Glossary

33 appraisal terms, explained plainly

Grouped by the question you are probably asking rather than alphabetically, because nobody arrives at a glossary already knowing the word they need.

Words in your report

These appear on the first two pages of almost every appraisal and are the ones people most often skip past.

Effective date: The date the value applies to. Not the date the report was written. It can be today, a date of death, October 1 of the pre-tax year, or a date counsel specifies, and getting it wrong makes the whole report useless for its purpose. Retrospective appraisals
Intended use: What the report is for. Fixed at the start, stated in the report, and it determines how much work the assignment needs. A report prepared for one intended use cannot simply be repurposed for another.
Intended user: Who is entitled to rely on the report. If you are not named, you may not rely on it, however the document reached you. This is why an appraiser cannot hand a report to a third party without instruction.
Scope of work: What the appraiser actually did: what was inspected, what data was researched, which approaches were developed. It can be tailored to the assignment, and whatever it was, it has to be disclosed.
Extraordinary assumption: Something assumed to be true that was not verified, where being wrong would change the value. A common one: that a room which could not be accessed is in the condition described. Its presence is not a weakness; hiding one is.
Hypothetical condition: Something known to be untrue, assumed deliberately for the purpose of the analysis. Valuing a property as if it were free of contamination, for instance, when it is not.
Client: In appraisal, a specific term: the party who engaged the appraiser. Not necessarily the property owner, and not necessarily whoever paid. It determines confidentiality obligations.
Reconciliation: Where the appraiser explains how the approaches to value were weighed against each other to reach one conclusion. Averaging them is not reconciliation.
Workfile: The evidence behind the report. An appraiser is required to retain it for at least five years, or two years after any judicial proceeding in which testimony was given, whichever is longer.
USPAP: The Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice. The rules an appraiser works under, covering ethics, competency, scope and disclosure. It is what separates an appraisal from an opinion.

How the number was reached

The mechanics. Worth understanding if you ever need to argue with a figure, because these are the places an argument actually lands.

Sales comparison approach: Valuing a property against what similar properties actually sold for, adjusted for the differences. The dominant approach for houses.
Income approach: Valuing a property on what it earns. Leads on commercial and small income property, where a buyer is purchasing a rent roll as much as a building. Two-to-four family
Cost approach: What it would cost to replace the improvements, less depreciation, plus the land. Most relevant for new or special-purpose buildings with few comparable sales.
Comparable sale: A property sale used as evidence. "Comparable" is doing real work in that phrase: a sale in the same radius is not automatically comparable if it sits in a different school district or on a different kind of street.
Adjustment: The amount added to or subtracted from a comparable sale to account for a difference from the subject. Each one should be supported and individually defensible, because each will be attacked individually.
Matched pair analysis: Deriving what a feature is worth by finding two otherwise similar sales that differ only in that feature. The cleanest way to support an adjustment, and not always available.
Gross living area: Finished, above-grade living space, measured to the exterior. Finished basements are generally not included in it, whatever the listing said, which is a frequent source of disagreement.
Highest and best use: The most profitable legally permissible and physically possible use of a property. Usually the existing use for a house; not always, for land or an underused site.
Effective age: How old a building behaves, as opposed to how old it is. A well-maintained 1950s house can have a much lower effective age than its calendar age.
Functional obsolescence: Loss in value from something about the building itself: an awkward layout, a bedroom you walk through to reach another, one bathroom in a four-bedroom house.
External obsolescence: Loss in value from something outside the property line and outside the owner's control. A rail line, a commercial use next door, a declining local employer.
Exposure time: How long the property would have needed to be on the market to sell at the concluded value. An estimate looking backwards, not a forecast.

New Jersey specifics

Terms that mean something particular here, and where most of the confusion in New Jersey assignments actually comes from.

Equalization ratio: Also the Director's ratio or the Chapter 123 ratio. Published annually for each municipality, it expresses how far local assessments have drifted from market value. A ratio of 0.85 means assessments run at roughly 85% of true value. How Chapter 123 works
Common Level Range: The equalization ratio plus or minus 15%. If your assessment-to-value ratio falls inside it, your assessment stands even if you proved the property is worth less. If it falls below it, the assessment goes up. Tax appeal
Assessed value: What the municipality has the property on its books for, struck as of October 1 of the pre-tax year. It is not a market value opinion and drifts from one by design.
Added assessment: An assessment raised mid-year for improvements completed after October 1, prorated for the months they existed. It has its own appeal deadline, separate from the ordinary one.
Certificate of occupancy: Municipal confirmation that a structure or unit is legal to occupy. Many New Jersey municipalities require a continued CO on sale or change of tenancy, and it is evidence about what is legally there. Two-to-four family
Legally nonconforming use: A use that was legal when established and would not be permitted under current zoning. Common in older New Jersey housing stock, and it matters because it constrains what could be rebuilt after a loss.
Transfer inheritance tax: New Jersey's inheritance tax, driven by who inherits rather than how large the estate is. Spouses, children and grandchildren are exempt; siblings and unrelated beneficiaries are not. New Jersey repealed its separate estate tax in 2018. Estate appraisals

What an appraisal is not

Four documents that also end in a number, and the reason none of them substitutes for an appraisal.

CMA: A comparative market analysis, prepared by a real estate licensee. A pricing opinion, usually free, and frequently all you need to decide a listing price. It is not prepared under USPAP and no court, board or taxing authority will act on it. Full comparison
BPO: A broker price opinion. Similar to a CMA, generally ordered by a lender for portfolio or default work, and often prepared from the exterior only.
AVM: An automated valuation model, the estimate on a property website. Statistical, produced without anyone seeing the property, and blind to a renovated kitchen, an unpermitted addition or a failing roof.
Desktop or drive-by appraisal: An appraisal performed without a full interior inspection. A real appraisal under USPAP, with the limited scope disclosed, and correspondingly weaker where the value has to withstand scrutiny.

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