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I understand discretion to protect the interests of those who might be impacted, as LongWalk also said, but I believe there are better alternatives to lying or fabricating on the appraiser's side. Hard to state that we're being ethical when taking that approach, IMO.
i do not. I said I know them and they know me, we are not related nor do I have any sort of ongoing business relationship with them. They may shop at my wife’s store, we may eat in their restaurant, I may have lent them money at some point in my banking career, our kids may have gone to school together, etc. I am able to remain objective and the fees associated with any one report do not justify putting my license on the line. I don’t expect someone living in a major metropolitan area to understand what it is like to know the majority of the people you interact with on a daily basis and to wave at people on the highway 20 or more miles away from home as you know their vehicle.
I do not lie to the employees/tenants I just suggest what the property owner could tell them. If I am asked while completing the inspection I tell them I am not sure of the intended purpose and I am working at the owner’s request.
That makes me feel better that I didn't need to disclose I'm the neighbor of subject property in my report since USPAP doesn't require me to disclose that.
I totally agree about the ethics. To date, I haven't offered explanations to anyone on-site other than the property contact who knows why I'm there, but I have heard the property contact offer a cover story. I don't have a better solution than what I have been doing. How do you handle this kind of situation?
I think a lot of us have been in the situation where an employee or renter is concerned someone is selling the property. I used to face that some but now since most of my work would involve a simple refi I simply tell them the owner wanted an appraisal and they can tell you; or, if for an estate, I simply tell them this is a date of death appraisal for taxes and I have no idea what the heirs intend to do, which is almost universally true. I backed out of an apartment sale where the buyers were trying to refi only months later. They paid too much. A very old building with $6000 a month income and high expenses seems a mite steep at $450k. I found nothing with 10 small apartments anywhere close to that costly, including one in that small town which had 6 units selling for $150k and same income. But I found a similar old 2 story in a town nearby selling for $250,000 and having 16 units - $500-600/per apartment. The comps were killing it, and I withdrew. A few weeks later I found out that the sellers of that last building were in a marital dispute and the man killed the woman only weeks later. So it wasn't a good comp in the first place, but at market, it still would not have supported the value.
It doesn't bother me what the owner/manager tells their tenants, as it isn't my business. And I completely understand the concern from their side and the suspicion/security of maintaining tenants, etc. I just don't want to be the one falsifying information. I didn't mean to come across as knowing more than anyone else here, but I feel like that route, as a professional, seems rather unethical and just isn't good practice, IMO. I try very hard to avoid getting into scenarios where someone (who is not client, owner/manager, etc) is asking for information that I really don't want to be answering in any fashion. If I'm going to a strip-center filled with tenants, I'm talking to the owner or property manager and making sure that the tenants know I'll be coming. I want to leave it up to them to decide best how to handle their own information, if at all possible.