‘Tis the season for holiday movies, including one of our favorites — National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. (Yours, too?) If you’re like us, you’ve seen this movie 500 times. This year, we challenged ourselves to watch Christmas Vacation through a different lens — that of a real property appraiser’s.

It’s spooky season! What do you do if you’re appraising a home that’s...well, seen some things? You know, murder, ghosts, violent crime, and so on? These are called stigmatized properties, and there are a few ways you can go about appraising them.  

So, you’ve been hired to appraise a property for a veteran using their VA loan, but you aren’t sure how this appraisal differs from a standard one. You’re in the right place! While VA appraisals follow the same process as a standard property appraisal, there are a few details appraisers can look out for, namely MRPs. M-R-What, you may ask? Let’s break it down!  

If you’re a new appraiser, it might be news to learn that there is more than one way to measure a home and its livable spaces — not just square footage! Let's walk through gross living area (GLA) and when it's used in a residential property appraisal.

Gaining real-world experience is crucial for success as an appraiser. But how do you get started? This ebook is your essential guide to earning experience and becoming a licensed, successful appraiser. 

If you’re a certified real property appraiser and you’re considering mentoring a trainee appraiser, you might wonder: Is this a good idea for my business?  The short answer – yes! Here are 5 reasons why it’s great to become a mentor. 

Starting (or reviving) your real property appraisal business? Settle in and let’s go over your seven-step road map to success.

No one wants an appraiser who can be bought off or persuaded in their valuation processes. That’s why in 2023, Fannie Mae Freddie Mac imposed new requirements to help strengthen the existing Appraiser Independence Requirements (AIR). Here’s everything you need to know to stay up-to-date and unbiased! 

We asked an expert appraiser to tell us about the top appraisal niches on the rise today. Here’s what we learned.   

When you conduct a property appraisal, it’s guaranteed there will be areas of the property you can’t access, or areas you aren’t qualified to inspect. In these cases, you may need to include something called an “extraordinary assumption” in your report.