JM Hall Appraisals upholds the utmost professional ethics

The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever. Real Estate Appraisal is a highly regarded profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession, appraisers are held in compliance with a strict ethical code. Other obligations include, numerical accuracy, attaining and staining an adequate level of competency and education, and maintaining a manner of professionalism at all times.

As an appraiser, my obligation is to my client. More often than not, in residential practice, the lender places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Certain matters pertaining to an assignment can only be discussed with an appraiser's client. As a homeowner, if you want to obtain a copy of an appraisal report, you generally have to request it through your lender. Here at JM Hall Appraisals, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

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

Appraisers also have standards outside of boundaries of with whom we share information For example, appraisers must be able to produce their work files for a minimum of five years - at JM Hall Appraisals you can rest assured that we stick to that rule.

We meet or beat the industry standards and mandates set in place for ethics. We refuse to accept anything less from ourselves. Working on assignments that contingency fees is not something we can consider That is, we can't agree to do an appraisal report and collect the fee only if the loan closes. We can't do assignments on percentage fees. That is probably the appraisal professions biggest no-no, because it would invite fraudulent practices since raising the estimate of the home would increase the fee. We set ourselves to a higher standard. Other improper practices may be defined by state law or professional organizations 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 assured we are working hard to objectively determine the home or property value.

With JM Hall Appraisals, you won't have any doubts that you're receiving 100 percent ethical, professional service.