Blue Book Or Appraisal?

[Thomas J Kirchmeyer]

I have a client that has a loan which is secured by a 1974 Weston mobile home with no land attached. He is reviewing the file for a possible settlement and he wants me to get an approximate value of the mobile home. The mobile home is located on private property. We are able to gain access to the mobile home. Again this is a mobile home only and not land. Could I estimate an approximate value of this mobile home? Or is this really a Blue Book type of valuation that he could get by simply looking it up?

Tom Kirchmeyer

 

[Justin Czerniak]

The rule in California as far as I know it to be is if it is not on a permanent foundation then it is not real property and the would be done by blue book.

This is how I have seen them done.

 

[Tom McDowell]

You can use either NADA or you can use Marshall & Swift. Appraising personal property is no different from doing an appraisal on real property. If you follow USPAP you will be ok.

Go to local manufactured home dealers and the county court house for comps. There are a few things that are unique to manufactured housing that you should know, but that falls under competence.

If you get the chance take the Lincoln course on the National Appraisal System. You may never do a NAS appraisal but it is good for continuing ed and it is a good 2 day course.

 

[Wally Jones]

If you have experience and competence in valuing a mobile home as personal property, go for it. If you know an appraiser who is knowledgable, perhaps see if they'll do it and ask if you can look over their shoulder as a learning experience.

Recommend your client consult a blue book/NADA guide for an approximate value.

Technically, you can do an appraisal on anything, as long as you keep that little provision in USPAP in mind that talks about competency.

Good luck!

 

[Restrain]

I would remember that a home that is personalty (not attached to the land) may well have a different value than a home that is real estate. There's a thread concerning the accuracy and differential between M&S and NADA. It appears that NADA is more related to homes in parks and on sales lots (used/new) as the values generated by their source was coming out lower than the market was yielding. BTW, this was through extraction of the home value from the remainder of the sale.

That being said, I would tend to use the NADA book and truck on.

Roger