Waterstone Valuation Group provides honest and ethical appraisals for Cobb County

Honesty and Integrity: Waterstone Valuation Group

We think of our job as a profession. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever in the past. That's why it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can certainly be called a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we have a strict ethical code.

We have many obligations as appraisers, but our chief duty is to our clients. Typically, 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 brought in 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 to review the appraisal document, you normally have to request it via your lender.

Other responsibilities include accurate calculations appropriate to the scope of the assignment, reaching and maintaining a certain level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Maintaining high ethics is standard operating procedure for us at Waterstone Valuation Group.

In some cases appraisers will have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, including homeowners, buyers and sellers, or others. Generally the third parties are explicitly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary role is only to those third parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the order.


	Waterstone Valuation Group has worked hard for its track record for providing appraisals with the highest of ethics. To learn more, contact us.

Appraisers also have rules outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must be able to produce their work files for at least five years - something else Waterstone Valuation Group makes a part of their standard routine.

We only perform to the highest ethical standards possible. Doing orders where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is not something we can consider. That is, we can't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. There's an obvious conflict of interest if an appraiser can report a greater value with the reward of getting paid more money!

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "USPAP") also defines 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" as well as other situations. We follow these rules to the letter which means you can be confident we are doing everything we can to get you an accurate home or property value.

With Waterstone Valuation Group, you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, honest service.