Resources
Terms, and where to check things yourself
30 terms written for people who are not appraisers, plus the primary sources standing behind every figure quoted on this site.
Check it yourself
Official sources
Every statute, rate and filing date quoted anywhere on this site comes from one of these. You should not have to take any of it on trust, and on the pages that could cost you a year if they are wrong, you should not.
- NJ Division of Consumer Affairs, licence verification
Look up any New Jersey appraiser's licence, mine included. It takes half a minute and it is worth spending before you engage any appraiser, including me.
- NJ Division of Taxation, inheritance and estate tax
Beneficiary classes, rates, forms and filing dates for the transfer inheritance tax. This is the one that reaches New Jersey estates far too small for the federal government to notice.
- The Appraisal Foundation
Publisher of USPAP. Every credible appraisal in the country is developed under it, the text is public, and reading it is the only way to check what a report claiming compliance is actually claiming.
- IRS, Form 709 and Form 706 instructions
The federal gift and estate return instructions, including what adequate disclosure asks of an appraisal. Worth reading directly rather than paraphrased by somebody selling you one.
- NJ Division of Taxation, property administration
The Handbook for New Jersey Assessors and the rest of the local property tax material — including how an assessment is struck, and the October 1 date an appeal is decided against.
- NJ Association of County Tax Boards
Assessment records and property data, county by county. The fastest public route to a block and lot when nobody can find the assessment notice.
Glossary
30 terms worth knowing
Effective date, gross living area, extraordinary assumption, legally nonconforming use — the vocabulary these assignments hand you, whether or not anybody stopped to explain it. Arranged by the question you are probably asking rather than alphabetically.
Coverage
Counties served
Every county page sets out how that market actually behaves, the municipalities inside it, and the mistakes a valuation there tends to make.
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.