For honest and ethical appraisals, count on C. Gaba Appraisals, LLCAppraising is, by and large, a long term career. Requirements to become 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 called a profession as opposed to a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we have a strict ethical code.
An appraiser's primary responsibility is to their client.
Typically, for a normal 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 retained to maintain independence.
Consequently, appraisers have certain duties of privacy to their clients, plus strict rules and regulations controlling with whom we share information. As
a homeowner, if you would like a copy of an appraisal report, you normally should request it from your lender.
Appraisers may frequently have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, sellers and buyers, or others. Normally the third parties are specifically defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is limited to those parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the assignment.
There are also ethical rules that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must keep their work files for a minimum of five years - at C. Gaba Appraisals, LLC you can rest assured that we abide by that rule. We demand the highest ethical standards possible from ourselves. Accepting orders where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is never an option. That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. Anyone should be able to see that fabricating a property's value to achieve essentially a higher fee is unethical! This isn't how we operate. Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "USPAP") explicitly describes 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", or "the amount of a value opinion" as well as other situations. We follow these rules to the letter which means you can be confident we are going above and beyond to get you an accurate home or property value. When you engage C. Gaba Appraisals, LLC, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you deserve along with the honesty and integrity we're known for. |