Honesty and Integrity: Ran Barmashiah

Typically, appraising a long term career. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever in the past. That's why it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be considered a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we must follow strict ethical considerations.

For an appraiser the main responsibility is to their client. More often than not, for a typical residential appraisal, the lender places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Appraisers have certain duties of privacy to their clients, and as a homeowner, if you want to obtain a copy of an appraisal report, you should obtain it through your lender. Other obligations also include, accurate figures appropriate to the scope of the assignment, attaining and keeping an adequate level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Here at Ran Barmashiah, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

Appraisers can also have fiduciary obligations to third parties, such as homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are listed in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary roll is restricted to those third parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the job.

Appraisers also have standards outside of boundaries of with whom we share information For example, appraisers must keep their work files for at least five years - at Ran Barmashiah you can rest assured that we abide by that rule.

While working on an appraisal, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Working on assignments that contingency fees is never an option. That is, we are not able to agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. Another practice that's restricted is doing assignments on percentage fees. That is probably the appraisal industries most important rule, because it would invite appraisal fraud since increasing the estimate of the home would raise the their paycheck. We set ourselves to a higher standard. Other unethical practices may be defined by state law or professional organizations that the appraiser belongs.

The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (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," "the amount of a value opinion," as well as other situations. We follow these rules to the letter which means you can be confident we are working hard to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value.

When you engage Ran Barmashiah we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the ethical handling of appraisals that we're known for.