a page from your own rule book
USPAP is quoted below.
Research Illustration (AO-19)
The foregoing illustrations all include an appraisal assignment. In some situations, a client will request a service that is not an appraisal, appraisal review or appraisal consulting assignment as defined in USPAP. The service to be performed by the appraiser in the following illustration is:
* not an appraisal assignment (the appraiser does not develop a value opinion);
* not a real property appraisal consulting assignment (a value opinion is not a component of the analysis); and
* not a real property appraisal review (there is no appraisal to review).
The caller in this illustration is usually in the process of making a business decision and needs impartial and objective information but has not yet decided whether to pursue the matter at hand. The caller knows there is the potential for needing an appraisal, depending, in part, on what the sales data shows. The caller also believes that, if the data indicates that an appraisal is worthwhile, having that work completed by the appraiser in that subsequent assignment will lessen the time required to perform an appraisal. The prospective client may ask:
"We want you to check your data resources to see if there are sales within the past six months that are within one mile of [address]. If you find some, we may order an appraisal from you."
One possible response would be:
"If what you want is only the sales of properties shown in the databases available to me with the criteria you specified, I can do that research and send you the result. Then you can decide what you think your client’s property is worth. If I do only that, it is just research and is not an appraisal.
Please don't tell me it is illegal any more.