Honesty and Integrity: Ninja Appraisals

We consider our our business a profession. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever in the past. So it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can certainly be considered a profession rather than a trade. As with any profession we are bound by an ethical code.

For an appraiser the chief responsibility is to his or her client. Most of the time, for a standard residential appraisal, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal. Appraisers are privy to a lot of data, and like an attorney can only discuss many matters with their client. As a homeowner, if you desire a copy of an appraisal report, you normally have to get it through your lender. Other responsibilities also include, accurate calculations appropriate to the scope of the report, attaining and maintaining a respectable level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Maintaining high ethics and client confidentiality is standard operating procedure for us at Ninja Appraisals.

There are some scenarios in which appraisers will have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, including homeowners, sellers and buyers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary roll is restricted to those parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the assignment.

There are also ethical duties that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must store their work files for a minimum of five years - at Ninja Appraisals you can rest assured that we adhere to that rule.

Ninja Appraisals 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 don't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid 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 increasing the value of the home would raise the their paycheck. We don't do that. Other unprofessional practices may be established by state law or professional organizations to which an 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," in addition to other situations We follow these rules to the letter which means you can be assured we are doing everything we can to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value.

As soon as you request an appraisal from Ninja Appraisals we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the an ethical approach with appraisals that we're known for.