profile picture

English French Spanish
Dawson Appraisal Services provides honest and ethical appraisals for Dauphin County

Dawson Residential Appraisal Group upholds the utmost professional ethics

We consider what we do as a profession. The rigors of becoming a licensed appraiser have increased more 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. As with any profession we have a strict ethical code.

We have a lot of responsibilities as appraisers, but above everything we answer to our clients. More often than not, 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 retained to maintain independence. Appraisers have certain duties of confidentiality to their clients, plus strict rules and regulations that must be followed. So, as a homeowner, if you would like to obtain a copy of the appraisal document, you normally should get it via your lender and not the appraiser.

Other obligations include numerical accuracy depending on the assignment parameters, acquiring and sustaining an appropriate level of competency and education, and of course, the appraiser must behave in a professional manner. Maintaining high ethics and client confidentiality is just normal course of business for us at Dawson Residential Appraisal Group.

Appraisers may sometimes have fiduciary obligations to third parties, such as homeowners, both buyers and sellers, or others. Those third parties normally are listed in scope of the appraisal assignment itself. An appraiser's fiduciary responsibility is restricted to those parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the order.

Dawson Residential Appraisal Group has an established reputation for completing appraisals with the highest of ethics. To learn more, contact us.


There are also ethical standards that have nothing to do with clients and others. For example, appraisers must backup their work files for a minimum of five years - at Dawson Residential Appraisal Group you can rest assured that we abide by that rule.

We demand the highest professional integrity possible from ourselves. Doing orders based on contingency fees is not something we can consider. That means we are not able to agree to do an appraisal report and collect the fee only if the loan closes. There's a definite conflict of interest if an appraiser can report a larger value with the reward of getting paid more money! We set ourselves to a higher standard.

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (or simply "USPAP") also states unethical behavior 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" as well as other situations. We diligently follow these rules to the letter which means you can be assured we are going above and beyond to objectively determine the home or property value.

As soon as you order an appraisal from Dawson Residential Appraisal Group, we'll make sure you're getting the professional service you expect along with the honesty and integrity we're known for.