Honesty and Integrity: Joseph Mauro

Appraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever in the past. So it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can definitely be called a profession rather than a trade. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.

We have a great deal of obligations as appraisers but our main duty is to our clients. Generally, for a typical 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 a copy of an appraisal report, you generally have to request it through your lender. Other responsibilities also include, numerical accuracy depending on the assignment's nature, attaining and keeping a certain level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at Joseph Mauro, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

Appraisers may also have fiduciary obligations to third parties, including homeowners, both sellers and buyers, or others. Those third parties normally are defined in the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary duty is only to those third 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 rules that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must store their work files for at least five years - at Joseph Mauro you can rest assured that we abide by that rule.

Joseph Mauro holds itself to the industry standards and mandates set in place for professional behavior. We can't accept anything less from ourselves. Doing assignments on contingency fees is never an option. That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. We don't do assignments on percentage fees. That is perhaps the appraisal industries biggest no-no, because it would invite fraudulent practices since raising the estimate of the home would up the their paycheck. We set ourselves to a higher standard. Other unprofessional practices may be established by state law or professional societies that the appraiser belongs.

The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) also defines unethical behavior 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 rest easy knowing we are doing everything we can to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value.

When you request an appraisal from Joseph Mauro we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the ethical handling of appraisals that we're known for.