For honest and ethical appraisals, rely on Craig Hartsgrove

We have quite a few responsibilities as appraisers, but above everything we answer to our clients. Generally, in residential practice, the lender (or an agent of the lender) places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Subsequently, appraisers have certain duties of privacy to their clients, plus many rules and regulations that must be followed. As a homeowner, if you desire to obtain a copy of the appraisal document, you generally should request it through your lender and not the appraiser.

Other obligations include numerical accuracy depending on the assignment parameters, attaining and sustaining a particular level of competency and education, and the appraiser must conduct him or herself as a professional. Here at Craig Hartsgrove, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

Appraisers will regularly need to consider the interests of third parties, including homeowners, both sellers and buyers, or others. Generally the third parties are clearly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary duty 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 job.

	Craig Hartsgrove has an established reputation for producing appraisals with the highest of ethics. To learn more, contact us.

Appraisers also have rules outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must store their work files for a minimum of five years - at Craig Hartsgrove you can rest assured that we adhere to that rule.

We only perform to the highest ethical standards possible. Accepting orders based on contingency fees is never an option. That means we are not able to agree to do an appraisal report and collect the fee only if the loan closes. There's certainly a conflict of interest if an appraiser can report a larger value with the reward of getting paid more money! This isn't how we operate.

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "USPAP") clearly describes 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" in addition to other situations We follow these rules to the letter which means you can be confident we are working hard to get you an accurate home or property value.

When you engage Craig Hartsgrove, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you deserve along with the business principles we're known for.