Appraisal

Welcome to our appraisal home page. St. Johns Realty Company has been Central Florida's premier real estate company since 1946. Our staff is comprised of Real Estate Appraisers and Realtors. We provide quality appraisal reports for residential, vacant land, commercial, industrial and income producing properties.

The company is owned by A. Bart Peterson, Licensed Real Estate Broker and State Certified General Appraiser #RZ1746. We have a staff of appraisers that appraise most types of properties:

Single Family Residential
Multi-Family Residential
Income Property
Vacant Land
Commercial Property

for most purposes:

Financing
Estimation of Damages
Eminent Domain
Partial Acquisitions
Estate Planning
Estate Appraisals for IRS
Leased Fee Interests
Real Estate Tax Appeals
Historic Value Determination
Leasehold Interests
Partitioning Values
Diminution of Value
Dissolution Valuation
Expert Witness
Litigation
Soil Issues
Insurance Valuation
Salvage Value
Environmental Issues
Proposed Construction per Plans
Deposition/Trial Preparation

To request an appraisal quote please send an E-mail, including the County,
Property I.D. #, the type of report needed and contact information to: appraisal@stjohnsrealtyco.com

Appraisal Policies

Our Appraisal staff at St. Johns Realty takes great pride in our work. We provide fast, accurate, professional reports that make everyone's appraisal experience a good one.
Typically, a single-family residential report will be completed within 2-4 business days after site inspection. Commercial appraisals will be completed within 2-4 weeks after site inspection. Some properties can have special circumstances that will require additional time for proper research and evaluation. The client will be notified promptly if and when their appraisal requires additional time.
All appraisal fees are "Pay at the Door". Cash, cashier's checks and money orders will be accepted. Any other payment option is at the sole discretion of St. Johns Realty.
Sometimes a client's opinion of the value of their property can be significantly different from that which is reflected by the market data. Upon request, we will provide our clients with a free neighborhood search so they can determine potential property value concerns. Any additional appraisal requests should be made 24 hours before site inspection, this is included but not limited to; operation income reports, rent schedules, interior photos, additional comparables, additional subject parcels and requirements for comparables to be inspected by the supervisor appraiser. Additional items requested after site inspection will be subject to an additional fee.
We will promptly make arrangements for a site inspection appointment.
When an inspection appointment needs to be rescheduled or canceled your appraiser must be notified immediately. Minimum of 24-hour notice is required.
Subject property, comparable properties, and neighborhood information is researched prior to site inspection.
The appraised value is based on the "as-is" condition of the property, as of the date of appraisal, unless otherwise requested. Any improvements should be completed prior to site inspection.
Appraisal reports can be e-mailed, mailed or picked up at our office; please make arrangements with your appraiser prior to site inspection.
Completed appraisal reports will remain "open" for questions or concerns for two weeks after completion.
Central Florida has a wide range of property types, land size, views, neighborhoods, ages, conditions, styles and marketing conditions. Similar comparable properties or recent sales in some areas can be limited. All factors will be considered. Comparables chosen by your appraiser are considered to be the most appropriate for the appraisal report.
Additional properties that the client or the underwriters would like for us to consider must be provided in writing by fax. If the client or underwriters would like additional or different comparables to be used in the appraisal report it is up to the sole discretion of the appraiser to make those changes. Additional fees may be required.
The following, as set forth by the Appraisal Standards Board, states that "Name of client" may not be changed. AO-26 states "Once a report has been prepared for a named client(s) and any other identified intended users and for an identified intended use, the appraiser cannot "readdress" (transfer) the report to another party". However, the subject property may be re-appraised.
The following, as set forth by the Appraisal Standards Board, states that an appraiser may appraise the same property for a new client. AO-27 states, "Accepting the assignment from the second potential client is not prohibited by USPAP, assuming any existing confidential information is handled properly."

Areas Covered

Orange County (including but not limited to)
* Alafaya * Apopka * Belle Isle * Christmas * Eatonville
* Edgewood * Lake Buena Vista * Maitland * Oakland * Ocoee
* Orlando *Tangerine * Windermere * Winter Garden
* Winter Park * Zellwood

Seminole County (including but not limited to)
* Altamonte * Altamonte Springs * Casselberry * Fern Park * Geneva * Lake Mary * Longwood * Oviedo * Sanford * Winter Springs

Volusia County (including but not limited to)
* Daytona Beach * Debary * Deland * Deleon Springs * Deltona * Edgewater
* Holly Hill * Lake Helen * New Smyrna Beach * Oak Hill * Orange City * Ormond Beach * Osteen * Pierson * Ponce Inlet * Port Orange * South Daytona

Osceola County (including but not limited to)
* Celebration * Kissimmee * Poinciana

Lake County (including but not limited to)
* Astatula * Clermont * Eustis * Leasburg * Minneola * Mount Dora * Mount Plymouth

"Understanding the Dialog Between Clients and Appraisers"

Appraisal rules are constantly changing. Practices that may have been acceptable yesterday may be violating current rules set forth the USPAP, Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, today. It is important that an appraiser stay current with regulations. It is also important to ensure clients that their appraiser's opinions and conclusions in the assignment remain in compliance with USPAP.

Clients can ask many questions for various reasons. Some questions are reasonable and some questions may be inappropriate. Most inappropriate questions are unintentional. The client may not have realized that asking that question could compromise the appraiser's work. Some questions may imply a condition for performing the appraisal. The appraiser cannot accept an assignment with conditions because it violates professional ethics.

Unfortunately, there are those individuals who bend the rules to make a mortgage or real estate transaction work. This compromises the integrity of the appraisal industry as a whole.

So you might ask, "What kind of questions might be considered inappropriate?" Well, you might find the following information very useful. Information contained was gathered from the July 1, 2006 and January 1, 2008 "Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice and Advisory Opinions". Some portions were taken directly from this book. I present this in hopes of opening up the communication between clients and appraisers.

"Making the numbers work."While a client may feel that offering preference in current or future assignments on the basis of "making the numbers work" in a specific assignment is appropriate, attaching such a condition to an assignment compromises an appraisers impartiality and destroys the appraiser's credibility.

"We need comps for (property description) that will support a loan of $_________; can you provide them?"Your appraiser maybe to do such but, this must simply be a request for data such as providing "sales data of all properties within a one mile radius" of the subject property.

"Approximate (or Minimum) value needed: $_________.." or "Owner's estimate of value: $_________."This statement is permitted as long as the amount is only given to inform your appraiser of your objectives or someone else's opinion and is not a condition for your placement of the assignment with them. If that amount is a condition of the assignment, your appraiser may not accept the assignment without violating professional ethics set forth by the USPAP.

"If this property will not appraise for at least, $_________ stop and call immediately." or "Please call and notify if it is NOT possible to support a value at or above $_________, BEFORE YOU PROCEED!!! The July 1, 2006 "Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice and Advisory Opinions" provides the following as an example of an appropriate appraiser's response: "Your request is acknowledged, but it is important for you to be aware that I must develop an appraisal before I can tell you whether the property will support the value indicated. It is also important for you to be aware that your statement of that amount with this request for service does not, in my view, establishes a "condition" for my performing the appraisal. If you intend it to be a condition for performing the assignment, I cannot accept the assignment because it violates professional ethics."

This may seem frustrating to some because these are questions, that many are accustomed to asking. How can a potential client receive information prior to the appraisal without compromising the appraisal? One possible solution is a "Neighborhood Sales Search". An appraiser may check their data resources and provide a potential client with a list of sales that meet certain search criteria. For an example: "Any sales in the past six months that are within one mile of address and have similar size and age as compared to the subject property." Your appraiser may send the "Neighborhood Sales Search" results but the appraiser still is not going give an opinion of value without performing an appraisal. The "Neighborhood Sales Search" provided to the client is just research and is not an appraisal.

The July 1, 2006 "Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice and Advisory Opinions" provides the following as an example of an appropriate appraiser's response: "However, you (the client) need to recognize that there are risks if you decide to have the research done that way. If you decide to limit my work to just gathering the sales data using the research criteria you set, you are taking the risk that those criteria are both adequate and appropriate to find all of the market data relevant to your (subject) property. You also take the risk that any appraiser's analysis of that data would result in a value conclusion within the price range suggested by the sales data assembled using your criteria. There is no assurance that such would be the case."

It is important to recognize that limiting work to just gathering the sales data using the set research criteria; you are taking the risk that the criteria may not be adequate or appropriate to find all of the market data relevant to the subject property. It is also important to recognize that there is no assurance that the value conclusion will fall within the price range suggested by the resulting sales data.