This One's Personal!

[David S. Roberson]

Just got another call for an appraisal of personal property. I must get at least one call a month for this stuff (furniture, paintings, coin or card collections, etc). I always refer them to local auctioneers. Maybe we are missing out on some extra business. But where would you get your market data? It would seem to require keeping an extensive database on all kinds of junk. Does anyone out there do these?

(Maybe you could just ask them how much they paid for it & report that as the value, since some of us seem to think that a property's last sale is the best indicator of current value!)

 

[Willie]

Could always check EBAY. LOL

 

[Travis McGee]

To me is seems like more trouble than it's worth as I feel the learning curve would take more time than I could make-unless it was a sizeable estate. I guess I don't believe my training as a real estate appraiser gives me any idea how to appraiser personal property. But it could be developed into a business if one learns the ropes.

Maybe a local auction house would like the prestige of saying they had a certified appraiser on board and you could team up with them. Just an idea.

In any case, it sounds like more fun than real estate appraising with less liability. Let us know!

I also thought about diamond and gem stone appraising. That sounds interesting too and more codified, but seems to be done by jewlers right in their store .

 

[Restrain]

I have done extensive personal property appraisal when I ran a smaller shop in a smaller town. I was the only one who would tackle it. It required attending auctions of equipment, getting auction sheets, recording results, and subscribing to numerous publications. In real estate appraising, you are most likely to do personal property connected with real estate. For example, the comparable personal property would be free-standing freezers, machinery and equipment, etc. The pay is O.K, $500 per day for a desktop evaluation (bank sends you a list of equipment, you put a value on it from the M&E list). I've done such facilities as a Coors distributorship with the chillers, trucks, etc., ice plants, plastics manufacturing operations, and a complete cabinet manufacturing facility.

To do M&E requires a lot of work to understand just what you are looking at as well as knowledge of the overall operations. Also, there are various levels of value in M&E, such as "value in use", "value in place", "liquidation value", "auction value", etc.

The ASA has a complete area of personal property valuation certifications and training. Auctioneers and antique dealers are often the ones who deal in art, cabinetry, etc.

Unless you are really willing to invest the time to truly learn the business (I learned it by being a Personal Property Appraiser for a taxing jurisdiction), I would stay away from it. It's actually much harder than real estate appraisal.

Roger Strahan, SRA, IFA

 

[Kelly Green]

Does anyone know what USPAP standards or certification requiements do personal property appraisal require?

 

[Bob Ipock]

Not sure what you are asking, but personal property is coved in Standard 7.