Jencks Appraisal Services, LLC upholds the utmost professional ethics

Appraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever in the past. So it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can certainly be dubbed a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we are bound by ethical considerations.

We have quite a few obligations as appraisers but our main duty is to our clients. Typically, in residential practice, the lender places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Appraisers have certain duties of confidentiality to their clients, and as a homeowner, if you require to obtain a copy of an appraisal report, you generally have to request it from your lender. Other responsibilities also include, numerical accuracy depending on the assignment parameters, reaching and maintaining an adequate level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at Jencks Appraisal Services, LLC, we take these ethical responsibilities very to heart.

Appraisers can also have fiduciary obligations to third parties, such as homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are defined in the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is limited to those parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the job.

Appraisers also have standards outside of boundaries of with whom we share information For example, appraisers must backup their work files for at least five years - something else Jencks Appraisal Services, LLC diligently adheres to.

When working on an assignment, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. We don't do assignments on contingency fees. That is, we can't agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. We can't do assignments on percentage fees. That is probably the appraisal professions biggest no-no, because it would invite appraisal fraud since increasing the estimate of the home would increase the fee. We set ourselves to a higher standard. Other unprofessional practices may be defined by state law or professional organizations that the appraiser belongs.

The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) also defines 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," "the amount of a value opinion," in addition to 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 order an appraisal from Jencks Appraisal Services, LLC we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the ethical handling of appraisals that we're known for.