Alaska Real Estate Appraisal maintains the utmost professional ethics

Appraising is typically 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 these days that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be dubbed a profession as opposed to a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we have a strict ethical code.

We have quite a few obligations as appraisers but our primary duty is to our clients. Most of the time, for a typical residential appraisal, the lender places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Appraisers have rules and regulations they must follow, including keeping many matters private for their clients. As a homeowner, if you desire to obtain a copy of the appraisal document, you should request it from your lender. Other obligations also include, numerical accuracy depending on the assignment's nature, reaching and keeping a certain level of competency and education, and conducting themselves as professionals. Here at Alaska Real Estate Appraisal, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

Appraisers can also have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, including homeowners, both sellers and buyers, or others. Typically the third parties are specifically defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary duty is limited to those third parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the job.

There are also ethical duties that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for a minimum of five years - something else Alaska Real Estate Appraisal takes very seriously.

Alaska Real Estate Appraisal holds itself to the industry standards and mandates set in place for professional behavior. We refuse to accept anything less from ourselves. Doing assignments on contingency fees is not something we can consider.  That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. Nor would we perform assignments based on percentage fees. That is probably the appraisal industries biggest no-no, because it would invite fraudulent practices since raising the value of the home would inflate the their paycheck. We don't do that. Other improper practices may be established by state law or professional organizations 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 follow these rules to the letter which means you can rest easy knowing we are doing everything we can to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value.

As soon as you order an appraisal from Alaska Real Estate Appraisal we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the ethical handling of appraisals that we're known for.