Western Trend Appraisal Group provides honest and ethical appraisals for Maricopa County

Honesty and Integrity: Western Trend Appraisal Group

We think of our business as a profession. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever before. That's why it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can certainly be dubbed a profession rather than a trade. As with any profession we must follow strict ethical considerations.

The appraiser's main responsibility is to their client. Typically, for a standard 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. Subsequently, appraisers have certain duties of confidentiality to their clients, plus many rules and regulations to which we must adhere. As a homeowner, if you would like to obtain a copy of an appraisal report, you generally have to request it through your lender and not the appraiser.

Other responsibilities include accurate sums appropriate to the parameters of the assignment, reaching and sustaining a respectable level of competency and education, and naturally, the appraiser must bear a professional demeanor. Maintaining high ethics and client confidentiality is standard operating procedure for us at Western Trend Appraisal Group.

Appraisers may also have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, both sellers and buyers, or others. Those third parties normally are defined in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility 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 assignment.


	Western Trend Appraisal Group has an established reputation for providing appraisals with the highest of ethics. Contact us today to learn more.

There are also ethical standards that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for a minimum of five years - at Western Trend Appraisal Group you can rest assured that we adhere to that rule.

When creating reports, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Accepting orders where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is not something we can consider. That is, we are not able to agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. There's certainly a 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 also states unethical behavior 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" in addition to other situations We diligently 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.

When you order an appraisal from Western Trend Appraisal Group, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you deserve along with the business principles we're known for.