Central Wisconsin Appraisal Service maintains the utmost professional ethics

We think of our job as a profession. The rigors of becoming 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 certainly be considered a profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.

We have quite a few obligations as appraisers but above everything we answer to our clients. More often than not, for a regular residential appraisal, the lender places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Appraisers have rules and regulations they must follow, including confidentiality for their clients a homeowner, if you require to obtain a copy of an appraisal report, you generally have to get it through your lender. Other responsibilities also include, accurate figures appropriate to the nature of the report, attaining and sustaining an appropriate level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at Central Wisconsin Appraisal Service, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

There are some scenarios in which appraisers will have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary duty is restricted to those parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the order.

There are also ethical standards that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must be able to produce their work files for a minimum of five years - at Central Wisconsin Appraisal Service you can rest assured that we abide by that rule.

We only perform to the highest ethical standards possible. We don't do assignments on contingency fees. That is, we can't agree to do an appraisal report and collect the fee only if the loan closes. We can't do assignments on percentage fees. That is perhaps the appraisal industries biggest taboo, because it would invite appraisal fraud since increasing the value of the home would increase the their paycheck. We don't do that. Other improper practices may be defined by state law or professional societies that the appraiser belongs.

The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) also defines 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," "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 Central Wisconsin Appraisal Service, you won't have any doubts that you're getting 100 percent ethical, professional service.