Divorce Settlements  

Why do you need an appraisal for a divorce settlement? Because the court will order one and/or sometimes two if the final opinion of value has a wide range. 

Why use our company for your appraisal services? Because of the level of detail that is provided within the appraisal report. 

The appraisal report walks the reader through the mythology used in developing the appraisal with supportable evidence of real estate market activity that includes the marketing time, price changes and total days on market for each of the comparables used within the appraisal report. This type of history pattern allows one to obtain a good understanding of the projected marketing time the property most likely will take to sale on the open market. 

A licensed appraiser must generate the appraisal report. The courts will not accept what is termed as a CMA (Certified Market Analysis) by a licensed realtor. 

The appraisal report will most likely contain four sold comparables (2 that closed within the prior 90 days and 2 within the prior six months), two pending sales and two active listings of properties deemed to be similar to the subject property. The appraisal report contains between 35-40 pages of information. Included within the report is a sketch of the property with rooms labeled, photographs of the exterior front, rear and street views, all interior rooms and any areas that may add value such as updates/upgrades and/or areas that may take away value such as leaking roof, holes in walls, water in basement, broken windows, debris and etc. The appraisal report will also discuss any ?Red Flags? that might prevent the property from selling within the anticipated average marketing time of similar properties within the market place. 

The report contains a detailed discussion regarding the total sales that closed within the area that appeared similar to the subject in the prior 90 days, 4-6 months and 7-12 months. The appraisal report discusses the analysis used to determine the area to be either declining and/or increasing in value. This information is discussed within the 1004MC (market condition) report form that provides the information used in projecting a time adjustment (if warranted) for the area and the anticipated marketing time of future sales within the area. A time adjustment within the appraisal report is developed by using the anticipated marketing time x a percentage factor of decline and/or increase in value that supports the opinion of value by the Sales Comparison Approach. 

The appraisal contains an analysis of the overall neighborhood that references the total sales for the area/neighborhood for the prior 90 days, 4-6 months and 7-12 months. Within this section discussion is made concerning the total number of bank owned, short sales and government owned properties within the area and what affect those sales are presently having on property values. This area provides the data used to arrive at the opinion of value, any anticipated seller?s concessions and days of marketing time.

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