Honesty and Integrity: The Seckel Appraisal Group (614) 329-8106

Appraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever before. That's why it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can certainly be called a profession as opposed to a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we must follow strict ethical considerations.

As appraisers our primary responsibility is to his or her client. Generally, for a typical residential appraisal, the lender places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Appraisers have certain duties of confidentiality to their clients, and as a homeowner, if you require to obtain a copy of an appraisal report, you should get it through your lender. Other obligations also include, accurate calculations appropriate to the scope of the report, acquiring and keeping a particular level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at The Seckel Appraisal Group (614) 329-8106, we take these ethical responsibilities very to heart.

In some cases appraisers will have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, sellers and buyers, or others. Typically the third parties are specifically defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary duty 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.

There are also ethical standards that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for at least five years - at The Seckel Appraisal Group (614) 329-8106 you can rest assured that we abide by that rule.

We meet or beat the industry standards and mandates set in place for professional behavior. We won't 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 payment on the contingency of the loan closing. Another practice that's restricted is doing assignments on percentage fees. That is perhaps the appraisal industries most important rule, because it would tend to make appraisers increase the value of homes or properties to increase their paycheck. We set ourselves to a higher standard. Other unethical practices may be established 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," in addition to other situations We follow these rules to the letter which means you can be at ease knowing we are going above and beyond to objectively determine the home or property value.

As soon as you order an appraisal from The Seckel Appraisal Group (614) 329-8106 we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the ethical handling of appraisals that we're known for.