For honest and ethical appraisals, rely on Texas Real Estate Office

Appraising is, by and large, a long term career. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever before. That's why it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can certainly be considered a profession rather than a trade. As with any profession we must follow strict ethical considerations.

We have many responsibilities as appraisers but first and foremost we answer to our clients. Normally, in residential practice, the lender places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Appraisers are privy to a lot of information, and like an attorney can only discuss many matters with their client. As a homeowner, if you desire to review an appraisal report, you normally have to obtain it through your lender. Other responsibilities also include, accurate calculations appropriate to the nature of the assignment, attaining and keeping an adequate level of competency and education, and the appraiser must conduct him or herself as a professional. Maintaining high ethics is just normal course of business for us at Texas Real Estate Office.

Appraisers may regularly have fiduciary obligations to third parties, including homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are defined in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is only to those third parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the assignment.

Appraisers also have standards outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must keep their work files for a minimum of five years - at Texas Real Estate Office you can rest assured that we adhere to that rule.

We require the highest ethical standards possible from ourselves. Doing orders on contingency fees is never an option. That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. We can't do assignments on percentage fees. That is perhaps the appraisal professions most important rule, because it would tend to make appraisers up the value of homes or properties to increase their paycheck. 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 states 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," as well as other situations. We diligently follow these rules to the letter which means you can be at ease knowing we are going above and beyond to objectively determine the home or property value.

With Texas Real Estate Office, you won't have any doubts that you're receiving 100 percent ethical, honest service.