Honesty and Integrity: Knowles Appraisal, LLC

By and large, appraising a long term career. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever before. That's why it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can certainly be considered a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we have a strict ethical code.

We have many responsibilities as appraisers but first and foremost we answer to our clients. Normally, for a standard residential appraisal, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal. Appraisers have rules and regulations they must follow, including confidentiality for their clients a homeowner, if you desire a copy of the appraisal document, you should get it through your lender. Other responsibilities also include, accurate figures appropriate to the nature of the report, reaching and keeping a respectable level of competency and education, and the appraiser must conduct him or herself as a professional. Maintaining high ethics and client confidentiality is just normal course of business for us at Knowles Appraisal, LLC.

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

There are also ethical rules that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must store their work files for a minimum of five years - at Knowles Appraisal, LLC you can rest assured that we abide by that rule.

We only perform to the highest ethical standards possible. Doing orders on contingency fees is never an option. 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 perhaps the appraisal professions biggest no-no, because it would invite appraisal fraud since raising the value of the home would increase the their paycheck. We set ourselves to a higher standard. Other improper 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 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 objectively determine the home or property value.

With Knowles Appraisal, LLC, you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, professional service.