To protect your investments and prevent financial losses, you should engage a professional appraisal service provider when selling or buying a real estate property, a business enterprise or valuable personal property.
Appraisal service providers, whether companies or individuals, specialize in one or more types of properties. There are at least four areas of appraisal or valuation specializations: real property appraisal, mass appraisal, personal property appraisal and business valuation.
Real property appraisal focuses on the valuation of residential, agricultural and commercial properties. Mass appraisal covers large portfolios of real estate properties or personal properties typically for taxation purposes.
The third type, personal property appraisal, refers to the valuation of jewelry, fine art, antiques, general household items, equipment, machinery and other valuable personal properties.
Business valuation specializes in the valuation of businesses, including intangible assets such as goodwill, trademarks, patents, customer lists, domain names and other intellectual properties.
It is best for you to hire professional appraisal service providers because they comply with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, the set of standards recognized by Congress for appraisal practice in the country. USPAP includes standards for all kinds of appraisals and is recognized by national appraisal associations, customer advocates and by federal and local government agencies.
There are six qualities appraisal clients can gain from engaging appraisal services that are complying with USPAP standards. One is ethical conduct, which refers to ethical professional behavior while carrying out the appraisal process. Another is objectivity and impartiality of appraisal, which means that the valuation of the appraiser is not biased and has not been influenced by any interested party.
The third quality is full disclosure, which means that the appraiser provides all pertinent and easy-to-understand appraisal data useful to the client. Another is confidentiality, which refers to the respect accorded by the appraiser to the right of the client to protect appraisal results from being known by other parties. Next is competency, which refers to the appraiser?s experience, training and knowledge in performing the type of appraisal being required. The sixth quality is independence, which refers to the freedom enjoyed by the appraiser from the pressure of changing the results of valuation to protect a certain party?s interests.
Professional appraisers develop the six qualities described above by building up their appraisal experiences, taking continuing education courses, passing appraisal examinations, becoming active members of reputable national appraisal organizations and adhering to the USPAP and other relevant codes of conduct.
