Sarah J. Pummel upholds the highest professional ethics

We consider our our job a profession. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever before. So it goes without question these days 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 chief obligation is to his or her client. More often than not, for a regular residential appraisal, the lender places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Appraisers are privy to a lot of information, and like an attorney can only discuss many matters with their client. As a homeowner, if you want to obtain a copy of an appraisal report, you normally have to get it from your lender. Other obligations also include, numerical accuracy depending on the assignment's nature, reaching and sustaining a certain level of competency and education, and the appraiser must conduct him or herself as a professional. Maintaining high ethics and client confidentiality is just normal course of business for us at Sarah J. Pummel.

Appraisers can also have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, including homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary duty 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 job.

There are also ethical duties that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must store their work files for at least five years - at Sarah J. Pummel 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 are not able to agree to do an appraisal report and collect the fee only if the loan closes. Another practice that's restricted is doing assignments on percentage fees. That is probably the appraisal professions most important rule, because it would invite appraisal fraud since increasing the estimate of the home would up the their paycheck. We don't do that. 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 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," in addition to other situations We follow these rules to the letter which means you can rest easy knowing we are doing everything we can to objectively determine the home or property value.

With Sarah J. Pummel, you won't have any doubts that you're receiving 100 percent ethical, honest service.