Client's First @ Stine Appraisal Services 

As with any profession we must follow strict ethical considerations.

For an appraiser the chief responsibility is to his or her client. Most of the time, 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 want to obtain a copy of the appraisal document, you should request it through your lender. 

Other obligations also include, accurate figures appropriate to the nature of the report, reaching and maintaining a certain level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. 

Here at Stine Appraisal Services Inc., we take these ethical responsibilities very to heart.

Appraisers can also have fiduciary obligations to third parties, including homeowners, buyers and sellers, or others. Generally the third parties are specifically defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is limited to those parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the job.

Appraisers also have duties outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must keep their work files for a minimum of five years - something else Stine Appraisal Services Inc. takes very seriously.

We meet or beat the industry standards and rules set in place for professional behavior. Doing orders on contingency fees is not something we can consider That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. We can't do assignments on percentage fees. That is perhaps the appraisal professions most important rule, because it would invite appraisal fraud since increasing the estimate of the home would raise the their paycheck. We set ourselves to a higher standard. Other unprofessional 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 going above and beyond to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value.

When you order an appraisal from Stine Appraisal Services Inc. we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with ethical handling of appraisals.