Honesty and Integrity: Thomas Sidenfaden

Appraising is typically a long term career. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever before. That's why it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can certainly be called a profession rather than a trade. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.

For an appraiser the primary responsibility is to his or her client. Most of the time, for a normal residential appraisal, the lender places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Appraisers have rules and regulations they must follow, including keeping many matters private for their clients a homeowner, if you desire a copy of the appraisal document, you should get it from your lender. Other responsibilities also include, numerical accuracy depending on the assignment's nature, attaining and sustaining an adequate level of competency and education, and the appraiser must conduct him or herself as a professional. Here at Thomas Sidenfaden, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

Appraisers can also have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are listed in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary duty is limited to those parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the assignment.

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

We require the highest ethical standards possible from ourselves. We don't do assignments on contingency fees. That is, we can't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. We don't do assignments on percentage fees. That is probably the appraisal professions biggest no-no, because it would invite fraudulent practices since raising the value of the home would increase the their paycheck. We don't do that. Other improper 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 accepting 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 confident we are working hard to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value.

With Thomas Sidenfaden, you won't have any doubts that you're getting 100 percent ethical, honest service.