By Tom Helms
Making a living appraising can be challenging and a daunting task for anyone who is in the business. Besides marketing, joining business organizations, networking, ringing doorbells, writing summary and self-contained reports, there is another type of a report that can create business for you that can be added to your arsenal: “a preliminary narrative appraisal” akin to the restricted report, but in memo style.
Attorneys, bank trust departments, and fiduciaries many times handle lower-end estates but still need an evaluation of worth. The problem confronting them was that the assets could not handle the full-blown expense of an itemized and detailed report especially with smaller accounts. The representative wanted a third knowledgeable party to do an overview of the estate noting items that might have “some worth” and then determine a preliminary value for the total estate.
Most of the time, the liquidation of the estate determined the estate’s value; however, what had happened in the past was that some heir might “remember” and complain to the representative, “what happened to the $2500.00 painting that was hanging over my aunt’s bed?” And that is when the trials and tribulations would begin for the representative of the estate. Almost every attorney, trust officer, and certified fiduciary agent has faced that crisis. The problem existed and a solution was needed. (Click the Read More tag for the rest of the article)
The president of my state’s fiduciary department asked me to offer a solution for the courts, heirs, and representatives. We both developed the idea of the “preliminary narrative appraisal of value” which combined a number of different elements:
a. stating the problem; who? when? and where? naming the appraiser and who represented the on-site visit of the estate;
b. a brief account of the location, conditions, and size of the estate;
c. a narrative grouping of like items in separate paragraphs such as the
furniture, wall décor, bric-a-brac, miscellaneous household items like
kitchen, garage, storage, closets and drawers with limited descriptions and in some cases noting condition;
d. a notation of any item(s) that might have above average value;
e. if there is a car or golf cart along with the condition, VIN number;
f. a summary paragraph that included a value range and in some cases noting possible estate expenses that will affect the final total;
g. and, of course, USPAP.
h. optional thumbnail photos if requested.
i. initial next to your name acknowledging the memo is yours.
Two years later, my company writes as many as three a week for almost every client we have. The memo style report incorporates most of the above suggestions and requires only the appraiser’s initials next to “From”. It is simply an overview and preliminary estimate: nothing more. The charges range from a low of $325.00 to as high as $750.00 depending on the scope of the project.
The solution has been a blessing to those who have adopted the report for their files. No more questions about “my aunt’s painting” have come back to plague the representative, and we have found a niche that has increased not only our income, but it has helped build our client base.
Making a living appraising can be challenging and a daunting task for anyone who is in the business. Besides marketing, joining business organizations, networking, ringing doorbells, writing summary and self-contained reports, there is another type of a report that can create business for you that can be added to your arsenal: “a preliminary narrative appraisal” akin to the restricted report, but in memo style.
Attorneys, bank trust departments, and fiduciaries many times handle lower-end estates but still need an evaluation of worth. The problem confronting them was that the assets could not handle the full-blown expense of an itemized and detailed report especially with smaller accounts. The representative wanted a third knowledgeable party to do an overview of the estate noting items that might have “some worth” and then determine a preliminary value for the total estate.
Most of the time, the liquidation of the estate determined the estate’s value; however, what had happened in the past was that some heir might “remember” and complain to the representative, “what happened to the $2500.00 painting that was hanging over my aunt’s bed?” And that is when the trials and tribulations would begin for the representative of the estate. Almost every attorney, trust officer, and certified fiduciary agent has faced that crisis. The problem existed and a solution was needed. (Click the Read More tag for the rest of the article)
The president of my state’s fiduciary department asked me to offer a solution for the courts, heirs, and representatives. We both developed the idea of the “preliminary narrative appraisal of value” which combined a number of different elements:
a. stating the problem; who? when? and where? naming the appraiser and who represented the on-site visit of the estate;
b. a brief account of the location, conditions, and size of the estate;
c. a narrative grouping of like items in separate paragraphs such as the
furniture, wall décor, bric-a-brac, miscellaneous household items like
kitchen, garage, storage, closets and drawers with limited descriptions and in some cases noting condition;
d. a notation of any item(s) that might have above average value;
e. if there is a car or golf cart along with the condition, VIN number;
f. a summary paragraph that included a value range and in some cases noting possible estate expenses that will affect the final total;
g. and, of course, USPAP.
h. optional thumbnail photos if requested.
i. initial next to your name acknowledging the memo is yours.
Two years later, my company writes as many as three a week for almost every client we have. The memo style report incorporates most of the above suggestions and requires only the appraiser’s initials next to “From”. It is simply an overview and preliminary estimate: nothing more. The charges range from a low of $325.00 to as high as $750.00 depending on the scope of the project.
The solution has been a blessing to those who have adopted the report for their files. No more questions about “my aunt’s painting” have come back to plague the representative, and we have found a niche that has increased not only our income, but it has helped build our client base.
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DJLeBeau Said,
This is a great idea as long as one stays within the guidelines of USPAP. If you use this model as a "stop gap" to land an assignment from the client that say "There is not much money in the estate" it might increase your cash flow
Posted on August 5, 2009 at 11:56 PM