Common questions

Typical commercial assignments range $2,000–$4,000. Residential and simpler assignments quote lower. Every engagement is quoted at a fixed fee before any work begins, and never contingent on the value reached, which USPAP prohibits.

Standard turnaround is 1–3 weeks, depending on property type, complexity, and data availability in the submarket. Rush appraisals available for urgent deadlines.

The property address and type, the purpose of the appraisal (estate, divorce, tax appeal, lending, litigation), the effective date if it is not today, your deadline, and who the report needs to be addressed to. That is usually a five-minute conversation.

No. Appraiser licensing is state-specific, there is no national appraisal licence, so I accept California property only. If your property is elsewhere you need an appraiser credentialed in that state.

Independently, and you should. California credential #3005065 can be checked with the California Bureau of Real Estate Appraisers (BREA); the federal ASC National Registry lists all state-credentialed appraisers; and the Appraisal Institute confirms MAI and SRA designations. All three are linked in the footer of every page on this site.

California's highest appraisal classification. It covers all property types at any value, residential and commercial. Certified Residential appraisers are not permitted to take commercial assignments above defined limits.

They are Appraisal Institute designations, not licences. MAI is the commercial designation, held by fewer than 1% of appraisers nationwide. SRA is its residential counterpart. Designations sit on top of a state licence and matter most where a lender requires one or where the value will be challenged.

No. A retrospective appraisal reconstructs value as of the date of death using sales that had closed by then. It is routine work. Executors frequently come to it late, after a CPA asks for the basis figure. The report simply discloses that the effective date precedes the inspection.

Usually yes, and this is the most common misunderstanding. The stepped-up basis under IRC §1014 applies regardless of whether any estate tax is due. Without a documented date-of-death value, the heirs may face a much larger capital gains bill when they eventually sell, because they cannot substantiate the basis they are claiming.

For IRS purposes it is materially weaker. A CMA is a pricing opinion prepared by someone with a commission interest in the transaction, not an independent appraisal under USPAP by a state-certified appraiser. If the return is examined, the difference in evidentiary weight is exactly where the problem surfaces.

Then two effective dates may be relevant, the date of death and the date six months later, and the executor may need a value at each to determine whether the election is even available. It can only be elected if it reduces both the gross estate and the tax due.

Strongly inadvisable. Under Proposition 13 assessed value often trails the market by a wide margin, so the buying beneficiary would be acquiring at well below fair value and the others would be shortchanged. Given the duty of impartiality in Probate Code §16003, that is precisely the fact pattern that produces trustee liability. An independent appraisal is the cheapest protection available.

Usually yes, when the settlor dies. The basis step-up under IRC §1014 is fixed at that date, and beneficiaries will need it whenever the property is eventually sold, often years later, when reconstructing that value is harder and more expensive. It also supports the accounting you owe under §16062.

Generally no. Transfers into a revocable trust where you remain the sole present beneficiary are excluded from change-in-ownership treatment under R&TC §62(d), so your Proposition 13 base year value carries through. This is a frequent worry and usually an unfounded one, though confirm your specific arrangement with your attorney.

They can, and where everyone is genuinely aligned it sometimes holds. The difficulty is that the trustee still owes each of them a duty of impartiality, and agreements reached without independent valuation have a way of being revisited once someone compares the figure to a later sale. An appraisal makes the agreement durable rather than provisional.

Usually not. California Family Code §2552(a) directs the court to value assets as near as practicable to the time of trial, and separation is the exception rather than the rule. Available under §2552(b) on motion for good cause. Ask your attorney which date governs in your matter before ordering an appraisal, because it determines what the report has to answer.

Yes, and it is common. A jointly retained neutral produces one opinion both sides can work from, which is usually faster and far cheaper than each side hiring an expert and then litigating the difference between them. It requires both attorneys to agree on the engagement terms up front.

The appraisal can still proceed as an exterior inspection with the limitation disclosed in the report, though the result is less well supported. Where access matters, counsel can seek an order compelling it. Tell the appraiser about the access problem before the engagement rather than after.

That is a legal question for your attorney, not the appraiser. But be aware of Moore/Marsden: where community earnings paid down the loan during the marriage, the community may hold an interest even though the property started as separate. Working that out can require values at several dates, which is worth knowing before you order a single appraisal.

For the regular assessment roll, July 2 through November 30. San Diego uses this extended window because the assessor does not mail value notices to all secured-roll owners by August 1. Supplemental and escape assessments are different: those must be appealed within 60 days of the notice. Confirm your specific date with the Clerk of the Board. Missing it generally means waiting a full year.

No. Proposition 8 relief is temporary by design. The assessor reviews the property every January 1, and once market value returns to or above your factored base year value, the full Prop 13 value is restored. What Prop 8 cannot do is push your assessment above the factored base year value. Only a change in ownership or new construction does that.

You can file without one. But the assessor’s value is presumed correct, and the burden is on you to overcome it. An independent USPAP appraisal from a Certified General appraiser carries evidentiary weight that a list of Zillow printouts does not, particularly on income property where the board will want to see the income approach worked properly.

January 1 of the tax year under appeal. That makes it a retrospective assignment: value is reconstructed from sales that closed on or before the lien date, disregarding anything the market did afterward. An appraisal with today’s effective date does not answer the question the board is asking.

Possibly, but not under the federal statute, which is where most advice goes wrong. The Homeowners Protection Act measures both its thresholds against the ORIGINAL value, so appreciation alone creates no statutory right to cancel. What can work is your investor’s own program: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both allow value-based cancellation subject to seasoning and their own thresholds. Ask your servicer which applies to your loan before ordering an appraisal.

Two situations. Under the HPA, when you request cancellation at 80% the holder may require evidence that the property has not DECLINED below its original value. That is an appraisal. And under an investor’s appreciation program, a current appraisal is the evidence the whole request rests on.

Often not, and this is where homeowners waste money. Many servicers require the appraisal be ordered through them or from an approved panel so the appraiser is independent of the borrower. Confirm the requirement before engaging anyone, including me.

No. The HPA governs private mortgage insurance on conventional loans. FHA mortgage insurance premium runs under separate HUD rules, and on many loans originated after 2013 it lasts the life of the loan and cannot be removed by appraisal at any value. Check with your servicer before spending anything.

A comparative market analysis is prepared by a real estate agent, typically to win or price a listing, and California law expressly excludes it from the definition of an appraisal. An appraisal is an independent opinion of value developed under USPAP by a licensed appraiser who may not be compensated based on the value reached. Both look at comparable sales; only one is produced by someone with no financial interest in the number.

Almost certainly not. Lenders require an appraisal prepared for them, with the lender as client, ordered through a channel that preserves appraiser independence. A pre-listing appraisal is for your pricing and negotiation, not for the buyer’s financing.

It can be, for the same reason it helps a FSBO seller: it gives you an independent number before anyone seeking your listing gives you one. Some sellers use it specifically to evaluate the pricing advice they receive.

Yes, when you engage the appraiser directly, you are the client and the report is yours to share. That is a meaningful difference from a lender-ordered appraisal, which is prepared for the lender and cannot be released without its permission.

It can support approval, but the valuation is one input into a loss mitigation decision that also weighs the shortfall, the borrower’s circumstances, and the investor’s rules. A credible, well-supported value showing the servicer’s figure is too high is genuinely useful; a low number without support is not.

A broker price opinion is prepared by a licensed real estate broker, often without interior access, and is not developed under appraisal standards. An appraisal is an independent opinion developed under USPAP by a licensed appraiser, with verified data and disclosed reasoning. Servicers use both; the appraisal is the more defensible when the value is contested.

You can commission one as evidence, and it is worth asking the servicer first whether it will accept an independent appraisal and in what form. Where the servicer has ordered its own valuation, yours supports a request for reconsideration rather than replacing theirs.

Usually yes, because the intended use is disclosed. It does not change the value opinion. The appraiser reports what the property is worth, not what any party needs it to be worth. It does affect the assignment conditions and how the report is written.

Because it answers a different question. A lending appraisal estimates market value assuming the property has reasonable exposure to the market. A relocation appraisal estimates what the property should sell for within a fixed marketing period set by the employer’s policy. Constraining the selling time constrains the price, and the two figures can legitimately differ on the same property on the same day.

Generally no. It is prepared on a different form, for a different intended use, under a marketing-period assumption a lender has not adopted. Lenders require an appraisal prepared for them, on their form, with the lender as the client.

Relocation policies commonly do, then reconcile the results, sometimes averaging, sometimes discarding an outlier. It is a control on a decision the employer is funding directly, and it is standard practice rather than a sign anything is wrong.

Yes, and it is worth doing. A written list of improvements with dates is the most useful thing you can provide. The appraiser cannot see that the sewer line was replaced or the panel upgraded.

You do. The presumption in Revenue and Taxation Code §167 that shifts the burden to the assessor applies to owner-occupied single-family dwellings that qualify for the homeowners’ exemption, and to escape assessments, not to commercial property. On a commercial appeal you are asking the board to prefer your evidence to the assessor’s, so the quality of the support is what decides it.

The regular period opens July 2. It closes September 15 in counties whose assessor sends every assessee a value notice by August 1, and November 30 in counties that do not. San Diego County has published a July 2 to November 30 window. Confirm the current year’s date with the clerk of the board, since a deadline falling on a weekend or holiday rolls to the next business day.

No. It is evidence, and the board decides. What a well-supported appraisal does is give the board something it can rely on. A value as of the correct lien date, built on verified data, with reasoning it can follow. Appeals fail more often on the wrong valuation date or unverified income than on the conclusion itself.

It is arithmetic. Compare the likely tax saving, over the years a Proposition 8 reduction would realistically apply, against the cost of supporting the appeal. On a substantial commercial property the saving usually justifies proper evidence; on a marginal case it may not.

A board reviews the value and is not bound to your figure, so it can determine a value higher than the assessor’s. In practice this is uncommon, but it is a real reason to establish that you have a genuine case before filing rather than appealing speculatively.

Yes. As a retrospective assignment with the date of the gift as the effective date. This comes up constantly, usually when a CPA discovers the return was filed without supporting valuation. Worth doing sooner rather than later: the further back the date, the more reconstruction the analysis requires.

Because of adequate disclosure. Reporting a gift properly, with a qualified appraisal supporting the value, starts the clock on the IRS's ability to revalue it. Report it inadequately and that window can stay open indefinitely, including after death, when the market you were valuing is a decade cold. Most gifts owe no tax; the appraisal is about finality, not the tax.

Usually less than half, and that is the point. A fractional interest can be worth materially less than its arithmetic share because the holder cannot control the property or sell it easily. I value the real estate; the discount analysis is a business valuation discipline, so expect a second expert. Anyone offering both from one report is worth questioning.

They can, and it is a common shortcut that works right up until it does not. Assessed value is not fair market value, under Proposition 13 it often trails the market badly, and it will not satisfy adequate disclosure for hard-to-value property. It is a cheap number that buys no protection.

Only if competent in both real property and business valuation, which are separate disciplines under separate USPAP standards. Many matters are best served by a real property appraiser for the real estate and a business appraiser for the entity interest. An appraiser who offers to do both should be able to say plainly which standards they are working under.

Because a minority interest usually cannot force a sale, compel a distribution, or be sold readily to a third party. Discounts for lack of control and lack of marketability reflect that, and they can be substantial. They apply to the interest, not to the real estate. The building is worth what it is worth.

It is normally set by the court or by agreement between the parties, not chosen by the appraiser. Getting it wrong makes the report unusable no matter how sound the analysis, so it is confirmed in writing before work begins.

Yes, where the assignment contemplates it. A report prepared for a contested matter is written knowing it will be examined by an opposing expert and questioned in deposition, which affects how thoroughly the reasoning and data are documented.

No. Appraisal independence rules require the lender to control the engagement, precisely so that no party with an interest in the transaction selects the appraiser. A borrower-ordered appraisal is generally not acceptable for lending.

Below the interagency de minimis thresholds. $400,000 for residential real estate, $500,000 for commercial real estate, and $1,000,000 for business loans secured by real estate that are not dependent on the property’s income. An evaluation is generally still required, and the institution may order a full appraisal anyway. Confirm the current figures with the lender.

It can present additional information, a comparable sale not considered, or a factual correction, and ask the appraiser to review it. It cannot ask for a particular conclusion, condition payment or future assignments on the value, or select appraisers based on the values they return. The distinction is between supplying information and applying pressure.

For a residential mortgage, yes. Federal rules entitle the applicant to a copy, generally before closing. The lender remains the client, so the appraiser cannot discuss the report with you directly or release it to others without the lender’s permission.

No. An agency’s offer reflects its own appraisal, and its appraiser may have reached a different view of highest and best use, of the larger parcel, or of damage to your remainder. You are entitled to your own appraisal, and in a partial taking the gap between the two is frequently in the severance damages rather than in the land taken.

Often it is the opposite. The strip itself may be worth little while the injury to what remains is substantial. Lost parking, lost access, a setback that makes the site unbuildable, a shape that no longer works. Severance damages under §1263.410 exist precisely for that, and partial takings are where these cases are usually won or lost.

It should not be. Section 1263.330 requires fair market value to exclude any change in value attributable to the project or the proceeding. You are entitled to be paid as though the project had never been announced. If the agency's appraisal reflects a depressed post-announcement market, that is worth examining closely.

California is one of the states that compensates lost business goodwill, under §1263.510, and it is a separate claim from the real property valuation with its own proof requirements. It is normally valued by a business appraiser rather than a real estate appraiser, so expect two experts.

Usually not. A qualified appraisal must be made no earlier than 60 days before the contribution date, and it must have been prepared for this purpose to the qualified appraisal standard. An appraisal produced for a refinance or an estate generally fails on both counts, however recent it is.

The deduction can be disallowed entirely, not reduced to a defensible number, disallowed. That is why the form of the appraisal matters as much as the value in it, and why donors should confirm the requirements before the contribution rather than after.

For deductions over $5,000, Section B is signed and dated by both the qualified appraiser and the donee organisation. Getting the donee's signature can take time, so start it early rather than at the filing deadline.

Conservation easement valuation is a specialised assignment under IRC §170(h) and a standing IRS enforcement priority. Expect examination. Tell me at the outset if that is what you need, because it changes the scope of work and the depth of the workfile substantially.