James Eastman upholds the utmost professional ethics

An appraiser's chief obligation is to their client. Generally, for a standard residential appraisal, the lender (or an agent of the lender) places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Thereon, appraisers are privy to a lot of data, and like an attorney, can only discuss many of these matters with their client. As a homeowner, if you would like to review an appraisal report, you normally have to get it through your lender instead of the appraiser.

Other obligations include accurate sums appropriate to the nature of the assignment, acquiring and sustaining a respectable level of competency and education, and the appraiser must conduct him or herself as a professional. Here at James Eastman, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

There are some scenarios in which appraisers will have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, including homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Normally the third parties are explicitly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is limited to those third parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the job.

	James Eastman has worked hard for its track record for providing appraisals with the highest of ethics. Contact us today to learn more.

Appraisers also have standards outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must keep their work files for at least five years - something else James Eastman takes very seriously.

When creating reports, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Doing assignments based on contingency fees is never an option. That means we don't agree to do an appraisal report and collect the fee only if the loan closes. It should be apparent to anyone that inflating a value to achieve what amounts to a bigger paycheck is unethical!

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "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", or "the amount of a value opinion" as well as other situations. We follow these rules to the letter which means you can rest easy knowing we are going above and beyond to objectively determine the home or property value.

As soon as you order an appraisal from James Eastman, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you deserve along with the principles we're known for.