Carol Bradley Williams maintains the highest professional ethics

Appraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever in the past. That's why it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be considered a profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession we are bound by an ethical code.

We have a great deal of responsibilities as appraisers but our primary duty is to our clients. More often than not, in residential practice, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal. Appraisers are required to only disclosing information to their clients, and as a homeowner, if you would like to obtain a copy of an appraisal report, you should obtain it from your lender. Other responsibilities also include, accurate figures appropriate to the nature of the report, acquiring and maintaining a particular level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Maintaining high ethics is just normal course of business for us at Carol Bradley Williams.

There are some scenarios in which appraisers will have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, both sellers and buyers, or others. Normally the third parties are explicitly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary roll 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 order.

Appraisers also have rules outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must store their work files for a minimum of five years - at Carol Bradley Williams you can rest assured that we adhere to that rule.

We demand the highest ethical standards possible from ourselves. Doing assignments on contingency fees is never an option. That is, we can't agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. Another practice that's restricted is doing assignments on percentage fees. That is probably the appraisal industries biggest taboo, because it would invite appraisal fraud since raising the value of the home would raise the their paycheck. We don't do that. Other unethical practices may be defined by state law or professional organizations to which an 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," as well as other situations. We follow these rules to the letter which means you can rest easy knowing we are working hard to objectively determine the home or property value.

As soon as you engage Carol Bradley Williams we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the an ethical approach with appraisals that we're known for.