An appraisal story

The other day I appraised a waterfront unit in a complex full of near-identicals—should’ve been easy. It wasn’t. A leak from the unit above caused major damage. Problem: no other units had it. No comps. So I went three miles out to a hurricane-damaged complex where every unit was a fixer. Still no clean resales to lean on.

Time to get creative.

I used five-year median sales (pre-storm) to establish a location adjustment, applied it back to the subject complex, then paired my damaged unit against two typical, undamaged ones. That isolated the damage adjustment.

Problem solved.

People think appraising is just grabbing three comps within a mile from the last six months. Sure—if everything’s the same. But when it’s not? You go find the best comps—even if they’re farther out. Sometimes one’s worse, one’s better. That’s bracketing. Adjust one up, the other down, and the value starts to reveal itself. And now you’re juggling condition and location. This isn’t just math. It’s market analysis.

And here’s the tell—if all your adjustments go the same direction? That’s not analysis. That’s guessing.