For honest and ethical appraisals, rely on STEVEN GIANNINI & ASSOCIATES

Appraising is, by and large, a long term career. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever before. So it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can certainly be called a profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.

The appraiser's chief responsibility is to their client. Normally, for a regular 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 want to obtain a copy of the appraisal document, you should request it through your lender. Other obligations also include, numerical accuracy depending on the assignment parameters, attaining and keeping a respectable level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at STEVEN GIANNINI & ASSOCIATES, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

In some cases appraisers will have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, sellers and buyers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is restricted to those parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the assignment.

Appraisers also have standards outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must be able to produce their work files for at least five years - at STEVEN GIANNINI & ASSOCIATES you can rest assured that we abide by that rule.

We require the highest ethical standards possible from ourselves. Working on orders that contingency fees is not something we can consider That is, we can't agree to do an appraisal report and collect the fee 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 tend to make appraisers up the value of homes or properties to increase their fee. We set ourselves to a higher standard. Other improper practices may be defined by state law or professional organizations to which an appraiser belongs.

The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) also states 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," "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 provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value.

With STEVEN GIANNINI & ASSOCIATES, you won't have any doubts that you're receiving 100 percent ethical, honest service.