Midwest Appraisal and Consulting maintains the utmost professional ethics

Generally, appraising a long term career. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever before. That's why it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can certainly be considered a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we have a strict ethical code.

The appraiser's main obligation is to his or her client. Normally, in residential practice, the lender places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Appraisers have certain duties of privacy to their clients, and as a homeowner, if you require to obtain a copy of the appraisal document, you generally have to get it from your lender. Other obligations also include, numerical accuracy depending on the scope of the assignment, attaining and keeping an adequate level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at Midwest Appraisal and Consulting, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

Appraisers may regularly have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, sellers and buyers, or others. Normally the third parties are specifically defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is only to those third parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the assignment.

Appraisers also have standards outside of boundaries of with whom we share information For example, appraisers must store their work files for at least five years - something else Midwest Appraisal and Consulting takes very seriously.

We meet or beat 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 collect the fee only if the loan closes. We don't do assignments on percentage fees. That is perhaps the appraisal professions most important rule, because it would invite fraudulent practices since increasing the estimate of the home would up the fee. We don't do that. Other unethical practices may be defined by state law or professional organizations that the appraiser belongs.

The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) also states unethical behavior as the acceptance 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 assured we are going above and beyond to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value.

With Midwest Appraisal and Consulting, you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, professional service.