Colorado Appraisal Services provides honest and ethical appraisals for Larimer County

Colorado Appraisal Services upholds the highest professional ethics

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 these days that real estate appraisal can definitely be called a profession as opposed to a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we are bound by an ethical code.

We have quite a few responsibilities as appraisers, but our chief duty is 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. It follows that 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 desire a copy of an appraisal report, you normally should request it through your lender.

Other obligations include accurate calculations appropriate to the nature of the report, acquiring and sustaining an adequate level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Maintaining high ethics and client confidentiality is what we do every day at Colorado Appraisal Services.

In some cases appraisers will have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, buyers and sellers, or others. Generally the third parties are clearly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary duty is only to those parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the assignment.


	Colorado Appraisal Services has an established reputation for completing competent and ethically superior appraisals. To learn more, contact us.

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 Colorado Appraisal Services diligently adheres to.

While busy with an assignment, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Accepting 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. There's an obvious conflict of interest if an appraiser can report a greater value with the reward of getting paid more money! We set ourselves to a higher standard.

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "USPAP") 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" as well as other situations. We follow these rules to the letter which means you can be assured we are going above and beyond to get you an accurate home or property value.

With Colorado Appraisal Services, you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, professional service.