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General Appraising & Consulting Services, Inc. is a full service real estate appraisal firm dedicated to providing our clients professional, quality driven solutions for their valuation needs in the far Western North Carolina region.

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Appraisal Reviews

Appraisal Reviews are a specialty service utilized for a variety of reasons ranging from the technical Desk Reviews to Forensic Reviews.  A review appraisal is a critical assessment of another appraiser’s work product.  Lenders generally require review appraisals for many of their appraisals to check on the accuracy of the reported data and adherence to the Uniform Standards of Appraisal Practice and any supplemental standards required by the lender.  A review appraisal can also be requested by any party of concern, not only a lender, who may have the need to have this same type of critical assessment of an appraisal of another appraiser completed.  “The Dictionary of Real Estate Appraisal published by the Appraisal Institute” defines Appraisal Review as follows:

“The act or process of developing and communicating an opinion about the quality of another appraiser’s work. (USPAP, 2002 ed.)”

It further refines the definitions of the various types of reviews as follows:

Desk Review:
An appraisal review that is limited to the data presented in the report, which may or may not be independently confirmed. A desk review is generally performed using a customized checklist of items. The reviewer checks the accuracy of the calculations, the reasonableness of the data and the appropriateness of the methodology as well as compliance with client guidelines, regulatory requirements, and professional standards.”

Field Review:
An appraisal review that includes inspection of the exterior and sometimes the interior of the subject property and possibly inspection of the comparable properties to confirm the data provided in the report. A field review is generally performed using a customized checklist that covers the items examined in a desk review and may also include confirmation of market data, research to gather additional data, and verification of the software used in preparing the report.”

Forensic Reviews (sometimes referred to as Investigative Reviews) are typically reviews of anothers work which has a high probability of involving litigation or court proceedings.  These types of reviews include all of the elements in the previous types of reviews with additional support and due diligence as necessary and required for these types of circumstances.  Typically these types of reviews are seeking to identify, confirm and report any fraud or misrepresentations that may have been contained within the original appraisal that has lead the initial client to make certain decisions regarding the property in question that they would not have normally made had the appraisal been completed otherwise.

Appraisal reviews have always been an integral component of the appraisal industry but have recently been elevated to the highest levels of priority resulting from the recent national economic collapse aided and magnified in part by poor quality appraisals.  We have the professional understanding that we are critically assessing the appraisal and not the appraiser.  When reviewing another appraiser’s work we are professionally astute enough to realize that our opinions could have far reaching effects upon his/her reputation.  As a result our reviews are conducted at a level so as to hold the appraiser accountable for such items as would be expected by his peers during the normal course of business.  No one appraiser conducts his/her appraisal practices in exactly the same manner.  Therefore, depending upon the level of detail of our report as dictated by the client and our agreed to Scope of Work it generally is not our intentions to glorify minor discrepancies, grammatical mistakes, and/or differences in the manner in which certain minor processes are conducted.  The standards we apply to appraisal reports under review are the same standards we would expect to be applied to our appraisal reports being reviewed by our peers.

When considering your needs for appraisal review consider our professionals as we have the requisite experience and unbiased mindset to provide a competent, well founded assessment of your appraisals including litigation support.

Have Questions or Concerns?

Let Us Do The Investigating.

We Can Help You Gather Evidence.

We Can Provide A Critical Review of Your Appraisal.