When you don't think the valuation that you paid for is accurate you can spend some time and effort yourself to validate the results.

As it becomes more and more difficult to find comparable vacant land sales in the Las Vegas market, due to decreasing sales volumes, some appraisers have turned to past sales.  The selection of past vacant land sales is, however, frought with a number of potential problems.

Most appraisal assignments direct the appraiser to form an opinion of the market value of a specific property. If you are familiar with appraisal definitions you know that most market value definitions indicate that market value is the “most probable price” that a market participant will pay for a property. So in most instances appraisers have to consider value as an anticipation of future benefits.

Depositions reveal just how strong an appraiser is as a potential expert witness.  How well the appraiser presents his arguments will let the opposing attorney know what to expect at trial and give them a sense for how well the appraiser will be received by a jury. 

Individuals buy and sell real property in metropolitan Las Vegas and often they do not consider the potential impact of a right-of-way grant made several years earlier within a U.S. Patent that initially conveyed the property into private ownership. Since Patent conveyances can be recent or over 50 years old, a grant can often show up as a small blurb on the Exceptions page of a title insurance policy.

Until you have been involved in a litigation case that deals with the measurement of buildings you won't begin to appreciate just how little attention is often paid to the measurement process by builders, assessors and appraisal professionals.

Appraisers try to compare properties using uniform measurements, and area is an important physical characteristic of a property compared when land or buildings are analyzed.  Land area comparisons appear to be simplistic, until you consider why parcels sizes vary.

Based on my experience there are two theories regarding the development of appraisal reports for litigation purposes, the minimalist theory that says that you give the opposition attorney as little as possible to attack and the "kitchen sink" theory that says you provide every possible piece of information that you can in your appraisal report. 

Assignment perparation and the creation of a well organized work may offer you the best expert witness experience.  Follow these basic rules and you will be able to find all of the items that you relied upon to develop your opinion of value when you reach the witness stand. 

The "highest price" that a property would bring in an open market will always remain an unknown, and the requirement that an appraiser conclude an opinion of the "highest price" puts them in an untenable position.  it is my opinion that the "highest price" that a seller can achieve is the same one that is agreed upon by a buyer and a seller given typical marketing time.