Steinley Real Estate Appraisals provides honest and ethical appraisals for Pennington County

For honest and ethical appraisals, rely on Steinley Real Estate Appraisals

We consider our business as a profession. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever before. So it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can certainly be called a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we must follow strict ethical considerations.

The appraiser's primary responsibility is to their client. Typically, for a normal 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 matters pertaining to an assignment are to be shared with the appraiser's client. As a homeowner, if you desire a copy of the appraisal document, you normally have to get it via your lender and not the appraiser.

Other obligations include accurate sums appropriate to the parameters of the assignment, reaching and maintaining a certain level of competency and education, and the appraiser must conduct him or herself as a professional. Here at Steinley Real Estate Appraisals, we take these ethical responsibilities very to heart.

Appraisers may frequently have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are listed in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary role is only to those parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the assignment.


	Steinley Real Estate Appraisals has worked hard for its reputation for producing competent and ethically superior appraisals. To learn more, contact us.

There are also ethical duties that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must keep their work files for at least five years - at Steinley Real Estate Appraisals you can rest assured that we adhere to that rule.

While busy with an assignment, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Accepting orders based on contingency fees is not something we can consider. In other words, we can't agree to do an appraisal report and base our pay upon coming up with a particular value conclusion. There's a definite 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") also states unethical behavior 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" as well as other situations. We follow these rules to the letter which means you can rest easy knowing we are going above and beyond to objectively determine the home or property value.

When you engage Steinley Real Estate Appraisals, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you deserve along with the principles we're known for.