Skippy: An appraiser whose ethics are for sale.
David, I am far from perfect, but you will never catch me meeting the above definition. Some past examples of Skippy's work I have seen:
An appraiser who increased the house size by 150 sq. ft. and used comps from the other side of town to bring in a refi value 20 percent above what market was when compared to similarly sized houses that sold within the last six months within four blocks of the subject.
An appraiser who made up comp information. Not only had the house not sold, it had never even been listed.
An appraiser who went to people along a proposed road taking and asked them how much they wanted (in order to sell his professional services, of course).
An appraiser who sent a single page letter for a complex commercial assignment saying lighting had hit her computer and she therefore didn't have a file anymore, but she thought the property ought to be worth about $x and by the way, here's my bill. (Exacerbated by the fact that the entity she was taking to the cleaners was a non-profit religious charity.)
An appraiser who accepted an automobile as a gift from a borrower to finish a job in two days. (The property remained on the banks ownership for five years after the borrower defaulted).
And, of course, most appraisers who have been in the news ALA Whitewater, the S&L crises, or any other fraudlent deal that took a crooked appraiser to make it work.
I'm sure that you really had not thought of these kinds of things, but if you are willing to be called "Skippy" based on the above definition or examples, GET OUT OF THE BUSINESS!!!
