C. Cawthon and Co., LLC upholds the highest professional ethics

Appraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. The rigors of becoming 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 unquestionably be considered a profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.

We have many obligations as appraisers but our primary duty is to our clients. Typically, for a regular residential appraisal, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal. Certain matters pertaining to an assignment can only be discussed with an appraiser's client. As a a homeowner, if you desire to review an appraisal report, you generally have to request it through your lender. Other obligations also include, accurate sums appropriate to the scope of the report, reaching and sustaining a particular level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Maintaining high ethics is just normal course of business for us at C. Cawthon and Co., LLC.

Appraisers will sometimes be required to consider the interests of third parties, such as homeowners, buyers and sellers, or others. Normally the third parties are clearly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is limited to those third parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the order.

Appraisers also have duties outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must keep their work files for at least five years - something else C. Cawthon and Co., LLC takes very seriously.

C. Cawthon and Co., LLC holds itself to the industry standards and guidelines set in place for ethics. We can't accept anything less from ourselves. Doing orders on contingency fees is not something we can consider That is, we can't 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 professions biggest taboo, because it would tend to make appraisers up the value of homes or properties to increase their paycheck. We set ourselves to a higher standard. Other unethical practices may be defined by state law or professional societies to which an 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," in addition to other situations We follow these rules to the letter which means you can be confident we are working hard to objectively determine the home or property value.

As soon as you engage C. Cawthon and Co., LLC we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the ethical handling of appraisals that we're known for.