There can be many variables to consider to determine a home’s value, and all too often, these situations are far too difficult to handle on your own. Here are just a few examples of such situations:

• The home’s estimated market value isn’t easy to determine, due to lack of comparable neighborhood sales or local housing trends
• The homeowners, while married, performed major renovations or upgrade to the house
• The house is in need of significant repairs
• There is a court-ordered sale of the home
• One spouse owned the house before the marriage, moved out, then became legally separated or a divorce is officially filed before legal separation (requires a “retroactive appraisal”)
• The home appreciated in value after the divorce filing date
• An existing mortgage exists on the home and one party does not have cash or liquid assets for which to buy out the other party

A divorce appraiser will examine all of this data and put it into something called an “appraisal report.” Appraisal reports need to be well documented and as thorough as possible, regardless of how difficult the valuation process is. The report must meet certain legal requirements and have the ability to be used in court.

One Appraisal Group not only has extensive divorce appraisal experience, but we also have years of courtroom experience, which is extremely important! When your real estate appraiser’s appraisal report is brought up in court, you’d better hope they can defend it! In this situation, a judge and your spouse’s divorce attorney will question your appraiser’s findings and may ask them to elaborate on specific details. This reaffirms that meticulous, detailed appraisal reports and courtroom experience can be a gamechanger!

What truly separates the best real estate appraisers apart from average ones is their ability to easily explain appraisal theory, real property valuation methods, and how the combination of those two brought them to their valuation figures. This is exactly the type of expertise and experience you get when you hire One Appraisal Group!