For honest and ethical appraisals, count on Stilus, LLC

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 definitely be considered a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we are bound by ethical considerations.

We have many obligations as appraisers but our primary duty is to our clients. More often than not, in residential practice, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal. Certain matters pertaining to an assignment can only be discussed with an appraiser's client. As a a homeowner, if you require to review an appraisal report, you generally have to obtain it from your lender. Other obligations also include, numerical accuracy depending on the assignment parameters, acquiring and maintaining a particular level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Maintaining high ethics and client confidentiality is just normal course of business for us at Stilus, LLC.

Appraisers will sometimes need to consider the interests of third parties, including homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Typically the third parties are explicitly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary duty is restricted to those third parties who the appraiser is aware of, 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 keep their work files for at least five years - at Stilus, LLC you can rest assured that we abide by that rule.

Stilus, LLC holds itself to the industry standards and rules set in place for ethics. We can't accept anything less from ourselves. We don't do assignments on contingency fees. That is, we are not able to agree to do an appraisal report and collect the fee only if the loan closes. We don't do assignments on percentage fees. That is probably the appraisal professions most important rule, because it would invite fraudulent practices since raising the estimate of the home would up the their paycheck. 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 states 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," "the amount of a value opinion," in addition to 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 Stilus, LLC, you won't have any doubts that you're receiving 100 percent ethical, professional service.