Stafford Appraisals upholds the highest professional ethics

We think of what we do as a profession. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever before. That's why it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be considered a profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession we must follow strict ethical considerations.

We have a great deal of obligations as appraisers but our main duty is to our clients. Most of the time, in residential practice, 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 require to review an appraisal report, you generally have to obtain it through your lender. Other obligations also include, numerical accuracy depending on the assignment parameters, attaining and sustaining a particular level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Maintaining high ethics and client confidentiality is is what we do everyday at Stafford Appraisals.

There are some scenarios in which appraisers will have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary duty is only to those third parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the order.

Appraisers also have rules outside of boundaries of with whom we share information For example, appraisers must be able to produce their work files for at least five years - at Stafford Appraisals you can rest assured that we adhere to that rule.

Stafford Appraisals holds itself to the industry standards and rules set in place for professional behavior. We won't accept anything less from ourselves. Working on orders that 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 don't do assignments on percentage fees. That is probably the appraisal professions biggest taboo, because it would invite appraisal fraud since increasing the value of the home would increase the their paycheck. We don't do that. 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 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," in addition to other situations We diligently follow these rules to the letter which means you can be confident we are working hard to objectively determine the home or property value.

When you order an appraisal from Stafford Appraisals 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.