The Personal Property Appraisers Post

Workshop Sessions:

• Close the Sale and Determine The Scope of Work

• Prepare Contracts and Obtain Deposits

• Prepare for the On-Site Inspection

• Research Using New Methods and New Technological Techniques, Creating Bibliographies and Incorporating Printed Documents and Appraisals into New Reports

• Learn How to Deal With Client Challenges

• Perform an appraisal inspection

• Advance Product and Specialty Area Knowledge

Inspect and study the inventory of two antique shops packed full of period and quality revival furniture, decorative arts and fine arts. You may remove drawers, turn over case pieces, inspect backboards and even disassemble/assemble a tall case clock. You will learn how to use ultra violet light to detect restorations to paintings, porcelains and furniture, and learn how to write property descriptions and condition reports. Click HERE for a photo album of the shops:

Your workbook with C D will include actual sample contracts, forms, glossaries and documents which are used everyday by successful and experienced appraisers.

The appraisal business is better than ever even in this economy. Are you going to waste another year trying to figure out how to make money in your appraisal practice? What are you waiting for?

Limited to 10 attendees, no more than 5 students to each instructor. Time and Space is limited! Contact us NOW for pricing and availability. The workshop is lead by  Jane C. Brennom, ISA CAPP, and Todd W. Sigety, ISA CAPP.

Click on the link below for further information and registration. Website: www.appraiserworkshops.com or Call The Appraiser Workshops at 703-836-1020

WEBINAR: Antique Folk Art and the Modern Interpretations.

Folk Art encompasses a lot of territory. Paintings, objects, textiles and every other media find their places in the world of Folk Art.

As a rule, modern Folk Art interpretations are not meant to be fraudulent. In fact, most currently made objects are made in homage to past ones. However, the lack of facts or removal of identification causes problems for collectors and appraisers.

Are you aware of the interpretations that are out there in the marketplace? Would you know an antique folk art object from a 20th century revival piece? If not, your due diligence becomes a significant issue for recognizing and appraising this property. It does not matter if you are a generalist, fine art or decorative arts appraiser, this seminar will allow you to see just how closely some artisans interpret antique objects. You will be shown examples of antiques against an early 20th century revival and more recent examples. You will gain an understanding of the interpreter’s work through Susan’s interviews with artisans currently making these objects.

Susan Golashovsky, ASA, is an accredited senior appraiser with the American Society of Appraisers with tested specialties in American Folk Art, Antique Furniture and General/Residential Contents. Susan was involved with the retail end of Americana and Country antiques before becoming an appraiser. Now an independent appraiser based in Doylestown, PA , Susan attends every antiques auction and vetted crafts show that time allows.

Folk Art encompasses a lot of territory. Paintings, objects, textiles and every other media find their places in the world of Folk Art.

The webinar lasts one hour and begins at 2pm EST, Feb. 12, 2010.

This is a great opportunity to earn continuing education credits at a low price!

Non-member: $75.00 Member: $65.00 Designated Member: $65.00

The Web site is http://www.appraisers.org/Education/ViewClass.aspx?ClassID=2362&View=Syllabus for more information and to register for the webinar.

Appraisal Course Associates (ACA), a leading developer of USPAP-centered instructional books and courses for the personal property appraiser, has announced that the updated 2010-2011 edition of the "Complete Online Course in Personal Property Appraising (Featuring USPAP)" is now available.

"The course has been completely updated to conform to the many changes incorporated into the 2010-2011 edition of USPAP," said course author and Certified Appraiser Dave Maloney. "In addition, scores of enhancements including expanded discussions and new topics make this the most comphrensive and up-to-date online source of core appraisal knowledge for the personal property appraiser," he continued.

The course makes use of Maloney's popular 550-page how-to course book and reference guide for the appraiser entitled "Appraising Personal Property: Principles and Methodology - 3rd Edition" (http://bit.ly/AppraisalBook) as well as The Appraisal Foundation's "Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice" (USPAP). Narrated video reviews combined with supplemental online readings enhance the learning experience. The course also makes use of self-assessed quizzes, locally-proctored exams, and a graded final appraisal assignment. Read more about the course: http://bit.ly/OnlineCourseReview.

Visit Course Website: http://www.AppraisalCourseAssociates.com/lms.

Guest Access to the Online Course: http://bit.ly/GUEST_OnlineCourse (click "Login as a guest" button).

If deemed to be a fiduciary, appraisers could be held liable for breaching their fiduciary duties. But do appraisers normally perform in the role of a fiduciary? The answer is "No." Though professionals, appraisers typically act in an arm’s-length manner in the capacity of independent contractors but not as fiduciaries.

A fiduciary is one who has a special relation of trust, confidence, or responsibility in his or her obligations to others, as does a bank trust officer, a guardian and his minor ward, the Executor of an estate, a company director, a lawyer and his client, or an agent of a principal (e.g., an estate liquidator or an auctioneer.) A fiduciary is expected to act as an advocate for his or her client who is normally in no position to supervise or control the actions taken by the fiduciary on his behalf. The client must take those actions on trust, and the fiduciary principle is designed to prevent that trust from being misplaced. Fiduciaries who violate that trust can be held liable for doing so.

Ordinarily, fiduciary duties do not attach to the appraiser-client relationship. This is true for all appraisal practice services because the independence required to render an appraisal practice service is fundamentally inconsistent with the status of a fiduciary. According to USPAP and to all appraisal society Codes of Ethics, the appraiser is required to act in an impartial and unbiased manner and NOT as an advocate. The appraiser is prohibited from acting in the capacity of an advocate, and, therefore, is prohibited from functioning as a fiduciary. ...read more

On April 30 - May 3 ISA will celebrated its 30th anniversary with its annual conference, Assets 2010 in Toronto, Canada.  Over the past few years ISA has become known as leader in presenting some of the best personal property appraisal conference programs in the profession. Speakers at the recent Baltimore and Charleston Conferences included author and arts scholar Wendell Garrett, author and dealer Sumpter Priddy, Tom Savage of Wintethur, Andrew Brunk of Brunks Auction, Wes Cowan of Cowans Auction, Janet Moffitt of the IRS, Ron Fuchs of the Reeves Collection, Art Law author Judith Bresller, Lita Solis Cohen from Maine Antique Digest, and author and scholar Carrie Rebora Barratt from the Maryland Historical Society.

The Toronto Assets 2010 continues in the same tradition.  The conference will have strong programs for fine art, jewelry and antiques and residential contents. The Conference is open to non members and of course members from other appraisal organizations.

The recent press release on the conference follows:

(Toronto, Canada) The International Society of Appraisers will celebrate its thirtieth birthday with an in depth three pronged Conference in Toronto on April 30-May 3. The Conference, entitled “Assets 2010”, will consist of programs in Fine Arts, Antiques and Residential Contents and Gems & Jewelry. Conference coordinator Kathryn Minard, ISA, CAPP, and conference co-chairs Irene Szylinger and Catherine Williams and Jim Poag, Gems and Jewelry program coordinator have arranged a lineup of credentialed powerhouse presenters for each session, a pair of dynamic keynote speakers, Robert Ramsay and David Ben, and scheduled tours of such important venues as the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Gardiner Museum of Ceramics, the Bata Shoe Museum, the Textile Museum of Canada, Corona Jewelry Company, the Stephen Bulger Gallery and a tour of a private residence featuring Jamieson Tribal Art.

According to Minard one of the main points of emphasis for this Conference is affordability and flexibility. ISA has arranged very generous rates for participants at the host hotel, the Park Hyatt Toronto in downtown Ontario. It is close to convenient public transportation and is surrounded by a wide variety of eating establishments for all tastes and budgets.

While the Conference will have three distinct sections, participants will be encouraged to pick and choose among sessions to accommodate the cross-over interests of many attendees.

The Appraisers Post continues to draw strong visitation numbers. Even though we have not been as active in posting as I would like to see, and that includes myself, the Appraisers Posts continues to have strong web visitation from our target audience, personal property appraisers.  I know I have been very busy over the past two months between several appraisals, antiques shows and the holidays and it has been difficult to find the time to post.  I soon hope to increase the new postings as well as do some active marketing of the site.

The website analytics for the past month show 1,003 visitors to the site. There were 589 individuals visiting, revealing that many are coming to the site more than once per month.  There were 1,657 individual page views, with 1.65 page views per visit.  This means visitors are clicking the "read more" links on the articles.  California, Florida and New York have the most visitors, closely followed by Virginia  and Texas.

Site visitors come from search engines 58.23%, referring sites 24.83% and direct traffic 16.95%.

The keys to more visitors is fresh content, and as we move deeper into 2010 I hope to see more postings and even more visitors.  I would like to thank all Appraiser Post contributors as well as the numerous appraisal groups who have supported the site.  ASA has been very active in sending me educational offerings and I have been pleased to post them on the site.

If you are an Appraisers Post contributing author, please post when you have time, if you are not an author and have something to contribute please let me know.

Todd

Join Leon Castner, Ph.D., AAA, ISA CAPP, Senior Partner of National Appraial Consultants,
for an imporatant teleseminar:

Critical Changes to USPAP -- A Personal Property Perspective”

Learn about these critical changes and how they will impact your success in 2010.

Only $15.00. Monday, January 18, 2010, 8 PM Eastern.

Learn more at: www.BestAppraiserProfits.com

Join Leon and receive a special issue of the NAC Appraisers’ Marketing Newsletter containing more than 37 appraisal marketing tips you can instantly use to make this your best year ever. Don’t delay; the number of participants is limited.

Reserve your seat TODAY, and receive your special "Signing Bonus" worth $29.00, yours free

Claim your seat, your NAC marketing newsletter subscription,
AND your special bonus at:

www.BestAppraiserProfits.com

.....................................................................................

Reviewed by Stephen P. Sweeting, ASA, MRICS

As professional personal property appraisers most of us are interested in quality publications on the theory and practice of valuation as well as on the business of appraising. Unfortunately, given the small size of our discipline within the valuation community, new and relevant publications are few and far between. Unlike the larger and more fully capitalized real property, business, and technical sectors of the valuation community, we often have to rely on outdated publications or course-related handouts produced on a relatively small scale. The result is that our profession does not have of a particularly large body of literature.

One of the few bright spots in the personal property valuation publications sphere is Maryland’s David J. Maloney, Jr., an appraiser, educator and writer who has committed to follow-up editions of “ a course book and reference guide” originally published in 2007. The recent publication of the third edition takes the excellent format developed in the first two editions and grows it into an outstanding resource and learning tool for all personal property appraisers.

I first ran one of the earlier editions of Appraising Personal Property: Principles and Methodology less that a year ago when our office borrowed a colleague’s copy. I leafed through the book and saw much of interest, finding it to be comprehensive, logically organized, and well written. But as we were busy at the time the volume ended up in one of those ubiquitous piles of books and journals that characterize the offices of all busy appraisers.

A few weeks later I started working my way through an extraordinarily complex loss-of-value appraisal report involving a high six-figure value work by a pivotal mid-twentieth century American artist. Although I have done plenty of loss-of-value work in the past, I wanted to ground my efforts in as much relevant literature as possible and went back to the volume sitting in my office. What I found was perhaps the most thorough and practical articulation of the loss-of-value concept I had ever seen. As I worked through my appraisal report, the relevant sections on loss-of-value in Appraising Personal Property et. al. served as both a conceptual template and a road map for handling the project.

After finishing my report, I went through Appraising Personal Property more closely. Using the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) as its foundation, and integrating theory and praxis, the volume covered appraisal terminology, appraisal principles, USPAP, ethics, property description, research techniques, and appraisal report-writing with considerable depth. The fully indexed book finished off with a highly relevant section on business practices and a number of useful document examples and templates. I concluded that it was very probably the most thorough book on appraising personal property available in the marketplace today. Moreover, because the volume was built around USPAP, it did not get bogged down in the competing terminologies used by various appraisal societies in their education programs. The book was relevant to all personal property appraisers using USPAP as their practice guideline.

So the question arises, is it possible to improve on the excellent second edition of Appraising Personal Property? In short, the answer is yes. The third edition adds 130 pages of relevant material including a much-needed plain English guide to USPAP, useful commentary on the most recent edition of USPAP, additional sample documents and templates, discussions of recent American legislation of particular interest to appraisers in the US, a chapter on legal issues affecting the appraiser, and expanded (and in some cases modified) discussions on pivotal concepts used in the valuation of personal property.

(Click Read More below for the rest of the Article)

Sharon Rollins, ASA the personal property chair at the American Society of Appraisers has sent me the upcoming ASA course offerings. Please note the special one hour webinar being held on February 12, 2010.  Additional information is listed at the bottom of the post.  For additional information on the classes, contact ASA on the personal property pages at  http://www.appraisers.org/PPHome/PPHome.aspx, or call 703-478-2228 or 800-272-8258.

The class schedule is as follows:

January 2010

22-23 Oriental Rug Appraisal* RISD
February 2010

5-6 Native American Art: Identification RISD
& Appraisal*

12 Folk Art Webinar by Susan Golashovsky, ASA Your Office!
12-15 PP/GJ POV 203 RISD
25-28 PP/GJ POV 203 NWU

March 2010

4-7 PP/GJ POV 203 Pratt
4-7 PP/GJ POV 201 UCI
8-9 Inspecting and Describing Fine Art UCI
8-9 Strategies for Handling and Managing
Difficult Appraisals* Pratt

11-14 PP/GJ POV 204 RISD
15-16 USPAP for PP RISD

April 2010

9-10 The Bauhaus* RISD
15-18 PP/GJ POV 204 NWU
19-20 USPAP for PP NWU
29-(May) 2 Intro to Appraising Antiques and Dec Arts RISD

May 2010

13-16 PP/GJ POV 202 UCI
17-18 Turning Gold and Silver into Green UCI
21 Resources for Appraisers (Beacon Hill, Boston) *RISD
20-23 PP/GJ POV204 Pratt
24-25 USPAP for PP Pratt
24-25 The Logic of the Argument* Pratt

June 2010

3-6 Appraising Fine Art* RISD
4-5 USPAP for PP UCI
16-17 Business of Contemporary Art* Pratt


ASA PRESENTS ...


Antique Folk Art and the Modern Interpretations WEBINAR

Whether you’re a generalist, fine arts or decorative art appraiser, don’t miss this affordable opportunity to increase your knowledge while also obtaining the education credits needed for reaccreditation. Learn first-hand from an expert with more than 20 years of experience in the field of antiques and folk art.

Susan Golashovsky, ASA, is an accredited specialist in American Folk Art, Antique Furniture and General/Residential Contents. She has interviewed artisans and examined their work to determine:

• How they interpret antiques
• What they do to make them appear “aged”
• The values of antiques versus new interpretations

This one-hour webinar, offered for the first time, will allow you to:

• Learn just how closely some artisans interpret antique objects
• See examples of antiques against revival and more recent examples
• Gain an understanding of the interpreter’s work through interviews with artisans currently making these objects
• And more


Date: Feb. 12, 2010
Time: 2 p.m. EST (one-hour duration)

Register NOW.

(NOW will link to this: http://www.appraisers.org/Education/ViewClass.aspx?ClassID=2362

From initial Act to final regulations: important appraisal-related issues continue to be refined

A taxpayer is generally permitted a deduction for noncash charitable contributions subject to certain limitations depending on the type of taxpayer, the nature of the property contributed, and the type of donee organization. When the deduction is permitted, taxpayers are required to obtain a qualified appraisal from a qualified appraiser for donated property for which a deduction of more than $5,000 is claimed.

Since tax deductions reduce the amount of tax collected by the federal government, Congress has tightened the rules governing appraisals in recent years in quest of discouraging valuation abuse, i.e., overstating the value of the contributed property. To accomplish this, relevant statutes were introduced embedded within the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (Jobs Act) and the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA).

As of this writing, proposed Treasury regulations adopted in 2008 clear up many of the lingering issues, but they have yet to be finalized. Go here for a comprehensive review and current status of the regulations that will be defining the terms "qualified appraiser" and "qualified appraisal" for donation appraisals.