CRS Appraisals provides honest and ethical appraisals for Charleston County

Honesty and Integrity: CRS Appraisals

Appraising is typically a long term career. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever before. That's why it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can definitely be dubbed a profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession we are bound by ethical considerations.

An appraiser's main obligation is to their client. Typically, for a regular 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 hired in order to maintain independence. Certain matters pertaining to an assignment are to be discussed with the appraiser's client. So, as a homeowner, if you desire to obtain a copy of an appraisal report, you generally should get it through your lender instead of the appraiser.

Other obligations include accurate sums appropriate to the nature of the report, attaining and maintaining an appropriate level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at CRS Appraisals, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

Appraisers will often need to consider the interests of third parties, such as homeowners, buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are defined in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary role is only to those parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the assignment.


	CRS Appraisals has an established reputation for providing competent and ethically superior appraisals. To learn more, contact us.

There are also ethical rules that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for at least five years - something else CRS Appraisals diligently adheres to.

We demand the highest ethical standards possible from ourselves. Doing assignments based on contingency fees is not something we can consider. In other words, we are not able to agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. Anyone should be able to see that fabricating a home's value to achieve what amounts to a bigger fee is unethical! 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 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" 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 objectively determine the home or property value.

With CRS Appraisals, you won't have any doubts that you're receiving 100 percent ethical, honest service.