Promontory Appraisal Services upholds the highest professional ethics

By and large, appraising a long term career. The rigors of becoming 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 unquestionably be considered a profession rather than a trade. As with any profession we are bound by ethical considerations.

We have a lot of responsibilities as appraisers but first and foremost we answer to our clients. Generally, for a normal residential appraisal, the lender places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Appraisers have rules and regulations they must follow, including keeping many matters private for their clients a homeowner, if you desire to review the appraisal document, you should request it through your lender. Other responsibilities also include, numerical accuracy depending on the assignment's nature, acquiring and maintaining a particular level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at Promontory Appraisal Services, we take these ethical responsibilities very to heart.

Appraisers will often be required to consider the interests of third parties, such as homeowners, sellers and buyers, or others. Normally the third parties are explicitly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is limited to those third 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 rules that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must keep their work files for at least five years - at Promontory Appraisal Services you can rest assured that we adhere to that rule.

Promontory Appraisal Services holds itself to the industry standards and mandates set in place for professional behavior. We can't accept anything less from ourselves. We never do assignments on contingency fees. That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. We can't do 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 raise the their paycheck. 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 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," as well as 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.

With Promontory Appraisal Services, you won't have any doubts that you're receiving 100 percent ethical, professional service.