Affiliated Appraisal Services provides honest and ethical appraisals for Penobscot County

Affiliated Appraisal Services maintains the utmost professional ethics

Appraising is typically a long term career. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever before. That's why it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be dubbed a profession as opposed to a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we have a strict ethical code.

We have a great deal of obligations as appraisers, but first and foremost we answer to our clients. Typically, in residential practice, the lender (or an agent of the lender) places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Subsequently, appraisers have certain duties of confidentiality to their clients, plus many rules and regulations controlling with whom we share information. As a homeowner, if you would like to review the appraisal document, you generally have to get it via your lender and not the appraiser.

Other responsibilities include numerical accuracy depending on the assignment's nature, reaching and keeping an appropriate level of competency and education, and the appraiser must conduct him or herself as a professional. Here at Affiliated Appraisal Services, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

Appraisers may also have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, both sellers and buyers, or others. Generally the third parties are explicitly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary role is only to those parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the job.


	Affiliated Appraisal Services has an established track record for completing competent and ethically superior appraisals. Contact us today to learn more.

There are also ethical rules that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must keep their work files for at least five years - at Affiliated Appraisal Services you can rest assured that we abide by that rule.

We demand the highest professional integrity possible from ourselves. Working on orders where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is not something we can consider. In other words, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. There's a definite conflict of interest if an appraiser can report a larger value and then get paid more money! This isn't how we operate.

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice clearly 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", or "the amount of a value opinion" in addition to other situations We diligently 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.

As soon as you engage Affiliated Appraisal Services, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the business principles we're known for.