Honesty and Integrity: Carole & Company

We consider our our business a profession. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever before. So it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be dubbed a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we must follow strict ethical considerations.

We have a lot of responsibilities as appraisers but first and foremost we answer to our clients. Generally, for a standard residential appraisal, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal. Appraisers have rules and regulations they must follow, including keeping many matters private for their clients a homeowner, if you desire to obtain a copy of the appraisal document, you normally have to request it through your lender. Other responsibilities also include, numerical accuracy depending on the scope of the assignment, attaining and maintaining an appropriate level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at Carole & Company, we take these ethical responsibilities very to heart.

Appraisers will sometimes be required to consider the interests of third parties, including homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are defined in the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary roll 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.

Appraisers also have duties outside of boundaries of with whom we share information For example, appraisers must keep their work files for a minimum of five years - at Carole & Company you can rest assured that we abide by that rule.

When creating reports, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Working on orders that contingency fees is not something we can consider That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. Another practice that's restricted is doing assignments on percentage fees. That is probably the appraisal professions most important rule, because it would tend to make appraisers raise the value of homes or properties to increase their fee. We set ourselves to a higher standard. Other unethical practices may be established by state law or professional societies that the appraiser belongs.

The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) also defines 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," "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 working hard to objectively determine the home or property value.

As soon as you engage Carole & Company we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the an ethical approach with appraisals that we're known for.