An Estate Sale Appraisal Process

An Estate Sale Appraisal Process

After 25 years of handling estate sale appraisal in the Baltimore Metropolitan area I have seen my fair share of estate sales. But what is an estate sale? An estate sale means a person has died and the party/parties that inherited the property are selling it.  Estate properties usually are priced well to reflect that fact that they need work. Another  possible issue is that if there are multiple parties involved, they may not always agree on what price or terms they’ll accept and there may be delays  due to the need to negotiate among each other, though hopefully that is not the case.

As an appraiser there are multiple ways to appraise a property that belongs to an estate. One method is the traditional appraisal process of determining the most recent and appropriate comparables in the market area surrounding the property.

Many times we are asked to evalauate the property’s value as of the date of death of the deceased owner(s). This is typically a private appraisal for an attorney or for one of the parties who will be part of the estate looking for the market value. When establishing the value on the date of death  the sales comparables must have occurred prior to the date of passing, so if I was doing an appraisal on a house where the  deceased passed 12 months ago, the sales would had to have sold prior to that date, say 13 or 14 months ago. You cannot use sales that occurred after the date of passing: this is called a retroactive appraisal.

The appraiser can not be biased or allow recent circumstances in the market to affect the value after the retroactive date…say the market plummets or prices have increased substantially due to high demand… the estate appraisal should reflect what the market was on the date of the passing, not anytime after.

A big part of maximizing what you leave behind is minimizing taxes. Federal taxes on gifts and estates can be among the highest assessed on any financial transaction. In addition, some states levy their own estate or inheritance taxes.

An appraiser,  an attorney and a tax advisor can aid in the process of estate issues. As an appraisal company we can provide one of the services needed in regards to your estate and real estate valuation.  Robinson Appraisal Group covers the areas of Baltimore County, Baltimore City, Harford County, Cecil County, Carroll County, Anne Arundel County and Howard County. Having a professional appraisal gives the parties involved a reputable report to work with in meeting IRS and state agency requirements. It would be our pleasure to work with you during this arduous process.