The Jones Group provides honest and ethical appraisals for San Diego County

Honesty and Integrity: The Jones Group

We think of our business as a profession. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have increased more than ever before. So it goes without question in this day and age that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be considered a profession rather than a trade. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.

We have many obligations as appraisers, but first and foremost we answer to our clients. Typically, for a normal residential appraisal, the lender (or an agent of the lender) places the order to the appraiser, becoming the appraiser's client. Appraisers are typically limited to only disclosing their findings to their clients, so as a homeowner, if you would like to obtain a copy of the appraisal document, you generally should get it from your lender and not the appraiser.

Other responsibilities include numerical accuracy depending on the assignment parameters, attaining and maintaining a certain level of competency and education, and naturally, the appraiser must bear a professional demeanor. Here at The Jones Group, we take these ethical responsibilities very to heart.

Appraisers will sometimes need to consider the interests of third parties, including homeowners, sellers and buyers, or others. Those third parties normally are defined in the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is limited to those parties who the appraiser is aware of, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the order.


	The Jones Group has an established track record for completing appraisals with the highest of ethics. To learn more, contact us.

There are also ethical rules that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must store their work files for a minimum of five years - something else The Jones Group diligently adheres to.

The Jones Group holds itself to the industry standards and guidelines set in place for professional behavior. We can't accept anything less from ourselves. Doing orders where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is not something we can consider. That means we can't agree to do an appraisal report and base our pay upon coming up with a particular value conclusion. There's an obvious conflict of interest if an appraiser can report a larger value with the reward of getting paid more money! This isn't how we operate.

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "USPAP") also describes a violation in ethics as accepting 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 confident we are working hard to objectively determine the home or property value.

When you engage The Jones Group, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you deserve along with the honesty and integrity we're known for.