Norcal-Appraisers provides honest and ethical appraisals for Sonoma County

For honest and ethical appraisals, trust Norcal-Appraisers

We think of what we do as a profession. The rigors of becoming 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 certainly be considered a profession as opposed to a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we must follow strict ethical considerations.

We have many obligations as appraisers, but our main 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. Appraisers have certain duties of confidentiality to their clients, plus many rules and regulations to which we must adhere. So, as a homeowner, if you want to obtain a copy of an appraisal report, you normally have to obtain it via your lender.

Other responsibilities include numerical accuracy depending on the assignment's nature, attaining and maintaining a certain level of competency and education, and naturally, the appraiser must bear a professional demeanor. Here at Norcal-Appraisers, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

Appraisers may also have fiduciary obligations to third parties, including homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Typically the third parties are clearly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is restricted to those parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the job.


	Norcal-Appraisers has an established track record for performing competent and ethically superior appraisals. Contact us today to learn more.

There are also ethical duties 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 - at Norcal-Appraisers you can rest assured that we stick to that rule.

We meet or exceed the industry standards and guidelines set in place for professional behavior. We refuse to accept anything less from ourselves. Doing assignments where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is never an option. In other words, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and collect the fee only if the loan closes. Anyone should be able to see that inflating a 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 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", or "the amount of a value opinion" as well as other situations. We diligently follow these rules to the letter which means you can rest easy knowing we are going above and beyond to get you an accurate home or property value.

As soon as you engage Norcal-Appraisers, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the high ethical standards we're known for.