Church properties (AKA religious facilities) can have a variety of improvements that can include properties with a single multi-purpose building improvement on them that could easily be converted to a "for profit" use or they can have a special-purpose sanctuary buildings with spires, bell towers and fifty foot plus wall heights and have absolutely no possible alternate use.  In my experience most church properties are designed for their special-purpose use and cannot be easily converted.  

Industrial buildings are a mixed bag and their appraisal requires that appraisers pay attention to a number of location and physical factors.

Condmenation appraisal assignments, a short discussion for beginners and a short discussion on the process.  

If you think that you are qualified to complete an assignment, you may find that the client does not agree.

Cell tower site valuation is complicated by a lack of market data, lease cancellation provisions and the selection of a reasonable capitalization rate.

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.

After the Savings and Loan crash in the late 1980's, appraiser licensing was put into place in 1991 by the federal government in an attempt to avert another banking disaster.  Here we are, however, in 2009 with a much larger banking disaster to deal with.  So clearly the original plan for appraiser licensing has ended in failure.

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, fraught 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.

Standard appraisal methods are generally sufficient to appraise "green" buildings, and a short discussion of some notable differences between typical building appraisals and "green" building appraisals has been outlined in the following paragraphs: