Vista Appraisal Service provides honest and ethical appraisals for Anne Arundel County

For honest and ethical appraisals, trust Vista Appraisal Service

Appraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever in the past. That's why it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can certainly be called a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we have a strict ethical code.

We have quite a few responsibilities as appraisers, but first and foremost we answer to our clients. Typically, in residential practice, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal, and often the appraisal is ordered by a third party the lender has retained to maintain independence. It follows that appraisers are privy to a lot of data, and like an attorney, can only discuss many of these matters with their client. As a homeowner, if you desire a copy of the appraisal document, you generally should get it via your lender instead of the appraiser.

Other obligations include accurate calculations appropriate to the parameters of the assignment, attaining and keeping a particular level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Maintaining high ethics and client confidentiality is standard operating procedure for us at Vista Appraisal Service.

Appraisers will often need to consider the interests of third parties, such as homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Typically the third parties are clearly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary role is restricted to those third parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the job.


	Vista Appraisal Service has worked hard for its reputation for providing competent and ethically superior appraisals. To learn more, contact us.

There are also ethical rules that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must be able to produce their work files for a minimum of five years - something else Vista Appraisal Service takes very seriously.

We require the highest professional integrity possible from ourselves. Working on assignments where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is never an option. That means we are not able to agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. Anyone should be able to see that fabricating a property's value to achieve essentially a bigger fee is unethical!

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice explicitly defines 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", or "the amount of a value opinion" as well as other situations. We diligently follow these rules to the letter which means you can be at ease knowing we are working hard to get you an accurate home or property value.

As soon as you request an appraisal from Vista Appraisal Service, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the honesty and integrity we're known for.