Complexities in appraisal work come up periodically, depending on the market you work in and the types of properties that are common to the area. I office in Colorado and have had the opportunity to appraise in rural and extremely remote areas. In the case of one particular market area, the trip one-way takes over two hours and is over 1,500 square miles; in this particular market, you’re lucky to have 30 sales over any two-year period – and that’s counting all residential properties, whether on a lot in town or a large-acreage parcel, a 90-year-old small house or a custom log house. You can bet there are complex assignments in this area. However, it doesn’t take a remote area to result in complex appraisal assignments.
Typically, complexities originate from two sources:
- Physical or locational characteristics of the subject property itself, and/or
- Limited sales or uniqueness in the area.
Complexities are a double-edged sword. If you only have two dozen sales in the entire area over a multi-year search period for selecting comps, and your subject is not located in a subdivision, you have to decide whether the glass is half-full or half-empty. Likely, there is no “model match” to your subject; however, you don’t have too many sales to sift through to choose which will give the best perspective in evaluating the subject’s value.
An appraiser doesn’t need to cover rural markets to experience similar dilemmas. All it might take is that 3,000 square foot GLA over-improved house in a subdivision of 1,500 square foot GLA houses, or the house with an indoor pool in the area with only starter houses, to appreciate that complex assignments area a test of our appraisal abilities.
But complexities are not an automatic reason to decline an assignment. Let’s be sure we’re prepared!