Chris Lockard provides honest and ethical appraisals for Harris County

For honest and ethical appraisals, count on Chris Lockard

We consider our business as a profession. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever before. That's why it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can definitely be called a profession as opposed to a trade. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.

We have a great deal of responsibilities as appraisers, but above everything we answer to our clients. Typically, in residential practice, the lender (or an agent of the lender) places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. It's important to know that many details relating to an assignment are to be discussed with the appraiser's client. So, as a homeowner, if you want to review an appraisal report, you normally have to request it via your lender and not the appraiser.

Other responsibilities include numerical accuracy depending on the assignment's nature, reaching and keeping an appropriate level of competency and education, and naturally, the appraiser must bear a professional demeanor. Here at Chris Lockard, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

Appraisers may regularly have fiduciary responsibilities to third parties, such as homeowners, buyers and sellers, or others. Generally the third parties are explicitly defined in the appraisal report. 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 job.


	Chris Lockard has worked hard for its track record for providing competent and ethically superior appraisals. Contact us today to learn more.

Appraisers also have standards outside of boundaries of clients and others. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for at least five years - at Chris Lockard you can rest assured that we stick to that rule.

While busy with an assignment, we follow the highest ethical standards possible. Working on orders based on contingency fees is not something we can consider. That is, we are not able to agree to do an appraisal report and collect payment on the contingency of the loan closing. Anyone should be able to see that fabricating a property's value to achieve essentially a bigger paycheck is unethical!

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice clearly 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", or "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 get you an accurate home or property value.

With Chris Lockard, you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, professional service.