Pinnacle Appraisal Group provides honest and ethical appraisals for Spokane County

For honest and ethical appraisals, trust Pinnacle Appraisal Group

Appraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever before. That's why it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be dubbed a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we are bound by ethical considerations.

We have a great deal of responsibilities as appraisers, but first and foremost we answer to our clients. Generally, in residential practice, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal, and often the appraisal is ordered by a third party the lender has contracted in order to maintain independence. Appraisers are privy to a lot of data, and like an attorney, can only discuss many of these matters with their client. As a homeowner, if you want a copy of the appraisal document, you generally should obtain it through your lender.

Other responsibilities include numerical accuracy depending on the scope of the assignment, reaching and keeping a certain level of competency and education, and naturally, the appraiser must bear a professional demeanor. Maintaining high ethics is what we do every day at Pinnacle Appraisal Group.

Appraisers can also have fiduciary responsibilities 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 only to those third parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the assignment.


	Pinnacle Appraisal Group has an established track record for performing competent and ethically superior appraisals. To learn more, contact us.

There are also ethical rules that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for at least five years - something else Pinnacle Appraisal Group diligently adheres to.

We meet or exceed the industry standards and guidelines set in place for professional behavior. We won't accept anything less from ourselves. Accepting orders based on contingency fees is not something we can consider. That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid 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! We set ourselves to a higher standard.

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "USPAP") explicitly defines 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" in addition to other situations We follow these rules to the letter which means you can be at ease knowing we are working hard to objectively determine the home or property value.

As soon as you engage Pinnacle Appraisal Group, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you deserve along with the principles we're known for.