a la mode provides honest and ethical appraisals for Oklahoma County

a la mode upholds the utmost professional ethics

Appraising is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever before. That's why it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can certainly be considered a profession as opposed to a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we have a strict ethical code.

The appraiser's chief responsibility is to their client. Typically, in residential practice, the lender (or an agent of the lender) places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Certain details relating to an assignment are to be shared with the appraiser's client. As a homeowner, if you would like to review the appraisal document, you normally have to obtain it via your lender.

Other obligations include numerical accuracy depending on the assignment's nature, acquiring and sustaining an appropriate level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Maintaining high ethics is what we do every day at a la mode.

There are some scenarios in which appraisers will have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are spelled out in the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary role is restricted to those third parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the order.


	a la mode has an established track record for performing competent and ethically superior appraisals. Contact us today to learn more.

There are also ethical standards that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must be able to produce their work files for at least five years - at a la mode you can rest assured that we abide by that rule.

When creating reports, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Accepting 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 the fee only if the loan closes. There's certainly a conflict of interest if an appraiser can report a greater value and then get paid more money!

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice clearly defines a violation in ethics 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" as well as other situations. We diligently 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.

When you request an appraisal from a la mode, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the honesty and integrity we're known for.