Davidson & Associates provides honest and ethical appraisals for Forsyth County

Davidson & Associates maintains the utmost professional ethics

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 rather than a trade. As with any profession we are bound by an ethical code.

The appraiser's main obligation is to their client. Typically, for a standard residential appraisal, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal, and often the appraisal is ordered by a third party the lender has retained to maintain independence. Subsequently, appraisers have certain duties of confidentiality to their clients, plus many rules and regulations controlling with whom we share information. So, as a homeowner, if you desire a copy of an appraisal report, you generally should obtain it from your lender and not the appraiser.

Other responsibilities include accurate sums appropriate to the scope of the assignment, acquiring and maintaining an adequate level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at Davidson & Associates, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

There are some scenarios in which appraisers will have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, including homeowners, buyers and sellers, or others. Normally the third parties are specifically defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary roll 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.


	Davidson & Associates has an established reputation for producing appraisals with the highest of ethics. Contact us today to learn more.

There are also ethical standards that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must be able to produce their work files for a minimum of five years - something else Davidson & Associates takes very seriously.

When working on an assignment, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Doing assignments where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is never an option. In other words, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. There's an obvious conflict of interest if an appraiser can report an unsubstantiated value with the reward of getting paid more money! This isn't how we operate.

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "USPAP") also describes 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", or "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 doing everything we can to get you an accurate home or property value.

When you request an appraisal from Davidson & Associates, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the principles we're known for.