Pankratz Appraisal Services provides honest and ethical appraisals for Cascade County

Pankratz Appraisal Services upholds the utmost professional ethics

Appraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever in the past. That's why it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can definitely be called a profession rather than a trade. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.

An appraiser's chief responsibility is to their client. Typically, for a standard residential appraisal, the lender (or an agent of the lender) places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. It follows that 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 would like to review the appraisal document, you normally have to obtain it from your lender.

Other responsibilities include accurate calculations appropriate to the nature of the report, reaching and sustaining an appropriate level of competency and education, and naturally, the appraiser must bear a professional demeanor. Here at Pankratz Appraisal Services, we take these ethical responsibilities very to heart.

Appraisers may regularly have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, including homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Normally the third parties are explicitly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary role is limited to those third parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the order.


	Pankratz Appraisal Services has an established track record for providing competent and ethically superior appraisals. To learn more, contact us.

Appraisers also have standards outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must keep their work files for at least five years - something else Pankratz Appraisal Services makes a part of their standard routine.

We meet or exceed the industry standards and rules set in place for ethics. We can't accept anything less from ourselves. Working on orders based on contingency fees is not something we can consider. In other words, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. It should be obvious that fabricating a property's value to achieve essentially a bigger paycheck is unethical!

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "USPAP") also states 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 rest easy knowing we are doing everything we can to objectively determine the home or property value.

With Pankratz Appraisal Services, you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, professional service.