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First Time Doing A Divorse Appraisal

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Joshua Fookes

Junior Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2003
Professional Status
Certified General Appraiser
State
California
Hey all,

I'm going out with my sup to do a SFR divorse appraisal, what kind of wisdom do you have that would be of help to me prior to going out?

Thanks,

Josh
 
From my distant past fee appraisal days, my advice would be to be paid in full in cash before inspecting. Divorce lawyers love to "pay our half of the fee" and leave you to chase the other half. Don't fall for it. If both attorneys agree to use you, that's to your credit and reputation. Otherwise, prepare to have to testify, which means, have good info in your files and prepare a good report, because you'll probably be scrutinized and harassed by the other spouse's lawyer.
 
If either party to the divorce is at the house when you do the inspection be polite but don't talk about the divorce, you are only interested in the property. The subject property probably won't be ready for sale and may need more cleaning, paint and repairs than a typical house appraised for a refinance and you may need to estimate a cost to make the property marketable.
 
If possible, request that neither party be at the home during the inspection. Maybe a neighbor or a relative could be there. Any comments that the two individuals would want you to consider should be provided to you in writing.
 
Have the attorney that ordered the appraisal to collect ALL of the fee from BOTH parties and hold it till you finish the report...or get it up front. BOTH attornies should be listed as the client to avoid any inference of partiality (get them to agree to use use).

It will not matter who the intended user is.....both parties will get a copy of the report.


BEFORE you starrt ask the attormey if the appraisal needs to be done as of the date or separation(DOS) or as of now. This is important. If the date is in the past, get a WRITTEN list of any repairs or upgrades done after the DOS.

It will not matter who the intended user is.....both parties will get a copy of the report.

Understand before you start that the value will be both too high and too low.
 
I always charge extra but find divorce work unrewarding. You will know you did a good job when both parties are unhappy with your estimate. Expect two rebuttal phone calls to your report.
 
The last divorce appraisal I did will be my last one. I was smart enough to be paid COD for the appraisal, but ended up spending a total of 10 hours in court testifying about the report. It took me 9 months to get paid for my time in court.

If I ever do one again, I will require the appraisal fee to be paid before I start PLUS a $1,000 deposit (held by me) to be used to pay me for any court testimony I have to make.
I would also require that I be told nothing about the case, ie: which party is buying out which party.

Good luck!
 
Get a written contract in advance of doing anything. Mine requires prepayment of the initial appraisal and a deposit of $1,000 if court time is involved. That $1,000 is refreshed upon demand. You'll need to address out of pocket expenses too like court exhibits, copy fees, developing or printing of photos, etc. I do quite a bit of litigation work and have never had a collection problem. I get my fee in advance, and if not, I clearly let the client and attorney know that they don't want me to appear as an unpaid disgruntled expert.

You'll want to talk with the attorney to find out who your client should be. Sometimes the attorney will want to be the client because certain things in the attorney's file are privileged and not discoverable.

One more thing- in our area a lot of attorney's will order a verbal appraisal. If the value is to their advantage then they'll ultimately require it in writing. If it isn't to their advantage then they might order an appraisal from another appraiser. Now they have two appraisals and the first verbal appraisal is discoverable in court. However, that verbal appraisal (with required work file) isn't as useful for the opposing side as a written one would be. Also, if the verbal appraisal agrees with a value provided by the opposing side then they might have saved their client some money if it never is required to be in writing. I charge one fee for a verbal, and an additional fee for it in writing.
 
The last divorce appraisal I did will be my last one. I was smart enough to be paid COD for the appraisal, but ended up spending a total of 10 hours in court testifying about the report. It took me 9 months to get paid for my time in court.

At least you got paid.....My minimum fee now is $3,000. I'll take care of the Court testimony at that time - to heck with a refund. I was drug into court on subpeona, told by the judge I would do it pro bono, and all because the ole gal had a new boyfriend who thought he was God's gift to the construction business and told her I had underappraised the property. He really helped her. She got nothing....not one dime from the judge. She appealed and lost and now is appealing to the State Supreme Court...i may get sucked back into this mess yet if it gets thrown back into court.

The divorce was a shame. They deserved each other. Her an idiot and him a dope smoking arsonist.
 
I haven't run a divorce appraisal in years. For some reason I would always represent the husband who always wanted the value to be high, because the wife was always still living there and wanted a low figure to buy the property. Always collect your higher than normal fee at time of inspection (just in case of problems). And always include in your report that any court appearance time would be at a very high amount per day, any portion of a day would be considered a full day's fee. Never had anyone want to pay me to go to court. I will never forget inspecting one divorce appraisal where the husband met me at the home, which only the wife lived now. While I was tape measuring the front of the house, the two got into such a heated argument in the front yard every car driving by would slow down and gawk at them. I was not about to referee them, and really wished I had not taken this job on. Hope you enjoy the fun world of divorce appraising.
 
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