For honest and ethical appraisals, count on Foxshire Valuation Services

By and large, appraising a long term career. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever before. That's why it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can definitely be called a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we must follow strict ethical considerations.

We have a great deal of responsibilities as appraisers but our main duty is to our clients. Normally, for a normal residential appraisal, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal. Appraisers have certain duties of confidentiality to their clients, and as a homeowner, if you would like to obtain a copy of the appraisal document, you should obtain it from your lender. Other obligations also include, accurate sums appropriate to the nature of the report, reaching and maintaining an adequate level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at Foxshire Valuation Services, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

Appraisers will regularly need to consider the interests of third parties, including homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary roll is restricted to those third parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the assignment.

There are also ethical standards that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must store their work files for a minimum of five years - something else Foxshire Valuation Services takes very seriously.

We meet or beat the industry standards and guidelines set in place for professional behavior. We won't accept anything less from ourselves. Working on assignments that contingency fees is not something we can consider That is, we can't agree to do an appraisal report and collect the fee only if the loan closes. Another practice that's restricted is doing assignments on percentage fees. That is probably the appraisal industries biggest taboo, because it would invite appraisal fraud since increasing the estimate of the home would increase the fee. We set ourselves to a higher standard. Other unethical practices may be defined by state law or professional societies to which an 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," as well as other situations. We follow these rules to the letter which means you can be assured we are working hard to objectively determine the home or property value.

When you engage Foxshire Valuation Services we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the ethical handling of appraisals that we're known for.