Leah Reynolds provides honest and ethical appraisals for Morton County

Honesty and Integrity: Leah Reynolds

Typically, appraising is a long term career. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever in the past. So it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can certainly be dubbed a profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession we must follow strict ethical considerations.

The appraiser's primary obligation 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. It's important to know that many details pertaining to an assignment are to be shared with the appraiser's client. So, as a homeowner, if you would like to obtain a copy of the appraisal document, you normally should request it via your lender instead of the appraiser.

Other obligations include numerical accuracy depending on the assignment parameters, reaching and keeping a certain 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 Leah Reynolds.

Appraisers can also have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, including homeowners, both sellers and buyers, or others. Generally the third parties are specifically defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary duty is only to those parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the order.


	Leah Reynolds has an established track record for producing 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 keep their work files for at least five years - at Leah Reynolds you can rest assured that we stick to that rule.

We demand the highest ethical standards possible from ourselves. Accepting assignments where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is not something we can consider. That means we can't agree to do an appraisal report and base our pay upon coming up with a particular value conclusion. There's certainly a conflict of interest if an appraiser can report an unsubstantiated 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 describes 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 at ease knowing we are working hard to get you an accurate home or property value.

As soon as you order an appraisal from Leah Reynolds, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you deserve along with the business principles we're known for.