Appraiser Ethics
Appraisal is a profession, and appraisers are professionals. In our field as with any profession we are bound by ethical considerations.

An appraiser's primary responsibility is to the client.  Normally, in residential practice, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal to decide whether to make the mortgage loan.  Appraisers have certain duties of confidentiality to their clients -- as a homeowner, if you want a copy of an appraisal report, you normally have to request it through your lender -- obligations of numerical accuracy depending on the assignment parameters, an obligation to attain and maintain a certain level of competency and education, and must always conduct ones self as a professional.  I take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

Appraisers may also have fiduciary obligations 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 duty is limited to those third parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the assignment.

I only perform to the highest ethical standards possible.  I don't do assignments on contingency fees.  That is, I will not agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes.  I don't do assignments on percentage fees.  That is probably the appraisal profession’s biggest no-no, because it would tend to make appraisers inflate the value of homes or properties to increase their paycheck.  I don't do that.  The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) defines as unethical 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," and other things. 

In additon to USPAP, as an "Associate Residential Member" of the Appriasal Institute I have made a committment to what many consider to be the highest degree of professionalism.  The mission of the Appraisal Institute is to support and advance its members as the choice for real estate solutions and to maintain professional credentials, standards of professional practice, and ethics consistent with the public good.  This provides and even higher assurance of 100 percent ethical and professional service to my clients.