Harlin Young & Co. maintains the utmost professional ethicsAppraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever in the past. That's why it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can definitely be dubbed a profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.
We have many responsibilities as appraisers, but our chief duty is to our clients.
Typically, for a standard residential appraisal, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal, and often the appraisal is ordered by a third party the lender has hired in order to maintain independence.
Certain matters relating to an assignment are to be shared exclusively with the appraiser's client. So, as
a homeowner, if you desire a copy of an appraisal report, you normally should obtain it via your lender and not the appraiser.
Appraisers can sometimes have fiduciary obligations to third parties, such as homeowners, buyers and sellers, or others. Generally the third parties are specifically defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary role 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.
There are also ethical rules that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must store their work files for a minimum of five years - at Harlin Young & Co. you can rest assured that we adhere to that rule. Harlin Young & Co. holds itself to the industry standards and mandates set in place for ethics. We won't accept anything less from ourselves. Doing assignments based on contingency fees is never an option. In other words, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. It should be apparent to anyone that inflating a value to achieve essentially a higher paycheck is unethical! This isn't how we operate. Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice explicitly states 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", or "the amount of a value opinion" in addition to other situations We diligently follow these rules to the letter which means you can rest easy knowing we are doing everything we can to get you an accurate home or property value. With Harlin Young & Co., you won't have any doubts that you're receiving 100 percent ethical, professional service. |