Pricing
What an appraisal costs
Describe the property on the call and a real figure comes back in writing, before an inspection date is held.
| Assignment | Fee | Turnaround | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apartment buildings | Quoted individually | 10–20 business days | Priced on unit count, whether leases and operating statements exist, and how much access is achievable. |
| Commercial property | Quoted individually | 10–20 business days | Priced on the property, the tenancy and the interest appraised. Commercial work varies far more than residential and is never quoted off a list. |
| Condominium & PUD | Quoted on request | 3–6 business days | Priced on the project as much as the unit — a building with no recent internal sales takes materially longer. |
| Divorce & equitable distribution | Quoted on request | 5–7 business days | Confirmed in writing before an inspection date is held. |
| Employee relocation | Quoted individually | 5–8 business days | Priced on the property and on the relocation company's own requirements, which vary and which are worth sending over before a fee is quoted. |
| Estate & date-of-death | Quoted on request | 5–7 business days | Confirmed in writing before an inspection date is held. |
| Gift & charitable donation | Quoted on request | 5–10 business days | A transfer of a fractional interest is quoted individually — a discount study is a separate exercise and not one I perform. |
| Home equity & HELOC | Quoted on request | 3–5 business days | Confirmed in writing before an inspection date is held. |
| Insurance & casualty loss | Quoted on request | 7–14 business days | Quoted individually where the loss is total, the date is well in the past, or an insurer's own valuation is already in play. |
| Litigation support | Quoted individually | 7–14 business days | Priced on the record, the date, and whether a deposition or a hearing appearance is in view. |
| Mixed-use property | Quoted individually | 10–18 business days | Priced on the unit mix, the tenancy, and how much of the value sits on the commercial side. |
| New construction | Quoted individually | 5–10 business days | Two site visits and two reports. Quoted together, so the completion inspection is not a surprise line later. |
| PMI removal | Quoted on request | 3–5 business days | Confirmed in writing before an inspection date is held. |
| Pre-listing | Quoted on request | 3–5 business days | Confirmed in writing before an inspection date is held. |
| Purchase & refinance | Quoted on request | 3–5 business days | Lender and AMC work is quoted against the engagement rather than off this site. |
| REO & foreclosure | Quoted individually | 5–10 business days | Priced on access, condition and whether an as-repaired conclusion is required alongside the as-is. |
| Retrospective valuation | Quoted on request | 5–10 business days | An older effective date, or a town where almost nothing sold that year, is quoted on its own facts. |
| Tax assessment appeal | Quoted on request | 5–10 business days | Testimony before the county board, where it is needed, is engaged and quoted separately. |
| Two-to-four family | Quoted individually | 7–12 business days | Priced on the unit count, whether leases and a rent roll exist, and how thin the comparable building sales are in that municipality. |
| Vacant land & development sites | Quoted individually | 7–15 business days | Priced on the parcel and on how much of the value turns on an approval that does not yet exist. |
What the fee covers
- The inspection, and the building measured on site
- Research and the comparable sales analysis
- The written report, delivered digitally
- Onward delivery to counsel or an accountant, on your written instruction
Quoted individually
- Two-to-four family and mixed-use
- Relocation (ERC) assignments
- Retrospective dates more than a few years back
- Litigation support and testimony
- Rush turnaround
- Additional effective dates on the same property
- Deposition or testimony, engaged separately
No fee here ever turns on the value reached, on a predetermined result, or on how the underlying matter ends. Each is prohibited, and an appraisal produced on those terms is worth precisely nothing to whoever you needed it to convince.
FAQ
Questions about pricing
Why is the figure not published here?
Because a figure printed here would be a figure for a property nobody has described to me yet, and the honest version of that is a range so wide it tells you nothing. Two minutes on the phone gets you a real number for your actual property, in writing, before an inspection date is held — and it is the number that appears on the invoice. What does not happen here is a headline price that grows once the work is under way.
What actually moves the price?
Complexity, and almost never square footage. On an ordinary single-family house the research, the comparable analysis and the writing are much the same job at 1,400 feet as at 3,000. What actually moves the fee is a property that does not behave like a house on a street: a two-to-four family that needs an income analysis and access to every unit, a relocation report on the ERC form, an effective date years back, a municipality where almost nothing sells, or a matter heading for a hearing where the file has to carry more support. A rush pushes other people down a one-appraiser queue, so it costs more.
Which assignments get priced individually?
Two-to-four family buildings, which need an income analysis alongside the sales and access to every unit. Relocation assignments, which are written to the relocation company’s own form and requirements. Litigation support, where the file has to survive an opposing expert. An effective date far enough back, or a market thin enough, that the research genuinely lengthens. Rush work. Each is priced on its own facts and confirmed before anything begins.
When do I pay?
Agreed in writing before an inspection date is held, with the payment terms in the engagement letter. What never happens is a fee that turns on the value reached, or on whether an appeal or a PMI cancellation succeeds. That is prohibited, and it is also self-defeating — a number that moves for the person paying is worth nothing to the person they needed to convince.
Is a cheaper appraisal a worse one?
Possibly, and you should still ask two questions before you book it. First: what effective date will the report carry? An appeal wants October 1 of the pretax year and an estate wants the date of death, and a cheaper report carrying today’s date cannot be redated afterwards — it is unusable, and you pay twice. Second: does the report explain its adjustments or simply announce a number? The second kind is cheaper to produce and falls apart the moment anybody examines it.
Someone else advertises a lower starting price.
"Starting at" is the bottom of a range whose top you find out later. It normally describes a small, simple, easily-compared house on an unhurried timeline, and the additions — square footage, acreage, distance, complexity, a second effective date — arrive after you have committed. It may genuinely still be cheaper for you, which is worth knowing. So ask whoever quoted it what the number becomes for your property on your date, and then compare two things that are actually comparable.
Next step
Two minutes on the phone settles most of this
Tell me what the number has to do and the date you are working to. Those two fix the effective date, the fee and the turnaround on the call — and where an appraisal is the wrong tool, or a free one would answer you just as well, that is what you will hear before anything is ordered.