JW Appraisal provides honest and ethical appraisals for Travis County

JW Appraisal upholds the utmost professional ethics

Generally, appraising is a long term career. Requirements to become 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 unquestionably be considered a profession rather than a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we are bound by an ethical code.

We have a great deal of obligations as appraisers, but our main duty is to our clients. Typically, in residential practice, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal, and often the appraisal is ordered by a third party the lender has contracted in order to maintain independence. It's important to know that certain elements pertaining to an assignment are to be discussed exclusively with the appraiser's client. As a homeowner, if you want a copy of the appraisal document, you generally have to request it through your lender.

Other obligations include accurate sums appropriate to the nature of the assignment, attaining and sustaining a particular level of competency and education, and the appraiser must conduct him or herself as a professional. Maintaining high ethics is what we do every day at JW Appraisal.

Appraisers may also have fiduciary obligations to third parties, including homeowners, sellers and buyers, or others. Typically the third parties are clearly defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary role is limited to those parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other written parameters of the job.

JW Appraisal has an established reputation for providing appraisals with the highest of ethics. Contact us today to learn more.


There are also ethical duties that have nothing to do with whom we share information. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for a minimum of five years - something else JW Appraisal takes very seriously.

JW Appraisal holds itself to the industry standards and guidelines set in place for professional behavior. We refuse to accept anything less from ourselves. Accepting assignments based on contingency fees is never an option. That means we don't agree to do an appraisal report and base our pay upon coming up with a particular value conclusion. There's a definite conflict of interest if an appraiser can report a greater value and then get paid more money! We just don't do it.

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "USPAP") clearly describes 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 follow these rules to the letter which means you can rest easy knowing we are working hard to objectively determine the home or property value.

With JW Appraisal, you won't have any doubts that you're getting 100 percent ethical, honest service.