A divorce appraisal establishes fair market value so the property can be divided, bought out, or sold. It is written to be read by both sides, and by a judge if it comes to that, which changes how much of the reasoning has to be on the page.
What this assignment is scoped to do, stated before you engage.
Either party, both parties jointly, or an attorney can engage me. Any of those works. What matters is that the engagement is settled before I start, because it determines who my client is and who is entitled to rely on the report.
The payment arrangement does not affect the report. It is often split, sometimes one side pays and it is accounted for in the settlement, sometimes counsel engages me and bills it through. None of that reaches the conclusion.
I am not on either side. That is not a courtesy, it is the entire reason the report is worth having. If my conclusion could be moved by whoever is paying, the other side would dismantle it in the first ten minutes of cross-examination, and you would have paid for a document that made your position worse.
I cannot accept an assignment where the fee or the engagement depends on reaching a particular number, and I will not take direction on the conclusion. If you need the number to come out a specific way, I am the wrong appraiser and I would rather say so now than after you have spent money.
This is the decision that shapes the whole assignment, and it is usually made by the parties or the court rather than by me. The value may be as of today, as of the date of separation, or as of another date the case requires.
A past date makes it a retrospective assignment. That is entirely standard, but it has to be established up front, because it determines which sales are evidence and which are irrelevant. Changing it later is not an edit, it is a new assignment.
One mutually agreed appraiser is cheaper, faster, and produces a single number rather than a dispute between two. Two make sense when the parties cannot agree on someone neutral, or when one side has already engaged an appraiser.
Two appraisals frequently produce different values, which can complicate a negotiation rather than settle it. The attorneys usually have a view, and it is usually worth taking.
Tell me. If I got a fact wrong, the square footage, the bedroom count, a comparable's details, I want to know and I will correct it.
What I will not do is change a conclusion because someone dislikes it. Those are two different conversations and I will be clear about which one we are having. Beyond that, the options are mediation, a second appraisal, arbitration, or letting the court decide.
Who does the work. I have been in the business since 1997 and licensed as an appraiser since 2000. I have been a field appraiser and Chief Review Appraiser at two national appraisal management companies, I ran an appraisal desk reviewing other appraisers' work, and I have done litigation work. That is what I bring to your house and to the report.
The walk-through. Most appraisers photograph a house and leave without speaking to anyone. I walk it with you, tell you what I am looking at and why it moves the number, and answer your questions on the spot.
I measure the house myself, to the ANSI standard, and never use the county's square footage. From those measurements I draw a professional floor plan sketch, and it is yours to keep and use at no extra charge. Most owners have never been given one.
Your privacy. The report goes only to you and anyone you name. It is not submitted to any data portal, it is not reported to the county, it does not affect your tax assessment, and it never appears in MLS or the public record.
No need to clean. Whether the dishes are done does not touch the value. I am appraising the structure and the quality of its finishes. Interior photographs are taken in every room because a credible report requires them, and personal photographs, religious items and anything personal are blurred or cropped out.
A narrative, not a form. Most people get a six to ten page checkbox form. The numbers are there but the reasoning is not: you cannot tell why a comparable was chosen or where an adjustment came from. Mine covers the same nuts and bolts with the reasoning written out, held to the standard that another appraiser could follow the work and arrive where I did.
Either spouse, both spouses jointly, or an attorney can engage an appraiser. The report establishes fair market value so the property can be divided, bought out, or sold as part of the settlement.
It's written to be read by both sides and, if necessary, by the court.
One mutually agreed appraiser is cheaper, faster, and produces a single number rather than a dispute between two. Two make sense when the parties can't agree on someone neutral, or when one side has already engaged an appraiser.
Two appraisals frequently produce different values, which can complicate negotiation rather than settle it. The attorneys usually have a view.
Whatever the parties or the court decide. Often it's split, sometimes one side pays and it's accounted for in the settlement, sometimes an attorney engages me and bills it through.
The payment arrangement doesn't affect the report. But the engagement determines who my client is, so it needs settling before I start.
Neither. That's the entire value of the engagement.
If I could be influenced by whoever is paying, the report wouldn't survive the first cross-examination, and it wouldn't be worth what you paid for it.
It depends on the case and sometimes on the court. It may be today, the date of separation, or another date the parties or the judge specify.
A past date makes it a retrospective assignment. That's entirely standard, but it has to be established up front because it changes the data I analyze.
Options include mediation, a second appraisal, arbitration, or letting the court decide.
If there's a factual error in my report, tell me and I'll look at it. Disagreeing with a conclusion is different from identifying an error.
Only if it makes either of you uncomfortable. A neutral appraiser is neutral regardless of who made the introduction.
But a divorce appraisal is only useful if both sides accept it. If the recommendation is a problem, better to raise it now than after the report exists.
You will reach Scott directly. Expect questions about intended use and effective date before a fee is quoted.
Discuss a divorce assignment