Questions, answered plainly

$500 flat for a single-family residence in our service area, whatever its square footage. Charging by size implies the work scales with the house, and for ordinary residential assignments it largely does not. Commercial property, Two-to-four family, Acreage and multi-parcel, Retrospective dates more than a few years back are quoted individually, in writing, before anything begins.

Three to seven business days from the date of inspection for most residential assignments. Retrospective work to an older effective date, and anything with a thin sales record, runs longer. Rush turnaround is available and carries a premium, because it displaces other scheduled work. Tell us about a filing or hearing deadline at the outset rather than at the end.

Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union, Warren — 11 counties across Northern and Central New Jersey. We do not claim to serve the whole state, because an appraiser without working knowledge of a local market is not much use in it. If your property sits just outside, call anyway.

No. This is a non-lender practice: no appraisal management company panels and no bank work. The clients are attorneys, executors, homeowners and their accountants. One practical consequence is that scheduling is not competing with a lender pipeline; another is that the effective date is chosen to suit the purpose rather than always being today.

No, and nobody may. A fee or a conclusion contingent on a predetermined result, on a minimum value, or on an appeal succeeding is prohibited under USPAP. Beyond being a serious violation, a report produced that way is worthless to whoever you needed to convince, which is usually the reason it was commissioned.

No. An appraisal is an opinion of value. A home inspection is an assessment of condition and systems. An appraiser observes and reports what is visible, and is not qualified to determine the extent of a defect or what it would cost to remedy. If you need to know whether the roof is failing, you need an inspector.

Whoever the engagement identifies as an intended user. Ordinarily that is the client, and on written instruction counsel, an accountant or a servicer. An appraiser cannot release the report to a third party who was not identified, which is a confidentiality obligation under the USPAP ETHICS RULE rather than an administrative preference.

It would be if both capacities were taken on the same property, so they never are. One capacity per transaction. Where a brokerage or CMA option makes sense for what you actually need, that offer is made before any appraisal assignment is accepted — never after. An appraiser with a contingent interest in a sale price is not independent.

Say which comparable or which adjustment you think is wrong, and why. That is a conversation about the analysis and it is a legitimate one — appraisers make judgement calls and occasionally miss something material, such as a permitted addition that never made it into public records. A disagreement about the bottom line without a disagreement about the reasoning is a different thing, and the answer to that one is no.

No. Appraisal credentials are state-issued and competency is local. An appraiser working a market they do not know is precisely the situation the USPAP COMPETENCY RULE exists to prevent.