Honesty and Integrity: Red Oak Appraisals

Appraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. 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 called a profession rather than a trade. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.

We have a lot of obligations as appraisers but above everything we answer to our clients. Typically, in residential practice, the lender places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Appraisers are required to only disclosing information to their clients, and as a homeowner, if you would like a copy of an appraisal report, you normally have to request it from your lender. Other obligations also include, numerical accuracy depending on the assignment's nature, reaching and keeping a certain level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at Red Oak Appraisals, we take these ethical responsibilities very to heart.

Appraisers can also have fiduciary obligations to third parties, including homeowners, sellers and buyers, or others. Generally the third parties are explicitly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary duty is only to those parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the order.

Appraisers also have rules outside of boundaries of with whom we share information For example, appraisers must keep their work files for a minimum of five years - at Red Oak Appraisals you can rest assured that we abide by that rule.

Red Oak Appraisals holds itself to the industry standards and mandates set in place for ethics. We refuse to accept anything less from ourselves. We don't do assignments on contingency fees. That is, we are not able to 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 industries most important rule, because it would invite appraisal fraud since increasing the value of the home would inflate the 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 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," in addition to 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 Red Oak Appraisals, you won't have any doubts that you're getting 100 percent ethical, professional service.