Questions, answered plainly

Quoted on request, and confirmed in writing before the inspection is booked — the figure you agree to is the figure on the invoice. What moves it is the property and its complexity rather than its size: Two-to-four family, Acreage and multi-parcel, Retrospective dates more than a few years back are priced one at a time. Ring and describe the property and you will have a number on the call.

Most residential assignments run three to seven business days from the inspection. Retrospective work to an older date takes longer, as does anything in a municipality with a thin sales record. Rush turnaround exists and carries a premium, because it pushes other people down the queue. If there is a filing date or a hearing in the way, say so on the first call rather than the last.

Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union, Warren — 11 counties across Northern and Central New Jersey. There is no claim here to cover the whole state, because an appraiser who does not know a local market is of very little use inside it. If you are just over the line, call anyway and you will get a straight answer.

Estates and date-of-death valuations, divorce and equitable distribution, gift and transfer valuations, PMI removal, pre-listing opinions, two-to-four family properties, and retrospective valuations for litigation and insurance matters. Clients tend to be attorneys, executors, homeowners and their accountants. What ties it together is that the number gets read by somebody rather than filed and forgotten, which is what these reports are built for. If your situation is not on the list, call and describe it.

No, and neither may anybody else. Tying a fee or a conclusion to a predetermined result, or to a minimum value, is prohibited under USPAP. Quite apart from being a serious violation, a report produced that way is worth nothing to the person you needed to convince — which was the reason for commissioning it in the first place.

No. An appraisal is an opinion of value; a home inspection is an examination of condition and systems. An appraiser records what is visible and is not qualified to say how far a defect goes or what it would cost to fix. If the question you actually have is whether the roof is failing, an inspector is who you want.

Whoever the engagement names as an intended user — ordinarily you, plus counsel, an accountant or a servicer where you have said so in writing. An appraiser may not release it to a third party who was never identified. That is a confidentiality obligation under the USPAP ETHICS RULE, not an administrative preference, and it exists for your benefit.

No. One capacity per property, always — the appraisal, or an interest in the sale, never both and never one after the other on the same transaction. Where a comparative market analysis or a brokerage arrangement is what your situation actually calls for, you will be told that before an appraisal assignment is accepted rather than afterwards. An appraiser holding a contingent interest in a sale price is not independent, and a commission waiting at the end of it is a contingent interest.

Then tell us which comparable or which adjustment is wrong, and why. That is a conversation about the analysis and it is entirely legitimate — appraisers make judgment calls, and occasionally something material gets missed, a permitted addition that never reached the public record being the classic. Objecting to the bottom line while accepting every step that produced it is a different request, and the answer to that one is no.

No. Appraisal credentials are issued state by state, and competence is local in any case. An appraiser working a market they do not know is precisely what the USPAP COMPETENCY RULE exists to prevent.