For honest and ethical appraisals, rely on Washington Estate Appraisals LLC

Appraising is, by and large, a long term career. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever before. So it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can certainly be dubbed a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we are bound by an ethical code.

We have a lot of responsibilities as appraisers but first and foremost we answer to our clients. More often than not, 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 a copy of an appraisal report, you should get it from your lender. Other obligations also include, accurate calculations appropriate to the nature of the report, attaining and sustaining a respectable level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at Washington Estate Appraisals LLC, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

Appraisers will regularly need to consider the interests of third parties, including homeowners, both sellers and buyers, or others. Normally the third parties are explicitly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is only to those parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters 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 Washington Estate Appraisals LLC you can rest assured that we abide by that rule.

Washington Estate Appraisals LLC holds itself to the industry standards and rules set in place for ethics. We refuse to accept anything less from ourselves. Doing assignments on contingency fees is not something we can consider 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 industries biggest no-no, because it would invite appraisal fraud since increasing the value of the home would up the 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 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 diligently 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 Washington Estate Appraisals LLC, you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, honest service.