![]() Honesty and Integrity: Amerigroup AppraisalsWe consider what we do as a profession. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever in the past. So it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be considered a profession as opposed to a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we must follow strict ethical considerations.
An appraiser's primary responsibility is to their client.
Most of the time, for a typical residential appraisal, the lender (or an agent of the lender) places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client.
It follows that appraisers are privy to a lot of information, and like an attorney, can only discuss many of these matters with their client. As
a homeowner, if you want a copy of an appraisal report, you generally should request it through your lender and not the appraiser.
Appraisers will frequently be obligated to consider the interests of third parties, including homeowners, both sellers and buyers, or others. Those third parties normally are listed in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is restricted to those parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the order.
Appraisers also have duties outside of boundaries of with whom we share information For example, appraisers must store their work files for at least five years - something else Amerigroup Appraisals makes a part of their standard routine. Amerigroup Appraisals holds itself to the industry standards and guidelines set in place for professional behavior. We can't accept anything less from ourselves. Accepting orders based on contingency fees is never an option. That means we are not able to agree to do an appraisal report and collect the fee only if the loan closes. There's a definite conflict of interest if an appraiser can report an unsubstantiated value with the reward of getting paid more money! This isn't how we operate. Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice explicitly describes a violation in ethics 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", or "the amount of a value opinion" in addition to other situations We follow these rules to the letter which means you can rest easy knowing we are going above and beyond to objectively determine the home or property value. With Amerigroup Appraisals, you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, honest service. |