Midlands Appraisal Group, LLC upholds the highest professional ethics

Appraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever before. So it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be considered 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 responsibilities as appraisers but our main duty is to our clients. More often than not, for a regular 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 a homeowner, if you desire to obtain a copy of an appraisal report, you should get it from your lender. Other responsibilities also include, numerical accuracy depending on the scope of the assignment, attaining and maintaining an adequate level of competency and education, and the appraiser must conduct him or herself as a professional. Here at Midlands Appraisal Group, LLC, we take these ethical responsibilities very to heart.

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

There are also ethical rules that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for at least five years - something else Midlands Appraisal Group, LLC diligently adheres to.

Midlands Appraisal Group, LLC holds itself to the industry standards and guidelines set in place for professional behavior. We can't accept anything less from ourselves. We never do assignments on contingency fees. That is, we can't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. Another practice that's restricted is doing assignments on percentage fees. That is perhaps the appraisal industries most important rule, because it would tend to make appraisers increase the value of homes or properties to increase their fee. We don't do that. Other unprofessional practices may be established by state law or professional organizations that the appraiser belongs.

The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (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," "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 objectively determine the home or property value.

When you engage Midlands Appraisal Group, LLC we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the ethical handling of appraisals that we're known for.