Honesty and Integrity: Cornerstone Appraisals

We have a great deal of responsibilities as appraisers, but above everything we answer to our clients. Typically, for a standard residential appraisal, the lender (or an agent of the lender) places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Certain matters relating to an assignment are to be shared exclusively with the appraiser's client. So, as a homeowner, if you would like to obtain a copy of the appraisal document, you generally should obtain it from your lender.

Other responsibilities include numerical accuracy depending on the scope of the assignment, acquiring and sustaining an appropriate level of competency and education, and the appraiser must conduct him or herself as a professional. Maintaining high ethics and client confidentiality is standard operating procedure for us at Cornerstone Appraisals.

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

	Cornerstone Appraisals has worked hard for its reputation for providing competent and ethically superior appraisals. Contact us today to learn more.

There are also ethical rules that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for a minimum of five years - at Cornerstone Appraisals you can rest assured that we abide by that rule.

When creating reports, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Working on orders where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is never an option. In other words, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. There's an obvious conflict of interest if an appraiser can report a greater value and then get paid more money! This isn't how we operate.

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "USPAP") also states a violation in ethics 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" in addition to other situations We diligently follow these rules to the letter which means you can be confident we are doing everything we can to get you an accurate home or property value.

As soon as you request an appraisal from Cornerstone Appraisals, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you deserve along with the honesty and integrity we're known for.