For honest and ethical appraisals, count on Keller Appraisal

We have quite a few responsibilities as appraisers, but above everything we answer to our clients. Generally, for a normal residential appraisal, the lender (or an agent of the lender) places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. It's important to know that many matters pertaining to an assignment are to be shared with the appraiser's client. As a homeowner, if you would like to review the appraisal document, you normally should obtain it from your lender instead of the appraiser.

Other responsibilities include numerical accuracy depending on the assignment parameters, reaching and maintaining an appropriate level of competency and education, and the appraiser must conduct him or herself as a professional. Here at Keller Appraisal, we take these ethical responsibilities very to heart.

Appraisers will sometimes be obligated to consider the interests of third parties, including homeowners, both sellers and buyers, or others. Generally the third parties are explicitly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is restricted to those third parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the assignment.

	Keller Appraisal has worked hard for its track record for providing competent and ethically superior appraisals. To learn more, contact us.

Appraisers also have duties outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must be able to produce their work files for a minimum of five years - something else Keller Appraisal diligently adheres to.

We meet or exceed the industry standards and rules set in place for professional behavior. We won't accept anything less from ourselves. Accepting orders based on contingency fees is never an option. That is, we can't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. There's a definite conflict of interest if an appraiser can report a larger value and then get paid more money! This isn't how we operate.

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice explicitly 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", or "the amount of a value opinion" as well as other situations. We follow these rules to the letter which means you can be confident we are working hard to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value.

As soon as you engage Keller Appraisal, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the principles we're known for.