Britton Real Estate and Appraisals provides honest and ethical appraisals for Marshall County

Honesty and Integrity: Britton Real Estate and Appraisals

Appraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever in the past. So it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can certainly be considered a profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession we must follow strict ethical considerations.

We have a lot of responsibilities as appraisers, but our primary duty is to our clients. Typically, in residential practice, the lender (or an agent of the lender) places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Consequently, appraisers are typically limited to only disclosing information to their clients, so as a homeowner, if you want a copy of the appraisal document, you normally have to obtain it via your lender and not the appraiser.

Other obligations include accurate figures appropriate to the scope of the report, acquiring and maintaining a certain level of competency and education, and naturally, the appraiser must bear a professional demeanor. Here at Britton Real Estate and Appraisals, we take these ethical responsibilities very to heart.

Appraisers will regularly be required to consider the interests of third parties, including homeowners, both sellers and buyers, or others. Typically the third parties are explicitly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary role is limited to those third parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the order.


	Britton Real Estate and Appraisals has an established reputation for providing appraisals with the highest of ethics. Contact us today to learn more.

There are also ethical rules that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must store their work files for at least five years - something else Britton Real Estate and Appraisals makes a part of their standard routine.

When creating reports, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Accepting assignments where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is not something we can consider. That means we are not able to agree to do an appraisal report and base our pay upon coming up with a particular value conclusion. Anyone should be able to see that inflating a value to achieve essentially a higher fee is unethical!

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice 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", 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 going above and beyond to get you an accurate home or property value.

When you order an appraisal from Britton Real Estate and Appraisals, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you deserve along with the honesty and integrity we're known for.