Delaware Home Valuations upholds the utmost professional ethics

We consider what we do a full-time profession at DHV.  While we may wear many hats in our personal lives, the sole focus at DHV is to provide real property valuations, which sets us apart from other Real Estate Agencies that focus on buying and selling property with the appraisal side taking a back seat. The rigors of becoming a licensed (or certified) appraiser, as well as the standards that govern our profession have increased more than ever before. So it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be considered a profession, rather than a trade and as with any profession, we are bound by ethical considerations.

We have many responsibilities as appraisers but our main duty is to our clients. Typically, for a standard 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 desire to obtain a copy of an appraisal report, you should obtain it through your lender. Other obligations also include, verifying , acquiring and keeping 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 Delaware Home Valuations.

Appraisers may often have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are listed in the appraisal assignment itself. 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 things in the framework of the job.

Appraisers also have duties outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must be able to produce their work files for at least five years - at Delaware Home Valuations you can rest assured that we adhere to that rule.

Delaware Home Valuations holds itself to the industry standards and guidelines set in place for professional behavior. We refuse to accept anything less from ourselves. Working on assignments that contingency fees is never an option. That is, we don't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. Another practice that's restricted is doing assignments on percentage fees. That is probably the appraisal professions most important rule, 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 unprofessional practices may be defined by state law or professional societies that the appraiser belongs.

The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) also defines 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 assured we are working hard to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value.

As soon as you request an appraisal from Delaware Home Valuations we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the an ethical approach with appraisals that we're known for.