known for.