Horizon Appraisals provides honest and ethical appraisals for Maricopa County

For honest and ethical appraisals, count on Horizon Appraisals

Generally, appraising is a long term career. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever before. So it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be considered a profession as opposed to a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we have a strict ethical code.

The appraiser's chief obligation is to their client. Typically, for a regular residential appraisal, the lender (or an agent of the lender) places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Thereon, appraisers are privy to a lot of information, and like an attorney, can only discuss many of these matters with their client. As a homeowner, if you desire to obtain a copy of an appraisal report, you normally have to obtain it through your lender and not the appraiser.

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

Appraisers will often be required to consider the interests of third parties, including homeowners, both sellers and buyers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary role is restricted to those parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the order.


	Horizon Appraisals has worked hard for its reputation for providing appraisals with the highest of ethics. Contact us today to learn more.

There are also ethical rules that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must store their work files for at least five years - something else Horizon Appraisals diligently adheres to.

When creating reports, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Working on orders based on contingency fees is not something we can consider. That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. It should be obvious that inflating a value to achieve essentially a bigger fee is unethical! 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 diligently 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.

With Horizon Appraisals, you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, honest service.