Honesty and Integrity: Walter Rivera Real Estate Appraisal

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 in this day and age that real estate appraisal can certainly be considered a profession rather than a trade. As with any profession we are bound by ethical considerations.

For an appraiser the primary obligation is to his or her client. Typically, in residential practice, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal. Certain matters pertaining to an assignment can only be discussed with an appraiser's client. As a a homeowner, if you require to obtain a copy of the appraisal document, you should get it from your lender. Other obligations also include, numerical accuracy depending on the assignment's nature, reaching and sustaining a certain level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at Walter Rivera Real Estate Appraisal, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

Appraisers will frequently be obligated to consider the interests of third parties, including homeowners, sellers and buyers, or others. Those third parties normally are defined in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is limited to those parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the job.

Appraisers also have standards outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for at least five years - at Walter Rivera Real Estate Appraisal you can rest assured that we stick to that rule.

Walter Rivera Real Estate Appraisal holds itself to the industry standards and mandates set in place for ethics. We won't accept anything less from ourselves. We don't do assignments on contingency fees. That is, we can't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. We don't do assignments on percentage fees. That is perhaps the appraisal industries most important rule, because it would invite appraisal fraud since raising the estimate of the home would increase the their paycheck. We don't do that. Other unprofessional practices may be defined by state law or professional societies that the appraiser belongs.

The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) also states 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 at ease knowing we are doing everything we can to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value.

With Walter Rivera Real Estate Appraisal, you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, honest service.