Metro Appraisals provides honest and ethical appraisals for Collier County

Honesty and Integrity: Metro Appraisals

Appraising is generally a long term career. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever in the past. That's why it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can definitely be considered a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we must follow strict ethical considerations.

The appraiser's chief responsibility is to their client. Most of the time, in residential practice, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal, and often the appraisal is ordered by a third party the lender has contracted in order to maintain independence. It follows that appraisers are typically restricted to only disclosing information to their clients, so as a homeowner, if you want to review the appraisal document, you normally should request it from your lender.

Other obligations include accurate figures appropriate to the parameters of the assignment, attaining and keeping an appropriate level of competency and education, and naturally, the appraiser must bear a professional demeanor. Here at Metro Appraisals, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

Appraisers will often be required to consider the interests of third parties, such as homeowners, sellers and buyers, or others. Normally the third parties are clearly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is restricted to those third parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the job.


	Metro Appraisals has worked hard for its track record for producing appraisals with the highest of ethics. Contact us today to learn more.

There are also ethical duties that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must be able to produce their work files for a minimum of five years - something else Metro Appraisals makes a part of their standard routine.

When creating reports, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Working on orders where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is not something we can consider. In other words, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and base our pay upon coming up with a particular value conclusion. There's an obvious conflict of interest if an appraiser can report an unsubstantiated value with the reward of getting paid more money! We set ourselves to a higher standard.

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "USPAP") also defines unethical behavior 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", or "the amount of a value opinion" as well as other situations. We follow these rules to the letter which means you can rest easy knowing we are working hard to objectively determine the home or property value.

When you order an appraisal from Metro Appraisals, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the honesty and integrity we're known for.