Honesty and Integrity: Chris Long

We think of what we do as a profession. 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 unquestionably be considered a profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.

For an appraiser the main obligation is to their client. Most of the time, for a normal residential appraisal, the lender places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Appraisers are privy to a lot of data, and like an attorney can only discuss many matters with their client. As a homeowner, if you desire to review the appraisal document, you should obtain it from your lender. Other obligations also include, numerical accuracy depending on the assignment parameters, reaching and sustaining an adequate level of competency and education, and the appraiser must conduct him or herself as a professional. Maintaining high ethics is just normal course of business for us at Chris Long.

Appraisers can also have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are defined in the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary roll is restricted to those parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the order.

Appraisers also have duties outside of boundaries of with whom we share information For example, appraisers must store their work files for a minimum of five years - at Chris Long you can rest assured that we abide by that rule.

We meet or beat the industry standards and guidelines set in place for ethics. We refuse to accept anything less from ourselves. We don't do assignments on contingency fees. That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and collect the fee only if the loan closes. We don't do assignments on percentage fees. That is perhaps the appraisal professions most important rule, because it would tend to make appraisers raise the value of homes or properties to increase their paycheck. We set ourselves to a higher standard. Other improper practices may be defined by state law or professional societies to which an appraiser belongs.

The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (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," "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 doing everything we can to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value.

With Chris Long, you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, professional service.