Appraisals
Federally-recognized Business Certified AppraiserUSPAP-compliant
If you’re a business owner, STOP!
There are very few cases where a formal appraisal is worth your money. Read on to find out why not, and when you really should get one.
Vice versa: If you are a lender or attorney, there are very few cases where you should accept a non-certified “valuation” instead of an appraisal.
Appraisals vs Valuations
Technically, the two words mean the same thing: a single number that willing buyers and sellers would agree on as the price of an asset.
They are also used loosely in practice, with some business brokerages, accountants, and even financial planners claiming to produce “valuations” that are mostly just automated boilerplate reports. Some even offer do-it-yourself valuations on their websites, fueled only by two or three data points that the seller types in.
A certified appraisal must follow Federally-recognized standards and requires considerable research and supporting data, and takes several days, not a few minutes.
It’s true that some of these methods can, for very little or no money, produce a broad range of numbers that gives you an idea of whether you are talking about “somewhere between $500,000 and $2 million.” When it comes to writing checks, that doesn’t cut it, and it will be worth investing a few thousand in a defensible answer. But you won’t be doing that. The appraisal is always ordered by one of the professionals in these situations, not you.
Sometimes an owner does want a more formal report, known as an “Opinion of Value”, usually to support the pricing in a private deal between two willing individuals. We can advise on when to get one of these (vs. a full appraisal) and get it done for you.
When is an appraisal needed?
Federally-backed loan
Any Federally-backed loan (chiefly SBA and farm loans) must be supported by a USPAP-compliant appraisal performed by an appraiser holding one of the approved certifications.
Tax issues
You don’t want to go to battle against the IRS with only your personal experience behind you. Usually they will order a certified appraisal, but if they don’t, you should insist on it.
Legal disputes or divisions
No competent attorney in a contested situation is going to accept the other party’s valuation of a business. Nor will they permit an “expert” to testify as to the business value in court if they do not hold a Federally-recognized certification.
Complex and fiduciary situations
When an estate is being settled in probate, or when businesses are being placed in a trust or transferred to an ESOP ownership, a disinterested, prfessional appraisal is needed to prtect the interests of the parties who cannot defend their own positions.
The Approach
To obtain a certified appraisal:
- The principal in the transaction (lender, attorney, etc.) contacts me (information below)
- We discuss the nature of the entity to be appraised
- We determine a likely fee for the appraisal, which will be adjusted if the conditions on the ground are different from what the principal described
- We set a data and the principal pays a retainer
- I request the initial set of documents needed
- I conduct a site visit to verify what the documents are saying and collect certain unique data
- I conduct the analysis (which may require more information, depending what comes out from under the rocks)
- I prepare and deliver the report to the principal.
