Somebody is being paid to find the weak spot
That is the design constraint on this report, and it drives every decision about how it gets written.
Nothing is asserted where it can instead be shown. Which sales were selected and why those rather than the others available nearby. The adjustment applied to each, the evidence behind it, and which way it ran. What was inspected, what was not, and what had to be assumed in consequence. Where the conclusion rests on an extraordinary assumption, the report names it rather than tucking it into a paragraph nobody reads.
The working test is simple: every adjustment should survive on its own, because one at a time is exactly how they will be taken apart.
The date belongs to counsel
When the property has to be valued is a legal question. It is decided by the cause of action, by the pleadings, or by agreement between the parties, and it is very often not today.
In a market that has moved, the distance between two plausible dates is large enough to be worth litigating, which is precisely why it gets litigated. I treat the date as an instruction and work to it.
Where it is genuinely unresolved, say so before anything starts. The engagement can be written so a second effective date is added later at a reduced fee, which is a great deal cheaper than commissioning a second report from scratch.
Independence is the entire product
An appraiser retained by one party is bound to impartiality under the USPAP ethics rule in exactly the same terms as a jointly retained one.
That is not housekeeping — it is the only reason the report carries any weight with a tribunal. A figure that bends toward whoever is paying is worthless the moment it is examined, and it exposes the appraiser to considerably more than a dissatisfied client.
Two consequences worth knowing before you engage anyone, me included:
- No fee contingent on anything. Not on the figure reached, and not on how the matter ends. It is prohibited, and an opposing expert will ask about it on the record.
- No advocacy. I can explain and defend the analysis at whatever length is useful. I cannot argue your case, and an appraiser who tries will damage it.
Send me the earlier report
If there is already an appraisal you dislike, I would rather read it than not.
It does not bind me — I reach my own conclusion from my own analysis either way. What it does is let the differences be identified and explained ahead of time. Two credible appraisals of one property nearly always diverge for one of three findable reasons: the effective dates differ, the comparable selection differs, or a handful of specific adjustments are sized differently. Each of those can be argued on its merits, which is much better ground than a disagreement about the bottom line.
The worst moment to meet a discoverable document for the first time is under cross-examination.
Where these come from around here
Partition actions between co-owners. Dissolution of a partnership or an LLC holding real property. Contested estates where the date-of-death figure is disputed. Boundary and easement disputes. Bankruptcy schedules. Insurance and casualty matters, where the date is normally the day before the event and the policy fixes it.
Matrimonial work generates enough of this to have a page of its own.
Testimony
Deposition and testimony are separate engagements and are quoted separately.
Raise it with counsel early rather than when it becomes pressing. Availability is almost always what binds, and a report I cannot appear to support is worth less to you than one I can.
Whether a particular appraiser is qualified as an expert in a particular matter is the court’s decision, made on the record before it. Nobody can promise that outcome beforehand, and anyone who does has told you something useful about themselves.
This page describes appraisal practice, not law. Valuation dates, scope and expert disclosure obligations are counsel’s judgment to make, and nothing here displaces it.
New Jersey specifics
- The matters that generate this work most often here: partition between co-owners, dissolution of a partnership or LLC holding real property, contested estates, boundary and easement disputes, casualty claims, and bankruptcy schedules.
- When the property is valued is a legal determination, and it belongs to counsel. Ordering before it is fixed is how one of these ends up paid for twice.
- If the matter looks likely to reach a contested hearing rather than settle, say so when you engage me. It bears directly on how much support the report has to carry.
What you receive
- A report dated as counsel or the pleadings require
- Comparable sales and adjustments set out one by one, each able to stand alone
- A stated scope of work, including what was deliberately left outside it
- Every extraordinary assumption and hypothetical condition disclosed
- Signed USPAP certification with the statement of independence
What I need from you
- The effective date, or word that it is still contested
- The intended use and intended users, which USPAP requires be identified
- Access to inspect, or documentation where inspection is impossible
- Any earlier appraisal of the property — including one you would rather I did not read
- The discovery schedule and any hearing date