Inspecting the Subject Property: At Times Inspections are Unnecessary or Impossible to Perform
(by Dave J. Maloney, Jr., AOA CM) The primary reason for an appraiser to personally inspect a property is to gather information about the characteristics of the property that are relevant to its value. (In general, these are referred to as relevant property characteristics and consist of quality characteristics as well as value-relevant attributes of the property.)
But is a personal inspection by the appraiser required to gather the necessary information? The answer is “No” (though it is advised whenever possible.)
Though appraisers almost always conduct a hands-on inspection of the property which is the subject of the appraisal assignment, on some occasions such as in the case of a theft or loss, the property is no longer available for inspection. In such cases, a personal inspection simply is not possible. On other occasions, the high cost or risk of loss of shipping a valuable property to the specialist appraiser for examination might necessitate an appraisal being conducted without the benefit of a personal inspection. For items that remain available for inspection and which require special testing procedures or equipment to prove genuineness or quality, or which require authentication, or which are potentially so valuable as to warrant the expense of a hands-on inspection, the specialist appraiser should insist that arrangements be made for a personal inspection either by him/herself or by some other qualified appraiser. Otherwise, the appraiser should abandon the assignment.
The following discussion addresses USPAP’s requirements regarding the appraiser’s responsibility regarding “identification.”